In short. Brave browser users can opt in to share selected, filtered search and browsing signals with the Web Discovery Project.
Definition: As of 17 October 2026, Brave's Web Discovery Project is an opt-in browser feature that sends selected anonymous search and browsing data to help build the Brave Search independent index. Brave documents checks on queries and URLs, encryption, and unlinkability as part of the design.
Key facts
- Brave's crawler help says that information from Web Discovery Project participants partially powers the crawler and describes the option as off by default.
- Brave's Search page places the control under Settings, Search engine, and Web Discovery Project. The same page says that participation can be stopped at any time.
- The browser privacy policy lists search queries, page visits, URLs, time spent on pages, and page metadata among the data covered by the project.
- Brave's launch announcement says that the project runs automatically while a contributor browses the web and checks pages before sending data.
- Brave's crawler documentation says the crawler has no differentiated user agent and follows the Googlebot crawlability condition described on that page.
What does opting in contribute?
The Web Discovery Project, or WDP, is a browser feature that lets a person contribute selected signals from searches and page visits. Brave's current browser privacy policy says that the project is intended to make Brave Search more relevant and useful, and that participation covers activity in the Brave Browser, including pages reached through some other search engines.
The search page gives a more specific list: search queries, clicks on search results, URLs of pages visited in the browser, time spent on those pages, and some metadata about the pages. The browser evaluates this information before transmission. Brave says that very long queries, queries containing email addresses or long numbers, and URLs that are too long or contain certain terms or long numbers are filtered out.
How does Brave describe the privacy controls?
Brave describes WDP as privacy-preserving. Its browser privacy policy says that submitted URLs are encrypted so that Brave cannot see or read a URL unless it has been sent by a large number of other users. It also says that a URL must be visited independently by a large number of people before it can be sent, and that received data is unlinkable to individuals or devices.
The 2021 launch announcement describes the same design in operational terms. It says that WDP discards suspicious or overly long queries, odd URLs, pages marked non-indexable by their creator, and pages that are private or require authentication. It names the STAR cryptographic protocol for the independent-visit condition. The announcement also points to Brave's open-source GitHub repository for technical details.
How do users turn it on or off?
Brave's Search page documents this path:
Settings > Search engine > Web Discovery Project
Open the Settings menu in the Brave browser, select Search engine in the left panel, and toggle on Web Discovery Project. The same documentation says that opting out is available at any time. Brave's crawler help calls the setting off by default, so a person has to enable it before contributing.
What does this change for a website?
WDP is one input to Brave's indexing system. Brave's crawler help says that the crawler finds new pages and indexes their content, while information from WDP participants partially powers it. The page also says that the crawler does not advertise a differentiated user agent. If a domain or page is not crawlable by Googlebot, Brave says its bot will not crawl it either.
For removal, the same help page says that robots.txt is not used to prevent a page from being indexed. It documents the robots noindex directive for delisting and says that Brave must re-fetch the page after the directive is added. A page owner can submit the URL for re-fetching through Brave's submission form.
Related terms
- Brave Search API
- Does Brave use its own index for AI answers?
- Does Brave publish a separate search crawler user agent?
FAQ
Is the Web Discovery Project enabled by default?
Brave's crawler help describes WDP as off by default and opt in. The Search page documents a toggle for enabling it and says that users can opt out at any time.
What information can a contributor send?
Brave lists queries, result clicks, visited page URLs, time spent on pages, and some page metadata. It also documents checks that filter some queries and URLs before transmission.
Does WDP use a special Brave crawler user agent?
The crawler help says that Brave Search does not advertise a differentiated user agent. It describes crawlability by Googlebot as a condition for Brave's crawler.
Sources
- Brave Search, "Brave Search Crawler", undated
- Brave, "Browser Privacy Policy", 23 September 2026
- Brave, "What is Brave Search?", undated
- Brave, "Privacy-preserving Brave Search Replaces Google as the Default Search Engine in the Brave Browser", 19 October 2021, updated 27 March 2024
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