Anthropic Reportedly Using Brave Search to Power Claude’s Web Results

Anthropic’s Claude chatbot recently gained a web search feature—bringing it in line with competitors like ChatGPT and Perplexity—but questions arose about which search engine was powering it. New evidence suggests the answer is Brave Search, operated by browser developer Brave.

Earlier this week, software engineer Antonio Zugaldia spotted that Anthropic had quietly added Brave Search to its subprocessor list, which details external partners involved in processing Claude user data. This change strongly hints at Brave’s role in powering web searches.

Further confirmation came from British programmer Simon Willison, who observed identical citations appearing in both Claude’s search results and Brave Search. Willison also discovered a “BraveSearchParams” parameter embedded in Claude’s web search functionality, reinforcing the connection.

Brave Expands Its AI Search Partnerships

This isn’t Brave’s first move into supporting AI platforms. In February, Brave and Mistral announced that Mistral’s chatbot platform, Le Chat, would integrate Brave’s search API to provide live web results—mirroring the likely approach taken with Claude.

Growing Trend: External Search Engines Powering AI Chatbots

Many AI companies are increasingly leveraging established search engines rather than building their own indexes from scratch. OpenAI, for example, partners with Bing but also pulls results from other undisclosed sources. Some of these partnerships remain opaque, likely due to competitive positioning and contractual agreements.

Anthropic’s apparent use of Brave Search reflects this broader trend—outsourcing search functionality to trusted third-party providers to keep pace with user expectations for live, real-time information.

Looking Ahead

As AI chatbots evolve, partnerships with search engines play a crucial role in shaping how users access web information through conversational interfaces. Anthropic’s reported collaboration with Brave underscores the growing ecosystem of AI models tapping into specialized search providers to enhance their capabilities. Moving forward, transparency around these partnerships may become increasingly important as users demand to understand how their queries are sourced and processed.

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiro’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.