Images Search

Requires API Key: Get one at https://api.search.brave.com

Plan: Included in the Search plan. See https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/subscriptions/subscribe

Quick Start (cURL)

Basic Search

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/images/search?q=mountain+landscape" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}"

With Parameters

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/images/search" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -G \
  --data-urlencode "q=northern lights photography" \
  --data-urlencode "country=US" \
  --data-urlencode "search_lang=en" \
  --data-urlencode "count=20" \
  --data-urlencode "safesearch=strict"

Endpoint

GET https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/images/search

Authentication: X-Subscription-Token: <API_KEY> header

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
q	string	Yes	-	Search query (1-400 chars, max 50 words)
country	string	No	US	Search country (2-letter country code or ALL)
search_lang	string	No	en	2+ char language code
count	int	No	50	Results to return (1-200)
safesearch	string	No	strict	off or strict (no moderate for images)
spellcheck	bool	No	true	Auto-correct query; corrected query in query.altered

Response Format

{
  "type": "images",
  "query": {
    "original": "mountain landscape",
    "altered": null,
    "spellcheck_off": false,
    "show_strict_warning": false
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "image_result",
      "title": "Beautiful Mountain Landscape",
      "url": "https://example.com/mountain-photo",
      "source": "example.com",
      "page_fetched": "2025-09-15T10:30:00Z",
      "thumbnail": {
        "src": "https://imgs.search.brave.com/...",
        "width": 200,
        "height": 150
      },
      "properties": {
        "url": "https://example.com/images/mountain.jpg",
        "placeholder": "https://imgs.search.brave.com/placeholder/...",
        "width": 1920,
        "height": 1080
      },
      "meta_url": {
        "scheme": "https",
        "netloc": "example.com",
        "hostname": "example.com",
        "favicon": "https://imgs.search.brave.com/favicon/...",
        "path": "/mountain-photo"
      },
      "confidence": "high"
    }
  ],
  "extra": {
    "might_be_offensive": false
  }
}

Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
type	string	Always "images"
query.original	string	Original query
query.altered	string?	Spellchecked query (null if no correction)
query.spellcheck_off	bool?	Whether spellcheck was disabled
query.show_strict_warning	bool?	True if strict safesearch hid relevant results
results[]	array	List of image results
results[].type	string	Always "image_result"
results[].title	string?	Image title
results[].url	string?	Page URL where image was found
results[].source	string?	Source domain
results[].page_fetched	string?	ISO datetime of last page crawl
results[].thumbnail.src	string?	Brave-proxied thumbnail URL (~500px width)
results[].thumbnail.width	int?	Thumbnail width
results[].thumbnail.height	int?	Thumbnail height
results[].properties.url	string?	Original full-size image URL
results[].properties.placeholder	string?	Low-res placeholder URL (Brave-proxied)
results[].properties.width	int?	Original image width (may be null)
results[].properties.height	int?	Original image height (may be null)
results[].meta_url.scheme	string?	URL protocol scheme
results[].meta_url.netloc	string?	Network location
results[].meta_url.hostname	string?	Lowercased domain
results[].meta_url.favicon	string?	Favicon URL
results[].meta_url.path	string?	URL path
results[].confidence	string?	Relevance: low, medium, or high
extra.might_be_offensive	bool	Whether results may contain offensive content

Use Cases

• Visual content discovery: Build image galleries, mood boards, or visual research tools. Use count=200 for comprehensive coverage. Prefer over web-search when you need image-specific metadata (dimensions, thumbnails).
• Content enrichment: Add relevant images to articles or generated content. Use country and search_lang to target your audience's locale.
• Safe image retrieval: Default safesearch=strict ensures family-friendly results out of the box. Only two modes (off/strict) — no moderate option, unlike web/video/news search.
• High-volume batch retrieval: Up to 200 images per request (vs 20 for web, 50 for videos/news). Ideal for bulk image sourcing or visual analysis pipelines.

Notes

• SafeSearch: Defaults to strict for images (stricter than web search)
• High volume: Can return up to 200 results per request
• Thumbnails: Brave-proxied for user privacy (500px width). Use properties.url for original full-resolution image.
• Dimensions: properties.width/height may be missing for some images
• Placeholder: properties.placeholder is a low-res URL (not inline base64) useful for progressive loading UX