Images Search

by brave62793e0c49edNo license183 starsListed Oct 8, 2026Updated Oct 8, 2026Repository updated 2 weeks ago

USE FOR image search. Returns images with title, source URL, thumbnail. Supports SafeSearch filter. Up to 200 results.

Instructions onlyResearch & Analysis

AI-generated overview

Queries the Brave Image Search API and returns image results with titles, source URLs, thumbnails and metadata.

What it does: This skill documents how to call the Brave Image Search API endpoint to run image searches. It covers the required API key header, query parameters such as country, language, result count and SafeSearch, and the JSON response format. It explains the returned fields, including titles, page URLs, source domains, thumbnails, original image dimensions and relevance confidence, and lists use cases such as visual content discovery and batch image retrieval.
When to use it: Use it when you need to find images for a query and want structured results with thumbnails, source pages and image dimensions. It suits visual research, gallery or mood-board building, content enrichment and bulk image sourcing. It is also appropriate when SafeSearch filtering or locale targeting is needed.
Requirements: A Brave Search API key sent in the X-Subscription-Token header, plus network access to api.search.brave.com. A subscription plan that includes the Search plan is required. The skill contains instructions only and ships no scripts.

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

bash

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}"

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

bash

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"

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

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

json

{  "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  }}

{  "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

Source and attribution

Source:brave/brave-search-skillsinskills/images-searchat commit62793e0

License: No license

Content belongs to its original authors. SourceWeft indexes it from a public repository.

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Images Search

Images Search

Quick Start (cURL)

Basic Search

With Parameters

Endpoint

Parameters

Response Format

Response Fields

Use Cases

Notes

Source and attribution

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