The privacy-focused browser adds a ChatGPT-style search assistant to deliver in-depth, interactive results—no special mode required.
Brave Expands Its AI Search Capabilities
Brave, the browser best known for its privacy-first approach and independent search engine, has rolled out ‘Ask Brave’, a new feature designed to provide detailed, interactive answers to user queries.
- This complements the existing AI Answers tool, which summarizes search queries.
- Brave now delivers over 15 million AI-generated answers daily.
What Is ‘Ask Brave’?
Ask Brave uses AI to generate full-length answers, similar to responses from ChatGPT or Perplexity AI. It builds on the user’s search query with:
- Structured responses with citations, media, and context
- Follow-up options, enabling an ongoing chat experience
- Tools to reformat responses, depending on user needs
“Search makes it possible, LLMs glue it together,” said Josep M. Pujol, Chief of Search at Brave.
How to Use Ask Brave
Brave has made its AI tools seamless and easy to use, eliminating the need for a separate mode or plugin.
Ways to access Ask Brave include:
- Clicking the “Ask” tab after searching
- Using the Ask button next to the search bar
- Adding double question marks (“??”) to a query if Brave Search is your default engine
Richer, Smarter Responses
Unlike AI Answers, which offers a quick summary, Ask Brave aims to act more like a personal research assistant:
- Answers often come in report-style formats with:
- Videos
- News articles
- Products and businesses
- Image carousels
- You can ask the assistant to reformat the response or dig deeper into specific topics.
Grounded in Brave’s Privacy Principles
While Brave steps into a space increasingly dominated by Google’s AI Overviews, it distinguishes itself with robust privacy protections:
- User chats are encrypted
- Conversations are deleted after 24 hours of inactivity
- Brave’s own API is used to ground results in real search data for higher accuracy
This privacy-first model stands in contrast to other major players that retain chat histories indefinitely.
Competing in the AI Search Race
Brave’s launch comes at a time when AI-driven Q&A is reshaping search.
- Google recently expanded its AI search features to multiple languages, including Spanish.
- Microsoft Bing integrates ChatGPT-powered answers directly into search.
- Perplexity AI is gaining traction as a pure AI search assistant.
Brave’s edge lies in combining context-rich results with privacy safeguards, appealing to users who value both depth and discretion.
