Better web search with your own key

GlirOS searches the web when a question needs fresh facts, and Research makes many searches for one report. Without a key it uses DuckDuckGo: free, with no account. But that is a results page made for people, not a service for programs. After many searches in a row it can be slow, give fewer hits, or stop and ask for a check that GlirOS can't answer.

What your own key changes

In Settings > Web search, Search with can be Brave Search or Tavily, with your own key. Brave Search is a search service made for programs. With a key, GlirOS gets:

• steadier searches: no "check you are a person" stops, because you are a known customer;
• results from Brave's own index, which differ from DuckDuckGo's, so a second source when the first has no answer.

From GlirOS 0.1.78 it also gets:

• more text per result for the model to answer from: up to five extra snippets, when your Brave plan gives them;
• for a question clearly in Norwegian, Spanish, German, French or Italian, results in that language and from that country. The language is read from the question itself, not from your settings.

It doesn't make every answer right. The model still answers from what it is given, and GlirOS still shows the sources.

Research is where the free search most often stops, because it makes several searches for each question, plus a retry when one fails. In one report on 18 October 2026, 30 searches failed, and only one of its questions got a section.

What it costs

On Brave's page (read 18 October 2026): $5 per 1,000 searches, with $5 of free credit every month. Prices change, so check the page.

• The credit is prepaid; there is no subscription.
• Brave asks for a credit card when you sign up, to prevent abuse. That is normal, not a sign that the free credit is gone.
• One research makes many searches: at most about 9 at Overview, 25 to 30 at Thorough and 64 to 80 at Deep dive, and often fewer, since it stops early when it has enough strong sources. A search that fails is tried once more. So the free credit covers fewer researches than searches: at today's price, $5 is 1,000 searches.

Getting and adding a key

1. Sign up on Brave's API dashboard and make a key for Search.
2. In GlirOS: Settings > Web search > Search with: Brave Search, then paste the key. GlirOS makes one test search and says "The Brave Search key works."

Tavily is the other choice, set up the same way (app.tavily.com).

What goes to Brave

Your search questions are sent to Brave under your key, just as they go to DuckDuckGo without one. Brave states that it doesn't share them or train on them; that is Brave's statement, not ours. The key itself never reaches a model. The desktop app keeps it in Windows Credential Manager on your PC. In the web version it stays in your browser, and gliros.com only passes it on with each search, never storing it.

More: Web search and Research.