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

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

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