Brave updates its AI-powered search with a detailed answers feature

Brave, the privacy-focused browser company and alternative to Google Search, announced on Monday that it is expanding its AI-powered search suite with a new tool called Ask Brave, designed to deliver detailed, contextual answers to user queries.

This new feature will exist alongside AI Answers, Brave’s existing summarisation tool introduced last year, which provides concise overviews of search topics. The company said users are already receiving more than 15 million AI-generated answers per day.

How Ask Brave Works

Unlike traditional search tools that require a separate mode or interface, Ask Brave automatically detects the type of query being made and tailors its response accordingly.

Users can start a search using the “Ask” button next to the Brave search bar or by switching to the Ask tab on the results page. If Brave Search is set as the default engine, users can also trigger an AI query simply by adding “??” to the end of their search.

“While AI Answers give our users quick summaries, Ask Brave provides longer answers, follow-ups, and a chat mode enhanced with Deep Research — and most importantly, contextually relevant enrichments such as videos, news articles, products, businesses, shopping, and more — in the right place, at the right time,” said Josep M. Pujol, Brave’s chief of search, in a statement.
“Search makes it possible, LLMs glue it together. We anticipate that Ask Brave will generate millions more daily AI-powered answers with this powerful combination of search and chat.”

Richer, Contextual Responses

The new Ask Brave feature delivers responses in a report-style format, similar to ChatGPT or Perplexity, integrating links, videos, and image carousels directly within the results. Once an answer is provided, users can ask follow-up questions or request a reformatted version of the response — such as a summary, list, or explainer.

Brave said it uses its own search API to “ground” results for accuracy and leverages deep research for more complex or open-ended queries.

Privacy-Focused AI Search

As AI-powered search experiences continue to expand, Brave emphasises its privacy-first approach as a key differentiator. The company claims that all Ask Brave conversations are encrypted and automatically deleted after 24 hours of inactivity.

The move comes amid broader competition in AI-enhanced search. Google recently expanded its AI Overview mode to multiple languages, including a global rollout in Spanish, while Perplexity and ChatGPT continue to refine conversational search experiences.

Brave aims to stand out by combining the power of large language models (LLMs) with independent web indexing and strong privacy protections, positioning itself as a user-friendly, transparent alternative in the rapidly evolving search landscape.