Brave

Is Brave safe?

Yes, and it is one of the best choices for privacy among mainstream browsers. Brave blocks ads and trackers by default, says it does not collect your browsing history, and Apple's privacy label lists nothing linked to you. We score it 81/100, just below DuckDuckGo (85) and above NordVPN (79).

The reservations are about trust and clutter rather than surveillance. Brave has made a few embarrassing mistakes, and the browser comes loaded with an AI assistant, a crypto wallet, rewards tokens and ads that many people never asked for.

What does Brave collect?

Very little. Its privacy policy, updated in September 2026, opens by saying that "our company does not collect or retain a user's browsing history." Apple's label lists only usage data for analytics and a user ID for app functions, neither linked to you, and no tracking. Google Play's data safety section says Brave shares no data with third parties.

A few features do send data. Privacy-preserving product analytics report aggregated usage and are on unless you turn them off. Sync stores your bookmarks and passwords encrypted on Amazon's cloud, with the key only on your devices, so Brave cannot read or recover them. Google Safe Browsing checks run through a Brave proxy on desktop, but on Android and iOS they go through the operating system, which exposes your IP address to Google or Apple.

How does Brave make money?

Mostly from ads and subscriptions. Brave Ads show as new-tab images, notifications and search ads, and are chosen on your device rather than by a server profile. Brave says it only receives anonymous counts of ads seen and clicked. New-tab ads are on by default. If you turn on Brave Rewards, you earn Basic Attention Token (BAT) for viewing ads. Brave also sells VPN and Leo Premium subscriptions, and Brave Search carries ads.

What were the Brave controversies?

Affiliate codes, 2020. In June 2020 a user noticed that typing "binance.us" into Brave's address bar autocompleted to a link carrying Brave's own referral code, so Brave could earn a commission. Chief executive Brendan Eich admitted it on Twitter: "a typed-in URL should go to the domain named, without any additions. Sorry for this mistake." Brave removed the default. Nothing was stolen, but it was the kind of quiet monetisation privacy users choose Brave to avoid.

Tor DNS leak, 2021. Brave's private windows with Tor are meant to hide which .onion sites you visit. In early 2021 it emerged that Brave's CNAME ad-blocking feature was looking up .onion addresses through ordinary DNS, so an internet provider could see them. Brave shipped a hotfix, version 1.20.108, in February 2021. Brave's Tor mode is still a convenience, not a substitute for Tor Browser.

Leo AI and the crypto wallet

Leo, Brave's built-in AI assistant, has some of the strongest privacy terms among AI tools we cover. The policy says Brave does not collect your IP address with Leo requests, does not keep prompts or responses beyond brief caching, and does not train models on conversations. Chat history stays on your device. Compare that with Microsoft Copilot, where personalised ads can draw on your chat history.

Brave Wallet is a self-custodySelf-custodyHolding crypto in a wallet where you alone control the private keys, rather than leaving it with an exchange or another company.More in the glossary crypto wallet built into the browser. Brave strips IP addresses from wallet traffic and blocks transfers to US-sanctioned addresses, but a hot walletHot walletA crypto wallet connected to the internet, such as an app or an exchange's online wallet. It is convenient, but more exposed to hacking.More in the glossary in a browser is exactly what phishing sites and "approve this token" drainersDrainerA malicious website or script that tricks a crypto user into signing a transaction or approval that lets attackers empty the wallet.More in the glossary target. If you do not use crypto, leave it unset.

Who should be careful

• Parents. The App Store rates Brave 16+, and there are no parental controls. Use Screen Time or Google Family Link.
• People who need anonymity. Use Tor Browser, not Brave's Tor windows.
• Crypto holders. Keep large balances on a hardware walletHardware walletA small dedicated device that stores crypto private keys offline and signs transactions inside the device, so the keys never touch your computer.More in the glossary, not in a browser.

How to set Brave up well

1. Turn off product analytics and new-tab ads in settings if you want nothing sent at all.
2. Set Shields to block trackers aggressively for stronger protection, and relax it per site if a page breaks.
3. Ignore or hide Rewards, Wallet and Leo if you do not use them.
4. Keep Brave updated, since Chromium security fixes arrive through Brave's releases.

How we scored it

Regulatory record (95) and privacy (88) are Brave's strongest factors. Scams and harmful content (68) is the weakest, because a browser opens the whole web and the built-in wallet invites crypto scams. Security (78) and transparency (78) lose points for the 2021 Tor leak, the 2020 affiliate-code episode and a paused bug bounty programme.