Faster than Chrome. Better privacy by default than Firefox. Uses less battery on mobile. By blocking harmful ads and trackers you get a faster Internet. Other browsers claim to have a "private mode," but this only hides your history from others using your browser.

Brave lets you use Tor in a tab which not only hides your history, but it masks your location from the sites you visit by routing your browsing through several servers before it reaches your destination. These connections are encrypted to increase anonymity.

What engine does Brave Browser use?

Brave Browser has been built using the Chromium engine. As one would expect, this makes Brave Browser compatible with most extensions found in the Chrome Web Store.

Who owns Brave Browser, is it trustworthy?

Brave is safe to use and it's headquartered in San Francisco, California. Brave was co-founded by Brendan Eich, the creator of the JavaScript programming language and co-founder of the Mozilla project.

What search engine does Brave Browser use?

Brave Browser tries to set itself apart by giving privacy a greater emphasis. For this reason they have opted to incorporate in their web browser a proprietary search named Brave Search.

What is Brave Search?

Brave Search is the default search engine in Brave Browser. It's been designed to eliminate privacy concerns by not tracking or recording any of your activity. Brave Search relies on anonymous community contributions to refine results, as well as community-based ranking models.

Does Brave Browser come with a VPN?

The Android and iOS mobile versions of Brave Browser do offer a VPN, but Brave Browser for desktop doesn't include a VPN.

Control the Ads You See

Brave Ads is an opt-in advertising platform that rewards you to view non-invasive ads without compromising your privacy. In exchange for paying attention, you earn 70% of the ad revenue that Brave receives. That revenue comes in the form of Basic Attention Tokens (BAT),7 which are tokens that can be spent online.8 At the end of each month, you can either withdraw your BAT in the form of cash or pay it forward by tipping your favorite websites and content creators.9 Just open the Brave Rewards panel and hit "Send a tip" to instantly share your BAT earnings with the content creators you love.10

Getting paid isn't the only perk of opting into Brave Ads --- it allows you to engage with advertisements and brands in a more thoughtful way. Brave gives you control over the ads you see and how often you see them. No more having to sit through ads on YouTube,11 and definitely no more searching through all of your open tabs to find out where that annoyingly loud video ad is playing. With Brave, ads play on your terms.

Switching is Easy

  • Import and continue where you left off
  • It's easy to import your settings from your old browser. You can do it during the welcome tour or later through the menus.
  • All of your old browser profiles will appear in a list. You can import other browser data through the main menu item called "Import Bookmarks and Settings."

Support your favorite sites with Brave Rewards

  • Turn on Brave Rewards and give a little back to the sites you frequent most. Earn frequent flyer-like tokens (BAT) for viewing privacy-respecting ads through Brave and help fund the content you love
  • Browsing the web with Brave is free: with Brave Rewards activated, you can support the content creators you love at the amount that works for you.
  • Brave can automatically distribute your contributions based on how much time you spend on sites. Or, you can choose to tip sites directly, and even offer a fixed monthly tip amount.
  • All of this works while keeping your browsing history private. Your funds are made available to site owners through an anonymous ledger system, so you can't be identified based on the sites you visit and support. Over 10,000 publishers and content creators have registered to receive Brave Rewards.
  • Remember: these contributions are optional - browsing the web with Brave is free.

Experience unparalleled privacy and security.

  • Brave fights malware and prevents tracking, keeping your information safe and secure. It's our top priority.

We're not in the personal data business.

  • Our servers neither see nor store your browsing data - it stays private, on your devices, until you delete it. Which means we won't ever sell your data to third parties.

Customize your shield settings

  • Choose your settings on a per-site or browser-wide basis. See how many ads and trackers are being blocked by Brave every day on the New Tab Page.

Security meets simplicity

  • If you're willing to research, download, and install multiple extensions, and carefully configure and correctly maintain settings in both the browser and extensions, you can match some of Brave's privacy and security.

Brave does all that work for you. Simple, right?

  • Whenever possible using the HTTPS Everywhere list, Brave automatically upgrades to HTTPS for secure, encrypted communications when an ordinary browser would use an insecure connection.

Defaults that matter

  • Browse confidently with default settings that block phishing, malware, and malvertising. Also, plugins, which have proven to be a security risk, are disabled by default.

Sync your devices bravely

  • Brave Sync, currently in beta, can be enabled to encrypt and synchronize your preferred settings and bookmarks. However, Brave does not have the keys to decrypt your data.

Shields

  • Ad blocking
  • Fingerprinting prevention*
  • Cookie control*
  • HTTPS upgrading*
  • Block scripts*
  • Per-site shield settings
  • Configurable global shield defaults

Security

  • Clear browsing data
  • Built-in password manager
  • Form autofill
  • Control content access to full-screen presentation
  • Control site access to autoplay media
  • Send "Do not track" with browsing requests

Search

  • Choose default search engine
  • Use keyboard shortcuts for alternate search engines
  • Option to use DuckDuckGo for private window search

Brave Rewards

  • Earn by viewing private ads
  • Tip your favorite creators
  • Contribute monthly to sites
  • Auto-contribute to sites
  • Verify with Uphold and move funds in and out of your wallet
  • Become a verified creator and start earning BAT from tips, contributions and referrals

Tabs & Windows

  • Private Windows
  • Pinned Tabs
  • Auto-unload
  • Drag and drop
  • Duplicate
  • Close Options
  • Find on page
  • Print page

Address Bar

  • Add Bookmark
  • Autosuggest URLs
  • Search from address bar
  • Autosuggest search terms
  • Show/hide bookmarks toolbar
  • Show secure or insecure site
  • Extensions/Plugins
  • Brave Desktop now supports most of the Chrome extensions in the chrome web store

Brave Firewall + VPN (paid feature, iOS only)

  • Unlike many browsers that offer VPNs which mask a user's IP address, Brave's Firewall + VPN, powered by Guardian, offers enhanced security and privacy by encrypting and protecting anything users do while connected to the Internet.
  • Block trackers across all apps
  • Protects all connections
  • We never share or sell you info
  • VPN server does not know who you are

What's New

Release Notes

  • Added "Visit Web Store" under "Extensions" via the hamburger menu. (#43807)
  • Added links to the Chrome Web Store under brave://extensions when extensions have been added. (#43805)
  • Fixed intermittent cursor issues on Windows. (#43824)
  • Fixed missing "Same as Linux" option for "Brave colors" under brave://settings/appearance. (#43834)
  • Fixed issue where "Word count" when setting up sync maybe incorrect in certain cases. (#43635)
  • Upgraded Chromium to 133.0.6943.98. (#43927) (Changelog for 133.0.6943.98)

Web3

  • Added Zcash "Deposit" modal. (#42221)
  • Added "Shielded" label to all shielded ZEC tokens in Brave Wallet. (#42285)
  • Added support for resolving new Unstoppable Domains TLDs. (#42368)
  • Added a prompt to "Select Account" when clicking "Send" from the "Portfolio" page. (#43131)
  • Added a "Memo" field to the Zcash transaction's "Confirm Transaction" screen. (#42078)
  • Added a "Memo" field to the Zcash transaction's "Send" screen. (#41986)
  • Added the "Activity" tab to the "Portfolio" segmented control on full page view. (#43024)
  • Removed the "Bridge to Aurora" button. (#42943)
  • Updated "Portfolio" page to always display "Buy", "Send", "Swap", "Deposit", and "Bridge" buttons. (#43073)
  • Fixed Brave icon being cut off on the wallet unlock screen. (#42866)
  • Fixed broken gas slider track under the "Edit" gas fee screen. (#42775)

Rewards

  • Added Web Discovery Project opt-in prompt during Brave Rewards onboarding. (#43757)
  • Implemented Brave Rewards 3.0, a completely redesigned user experience for Brave Rewards including an "Explore" page and many other new elements (being rolled out in phases using Griffin starting at 25%). (#43756)

Leo

  • Implemented full page chat for Brave Leo. (#42844)
  • Added support to install Brave Leo as a Progressive Web App (PWA). (#42701)
  • Added support to save Brave Leo conversation history. (#42576 & #42854)
  • Added support to retain Brave Leo conversation history between browser restarts. (#42800)
  • Added a page context toggle under the chat sidebar. (#42982)
  • Added URL based routing for Brave Leo chats. (#42055)
  • Added support for custom site distillers. (#40794)
  • Updated Brave Leo URL to chrome://leo-ai. (#42817)
  • Updated the Progressive Web App (PWA) icons for Brave Leo and the password manager. (#43114)

General

  • Added the ability to capture a screenshot using "Ctrl+Shift+S" on Windows and Linux and "Cmd+Shift+S" on macOS. (#42682)
  • Added support for deep linking to the Search Engine edit popup in settings. (#42999)
  • Added a warning when disabling Manifest V2 uBlock Origin via brave://settings/extensions/v2. (#42608)
  • Added right click context menu for vertical tab bar. (#41825)
  • Added the ability for users to load custom adblock scriptlets under brave://settings/shields/filters. (#25586)
  • Added per-site farbling token support. (#28904)
  • Added brave://flags/#block-all-cookies-toggle to enable the ability to block all cookies. (#42061)
  • Added a keyboard shortcut for exporting all bookmarks. (#41412)
  • Added a command line switch to disable user education popups. (#43481)
  • [Security] Fixed issue where audio was not being farbled in certain cases as reported on HackerOne by cesium_fusilli. (#42356)
  • [Security] Disabled block element picker in Private Windows as reported on HackerOne by newfunction. (#43495)
  • Improved contrast on active tab for dark theme. (#42751)
  • Updated the Brave VPN icon. (#42226)
  • Updated position for the "New Tab" button when using vertical tabs. (#42533)
  • Updated the Private window search engine selection UI under brave://settings/search. (#41499)
  • Updated the webcompat reporter to remember and autofill a user's contact information. (#40021)
  • Disabled cosmetic filtering on Speedreader pages. (#40642)
  • Disabled field data fetching in DevTools. (#41934)
  • Removed known Emarsys trackers "sc_customer", "sc_eh", and "sc_uid" from URLs. (#43077)
  • Fixed external favicon fetch on the password manager. (#42955)
  • Fixed "Clear all" button on brave://downloads not being selectable in certain cases. (#42924)
  • Fixed "Connect" button being displayed for a region when already connected to that region using Brave VPN. (#42544)
  • Fixed extraneous tabs created when detaching a tab from a window. (#42588)
  • Fixed Brave News "Add this RSS feed" functionality to respect the HTTPS upgrade setting. (#38282)
  • Fixed artifacts being displayed after merging tabs into a browser window. (#41272)
  • Fixed shields panel being able to be opened on chrome-extension:// pages. (#43135)
  • Fixed shield icon alignment in the URL bar. (#39976)
  • Upgraded Chromium to 133.0.6943.54. (#43720) (Changelog for 133.0.6943.54)

Release Notes

Web3

  • Added Zcash "Deposit" modal. (#42221)
  • Added "Shielded" label to all shielded ZEC tokens in Brave Wallet. (#42285)
  • Added support for resolving new Unstoppable Domains TLDs. (#42368)
  • Added a prompt to "Select Account" when clicking "Send" from the "Portfolio" page. (#43131)
  • Added a "Memo" field to the Zcash transaction's "Confirm Transaction" screen. (#42078)
  • Added a "Memo" field to the Zcash transaction's "Send" screen. (#41986)
  • Added the "Activity" tab to the "Portfolio" segmented control on full page view. (#43024)
  • Removed the "Bridge to Aurora" button. (#42943)
  • Updated "Portfolio" page to always display "Buy", "Send", "Swap", "Deposit", and "Bridge" buttons. (#43073)
  • Fixed Brave icon being cut off on the wallet unlock screen. (#42866)
  • Fixed broken gas slider track under the "Edit" gas fee screen. (#42775)