Place Search (Search API)

Requires API Key: Get one at https://api.search.brave.com
Plan: Included in the Search plan (with
locations
option). See https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/subscriptions/subscribe
Standalone: Unlike
local-pois
and
local-descriptions
, this endpoint does not require POI IDs from a prior web search. You provide a location and an optional query directly.

Quick Start (cURL)

Search by Query + Coordinates

bash

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/place_search" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -G \
  --data-urlencode "q=coffee shops" \
  --data-urlencode "latitude=37.7749" \
  --data-urlencode "longitude=-122.4194" \
  --data-urlencode "radius=5000"

Search by Query + Location String

bash

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/place_search" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -G \
  --data-urlencode "q=sushi restaurants" \
  --data-urlencode "location=tokyo japan" \
  --data-urlencode "country=JP" \
  --data-urlencode "search_lang=en"

Browse General POIs (No Query)

bash

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/place_search" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -G \
  --data-urlencode "latitude=48.8566" \
  --data-urlencode "longitude=2.3522" \
  --data-urlencode "radius=3000" \
  --data-urlencode "country=FR"

Endpoint

http

GET https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/place_search

Authentication:

X-Subscription-Token: <API_KEY>

header

Parameters

Location (optional but recommended)

Providing a geographic anchor improves precision. You can use coordinates (

latitude

longitude

) or a

location

string. Omitting both is allowed when a

is given — results are sourced globally and may be less precise. Omitting all three (

latitude

longitude

, and

location

) returns HTTP 422.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`latitude`	float	Conditional	—	Latitude (-90.0 to 90.0). Required together with `longitude`
`longitude`	float	Conditional	—	Longitude (-180.0 to 180.0). Required together with `latitude`
`location`	string	No	—	Location string, alternative to coordinates. US: `<city> <state> <country>` (e.g., `san francisco ca united states` ). Non-US: `<city> <country>` (e.g., `tokyo japan` ). Case-insensitive, no commas needed. English or the most popular local language works best

Search

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`q`	string	No	—	Free-text query (e.g., `coffee shops` , `pizza` ). Fully optional — if omitted, returns general POIs in the given area

Additional Options

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`radius`	float	No	—	Search radius bias around the provided coordinates, in meters. Not a hard cutoff — results may extend beyond it. No upper limit
`count`	int	No	`20`	Total items returned across all buckets (1–100), not just `results` — an address query can spend the whole budget on `addresses` / `streets`
`geoloc`	string	No	—	User geolocation as `<latitude>x<longitude>` (e.g., `40.7128x-74.0060` ), used to compute `distance`
`country`	string	No	`US`	Search country (2-letter country code or `ALL` )
`search_lang`	string	No	`en`	Language for search results (2+ char language code)
`ui_lang`	string	No	`en-US`	UI language (locale code, e.g., `en-US` )
`units`	string	No	`metric`	Measurement units: `metric` or `imperial`
`safesearch`	string	No	`strict`	Safe search level: `off` , `moderate` , or `strict`
`spellcheck`	bool	No	`true`	Whether to apply spellcheck to the query

Response Format

Top-Level Fields

Field	Type	Description
`type`	string	Always `"locations"`
`results`	array	List of `LocationResult` objects (individual POIs)
`cities`	array	Matched cities, `type: "city"` — see Geographic Place Fields
`countries`	array	Matched countries, `type: "country"`
`regions`	array	Matched regions, `type: "region"`
`neighborhoods`	array	Matched neighborhoods, `type: "neighborhood"`
`addresses`	array	List of `AddressResult` objects with `type: "address"` — specific street + number locations
`streets`	array	List of `AddressResult` objects with `type: "street"` — entire streets
`mixed`	array	`ResultReference` ordering hints describing how to interleave the buckets on a SERP
`location`	object?	Resolved location info
`location.coordinates`	[float, float]	`[latitude, longitude]` of the resolved center
`location.name`	string	Resolved location name (e.g., `"Helsinki"` )
`location.country`	string	Two-letter country code (e.g., `"FI"` )

Treat a missing bucket as empty. For typical POI-style queries only

results

is populated, so clients that don't render rich SERPs can ignore the rest — except for address- or street-shaped queries, which can return an empty

results

and put every match in

addresses

streets

LocationResult Fields

Each item in

results

is a

LocationResult

Field	Type	Description
`type`	string	Always `"location_result"`
`title`	string	Business/POI name
`url`	string	Canonical URL
`description`	string?	Short description or category label (e.g., `"Coffee Shop"` )
`provider_url`	string	Provider page URL
`id`	string?	Opaque POI identifier (valid ~8 hours, usable with `local-pois` and `local-descriptions` )
`coordinates`	[float, float]?	`[latitude, longitude]`
`postal_address`	object	`displayAddress` , plus optional `streetAddress` , `addressLocality` , `addressRegion` , `postalCode` , `country`
`contact.telephone`	string?	Phone number
`contact.email`	string?	Email address
`rating.ratingValue`	float?	Average rating
`rating.bestRating`	float?	Max possible rating
`rating.reviewCount`	int?	Number of reviews
`rating.is_tripadvisor`	bool	Whether the rating comes from Tripadvisor
`opening_hours.current_day`	object[]?	Today's hours ( `abbr_name` , `full_name` , `opens` , `closes` )
`opening_hours.days`	object[][]?	Hours for each day of the week
`categories`	string[]	Business categories (default `[]` )
`price_range`	string?	Price indicator, e.g. `$` , `$$` , `$$ - $$$`
`serves_cuisine`	string[]?	Cuisine types (restaurants)
`distance.value`	float?	Distance from the search location
`distance.units`	string?	Distance unit
`icon_category`	string?	Icon category slug (e.g., `cafe` )
`thumbnail.src`	string?	Thumbnail image URL
`thumbnail.original`	string?	Original image URL
`pictures.results`	object[]?	Additional images ( `src` , `original` )
`profiles`	object[]?	External profiles ( `name` , `url` , `long_name` , `img` )
`timezone`	string?	IANA timezone (e.g., `America/Los_Angeles` )
`zoom_level`	int	Suggested map zoom level (default `7` )

Geographic Place Fields (

cities

countries

regions

neighborhoods

)

All four buckets share one shape, differing only by the

type

identifier. The published spec names them

CityResult

CountryResult

RegionResult

NeighborhoodResult

Field	Type	Description
`type`	string	Bucket identifier: `city` , `country` , `region` , or `neighborhood`
`name`	string	Place name
`country`	string	Country code of the place
`coordinates`	[float, float]	`[latitude, longitude]`
`thumbnail.src`	string	Primary image URL

AddressResult Fields (

addresses

and

streets

)

Same model is used for both buckets. Items in

addresses

have

type: "address"

(street + number); items in

streets

have

type: "street"

(entire street).

Field	Type	Description
`type`	string	`"address"` (in `addresses` ) or `"street"` (in `streets` )
`name`	string	Display name of the address or street
`coordinates`	[float, float]	`[latitude, longitude]`
`pois`	object[]	`LocationResult` objects located at this address/street
`pois_nearby`	object[]	`LocationResult` objects located nearby
`zoom_level`	int	Suggested map zoom level (default `15` )
`distance.value`	float?	Distance from the search location
`distance.units`	string?	Distance unit
`postal_address`	object?	`displayAddress` , `streetAddress` , `addressLocality` , `addressRegion` , `country`

Mixed Ordering (

mixed

)

mixed

is an ordered list of

ResultReference

objects telling clients how to interleave items from the different buckets on a single SERP.

Field	Type	Description
`type`	string	Bucket to draw from: `results` , `cities` , `countries` , `regions` , `neighborhoods` , `addresses` , or `streets`
`index`	int?	0-based index of the item within that bucket. May be `null` when `all` is `true`
`all`	bool	When `true` , all remaining items from the named bucket should be placed at this position

Clients that only render POIs can ignore

mixed

entirely and read

results

directly.

Example Response

json

{
  "type": "locations",
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "location_result",
      "title": "Blue Bottle Coffee",
      "url": "https://yelp.com/biz/blue-bottle-coffee-sf",
      "provider_url": "",
      "id": "loc4CQWMJWLD4VBEBZ62XQLJTGK6YCJEEJDNAAAAAAA=",
      "description": "Coffee Shop",
      "postal_address": {
        "type": "PostalAddress",
        "displayAddress": "315 Linden St, San Francisco, CA 94102"
      },
      "contact": { "telephone": "+15106533394" },
      "rating": {
        "ratingValue": 4.3,
        "bestRating": 5.0,
        "reviewCount": 1024,
        "is_tripadvisor": true
      },
      "opening_hours": {
        "current_day": [
          { "abbr_name": "Tue", "full_name": "Tuesday", "opens": "07:00", "closes": "18:00" }
        ],
        "days": [
          [{ "abbr_name": "Mon", "full_name": "Monday", "opens": "07:00", "closes": "18:00" }]
        ]
      },
      "coordinates": [37.7763, -122.4215],
      "categories": [],
      "serves_cuisine": ["Cafe", "Coffee Shop"],
      "price_range": "$$",
      "icon_category": "cafe",
      "thumbnail": {
        "src": "https://example.com/thumb.jpg",
        "original": "https://example.com/original.jpg"
      },
      "zoom_level": 7
    }
  ],
  "cities": [],
  "countries": [],
  "regions": [],
  "neighborhoods": [],
  "addresses": [],
  "streets": [],
  "mixed": [
    { "type": "results", "index": 0, "all": false }
  ],
  "location": {
    "coordinates": [37.7749, -122.4194],
    "name": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US"
  }
}

For a query that matches a city name, the response additionally surfaces a city entry in

cities

json

{
  "cities": [
    {
      "type": "city",
      "name": "San Francisco",
      "country": "US",
      "coordinates": [37.7749, -122.4194],
      "thumbnail": { "src": "https://example.com/sf.jpg" }
    }
  ],
  "mixed": [
    { "type": "cities", "index": 0, "all": false }
  ]
}

Enriching Results with POI Details and Descriptions

POI

id

values from

results

can be passed to sibling endpoints for richer data:

bash

# Get full POI details (hours, reviews, photos, web result mentions)
curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/pois" -G \
  --data-urlencode "ids=loc4CQWMJWLD4VBEBZ62XQLJTGK6YCJEEJDNAAAAAAA=" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}"

# Get AI-generated descriptions
curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/descriptions" -G \
  --data-urlencode "ids=loc4CQWMJWLD4VBEBZ62XQLJTGK6YCJEEJDNAAAAAAA=" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}"

Use Cases

Map-based exploration: Search for POIs within a visible map viewport using coordinates + radius. No prior query needed.
Location-aware apps: Build "nearby" features — pass device GPS coordinates and a query to find relevant businesses.
Travel planning: Search for attractions, restaurants, and hotels by location string (e.g.,
```
paris france
```
) without needing exact coordinates.

Notes

Finds places, not pages: This endpoint searches a geographic index of physical places. Use web search for general information retrieval.
Choosing a radius: A tighter radius (below ~20 km) gives more focused results. Raise it to reach specific or well-known places further afield; for common category searches (e.g.,
```
restaurants
```
), the default bias or tighter works best.

local-place-search

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Place Search (Search API)

Quick Start (cURL)

Search by Query + Coordinates

Search by Query + Location String

Browse General POIs (No Query)

Endpoint

Parameters

Location (optional but recommended)

Search

Additional Options

Response Format

Top-Level Fields

LocationResult Fields

Geographic Place Fields (
`cities`
,
`countries`
,
`regions`
,
`neighborhoods`
)

AddressResult Fields (
`addresses`
and
`streets`
)

Mixed Ordering (
`mixed`
)

Example Response

Enriching Results with POI Details and Descriptions

Use Cases

Notes

local-place-search

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Place Search (Search API)

Quick Start (cURL)

Search by Query + Coordinates

Search by Query + Location String

Browse General POIs (No Query)

Endpoint

Parameters

Location (optional but recommended)

Search

Additional Options

Response Format

Top-Level Fields

LocationResult Fields

Geographic Place Fields (cities, countries, regions, neighborhoods)

AddressResult Fields (addresses and streets)

Mixed Ordering (mixed)

Example Response

Enriching Results with POI Details and Descriptions

Use Cases

Notes

Geographic Place Fields (
`cities`
,
`countries`
,
`regions`
,
`neighborhoods`
)

AddressResult Fields (
`addresses`
and
`streets`
)

Mixed Ordering (
`mixed`
)