vs
Google AI Mode vs Brave Search
Google AI Mode scores higher overall (8.6 vs 8.3), but the right pick depends on what you need.
Choose Google AI Mode if…
Anyone who wants AI answers without leaving Google or paying
8.6/10★★★★★Full review →Choose Brave Search if…
Privacy-minded people who want free AI answers without a Google account
8.3/10★★★★★Full review →Side by side
| Google AI Mode | Brave Search | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 8.6/10 | 8.3/10 |
| Rank in category | #2 of 7 | #4 of 7 |
| Price | Freemium · from £4.49/month | Freemium · from $3/month |
| Free version | AI Mode is free in Google Search | Search, AI answers and Ask Brave free with no account |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android |
| Made by | Brave Software | |
| Answer quality | 7.5 | 7 |
| Ease of use | 9.5 | 9 |
| Features | 8 | 8 |
| Value for money | 9.5 | 9.5 |
| Platforms | 9 | 9 |
Google AI Mode: what the AI does
- Conversational answers with links to sources
- Search with text, voice, photos, files or video
- Search Live spoken conversations
- Deep Search in selected countries
- Personal Intelligence using Gmail and Google Photos
- Interactive visuals and simulations
- Free, with no new app or sign-up
- Google's huge index and local, shopping and travel data
- Best multimodal search: photo, voice and live video
- More inline links to sources since October 2026
- Answer quality is uneven on hard or niche questions
- Personalisation means sharing more data with Google
- Google labels AI Mode experimental and warns it can make mistakes
Brave Search: what the AI does
- Cited AI answers at the top of results
- Ask Brave chat with follow-up questions
- Deep research mode with visible steps
- Type ?? after a query to open Ask Brave
- Independent index rather than Google or Bing results
- No account needed; chats expire after 24 hours and aren't used for training
- Ad-free search for just $3 a month
- Works in any browser, plus Brave's apps
- Smaller index leaves gaps on long-tail queries
- AI answers are less sharp than Perplexity's or Google's
- No photo search or model choice