/local-place-search

name: local-place-search
description: USE FOR finding places in the physical world - businesses, POIs, street addresses, cities and streets. Results carry address, coordinates, rating, opening hours and phone, so basic details need no follow-up call. Standalone - no POI IDs or prior web search required; the IDs it returns work with local-pois and local-descriptions. Locate by coordinates or a location string, or omit both to search globally. Omit the query to browse an area. Max 100 results.

Place Search (Search API)

> **Requires API Key**: Get one at https://api.search.brave.com > > **Plan**: Included in the **Search** plan (with `locations` option). See https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/subscriptions/subscribe > > **Standalone**: Unlike `local-pois` and `local-descriptions`, this endpoint does **not** require POI IDs from a prior web search. You provide a location and an optional query directly.

Quick Start (cURL)

Search by Query + Coordinates

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/place_search" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -G \
  --data-urlencode "q=coffee shops" \
  --data-urlencode "latitude=37.7749" \
  --data-urlencode "longitude=-122.4194" \
  --data-urlencode "radius=5000"

Search by Query + Location String

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/place_search" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -G \
  --data-urlencode "q=sushi restaurants" \
  --data-urlencode "location=tokyo japan" \
  --data-urlencode "country=JP" \
  --data-urlencode "search_lang=en"

Browse General POIs (No Query)

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/place_search" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -G \
  --data-urlencode "latitude=48.8566" \
  --data-urlencode "longitude=2.3522" \
  --data-urlencode "radius=3000" \
  --data-urlencode "country=FR"

Endpoint

GET https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/place_search

**Authentication**: `X-Subscription-Token: <API_KEY>` header

Parameters

Location (optional but recommended)

Providing a geographic anchor improves precision. You can use coordinates (`latitude` + `longitude`) or a `location` string. Omitting both is allowed when a `q` is given — results are sourced globally and may be less precise. Omitting all three (`q`, `latitude`/`longitude`, and `location`) returns HTTP 422.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |--|--|--|--|--| | `latitude` | float | Conditional | — | Latitude (-90.0 to 90.0). Required together with `longitude` | | `longitude` | float | Conditional | — | Longitude (-180.0 to 180.0). Required together with `latitude` | | `location` | string | No | — | Location string, alternative to coordinates. US: `<city> <state> <country>` (e.g., `san francisco ca united states`). Non-US: `<city> <country>` (e.g., `tokyo japan`). Case-insensitive, no commas needed. English or the most popular local language works best |

Search

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |--|--|--|--|--| | `q` | string | No | — | Free-text query (e.g., `coffee shops`, `pizza`). Fully optional — if omitted, returns general POIs in the given area |

Additional Options

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |--|--|--|--|--| | `radius` | float | No | — | Search radius **bias** around the provided coordinates, in meters. Not a hard cutoff — results may extend beyond it. No upper limit | | `count` | int | No | `20` | Total items returned across **all** buckets (1–100), not just `results` — an address query can spend the whole budget on `addresses`/`streets` | | `geoloc` | string | No | — | User geolocation as `<latitude>x<longitude>` (e.g., `40.7128x-74.0060`), used to compute `distance` | | `country` | string | No | `US` | Search country (2-letter country code or `ALL`) | | `search_lang` | string | No | `en` | Language for search results (2+ char language code) | | `ui_lang` | string | No | `en-US` | UI language (locale code, e.g., `en-US`) | | `units` | string | No | `metric` | Measurement units: `metric` or `imperial` | | `safesearch` | string | No | `strict` | Safe search level: `off`, `moderate`, or `strict` | | `spellcheck` | bool | No | `true` | Whether to apply spellcheck to the query |

Response Format

Top-Level Fields

| Field | Type | Description | |--|--|--| | `type` | string | Always `"locations"` | | `results` | array | List of `LocationResult` objects (individual POIs) | | `cities` | array | Matched cities, `type: "city"` — see Geographic Place Fields | | `countries` | array | Matched countries, `type: "country"` | | `regions` | array | Matched regions, `type: "region"` | | `neighborhoods` | array | Matched neighborhoods, `type: "neighborhood"` | | `addresses` | array | List of `AddressResult` objects with `type: "address"` — specific street + number locations | | `streets` | array | List of `AddressResult` objects with `type: "street"` — entire streets | | `mixed` | array | `ResultReference` ordering hints describing how to interleave the buckets on a SERP | | `location` | object? | Resolved location info | | `location.coordinates` | [float, float] | `[latitude, longitude]` of the resolved center | | `location.name` | string | Resolved location name (e.g., `"Helsinki"`) | | `location.country` | string | Two-letter country code (e.g., `"FI"`) |

Treat a missing bucket as empty. For typical POI-style queries only `results` is populated, so clients that don't render rich SERPs can ignore the rest — except for address- or street-shaped queries, which can return an empty `results` and put every match in `addresses`/`streets`.

LocationResult Fields

Each item in `results` is a `LocationResult`