I use ProtonVPN, and when I try to access brave search I get a 403 error:
403 ERROR
The request could not be satisfied.
Request blocked. We can’t connect to the server for this app or website at this time. There might be too much traffic or a configuration error. Try again later, or contact the app or website owner.
If you provide content to customers through CloudFront, you can find steps to troubleshoot and help prevent this error by reviewing the CloudFront documentation.
I have to turn off my VPN in order to access brave search, which goes against my privacy instincts, so I’ve been inclined to just use duckduckgo instead. Is there a workaround?
Everything is working for me on desktop and mobile. On iOS I changed from the custom Brave Search I setup during the closed beta to the builtin one and now everything is working.
I love Brave Search and was constantly telling everyone about it, but after I signed up for ProtonVPN, I often can’t access Brave Search anymore, so I switched search engines again.
(Brave VPN doesn’t work for me, because the interface is controlled through Brave Browser and I need a VPN with clear separation from the browser. If Brave VPN had a separate VPN app I would have used it.)
With ProtonVPN Plus, you can choose to use different VPN servers.
Brave Search is using Cloudflare service that challenges Brave Search users. And one of the Cloudflare inspection nits to pick, is apparently/possibly a user’s IP address on the Internet / user’s WAN IP address.
Choose another ProtonVPN server … and test.
At the Cloudflare Bureau of Investigation, the long corridor wall of various “Browser Mugshot” suspects, are known for trying to conceal their identities.
Under the ‘Guess What?’ header of today’s news, on a nearby bulletin board > some Brave Browser user’s Brarve Browser setup appears as a suspect that matches or is “close enough” to some of the “Browser Mugshot” suspects - because Brave Browser also attempts to conceal by various means.
Cloudflare heavily weighs:
VPN exits
shared IPs
datacenter IPs
Tor
residential proxy networks
CGNAT abuse history
Cloudflare looks for:
browser fingerprint consistency
JavaScript behavior
cookie persistence
TLS fingerprint
IP reputation
automation indicators
anti-fingerprinting anomalies
extension interference
blocked scripts/resources
Brave’s fingerprinting defenses can:
randomize APIs
reduce entropy
alter canvas/audio/WebGL outputs
suppress client hints
partition storage
modify timing precision
To privacy tools this is good.
To bot-detection systems, it can look “non-standard.”
Brave Search would be usable if it were just an occasional CAPTCHA, but the site often doesn’t load at all.
I change the servers regularly, but this is a constant problem. It takes many clicks now to change the server in Proton, so the problem still makes Brave Search unusable.
You might create a new Brave Browser user profile for the purpose of adjusting Brave Shields (and some other settings), in order to get a PASS by Cloudflare more often than not.
You will not necessarily see an apparent response.
Have you tested using Brave Seach via another browser?
Can you change your (test another) connection to the Internet?
Following is a screenshot of the Brave Browser > Developer Tools > Network [tab] window when visiting ‘https://x.com’ - notice the “cloudflare” over in the right-most column. You could visit ‘https://search.brave.com’ and use DevTools to see what is happening - notice the column titles in the DevTools window:
