# Free Search (MCP server)

> Free Search is an MCP server that adds web browsing tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. No-API-key web search, page fetching and document reading across many engines. It has 112 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with uvx free-search-mcp.

Music: “Ethereal Space (cdk Mix)” by cdk, ccmixter.org/files/cdk/34151 , licensed CC BY 3.0 . free-search-mcp is a local-first Model Context Protocol server that needs no API key. It lets any LLM (Claude, GPT, a local Ollama model, …) search the web, fetch and clean up pages, and read documents, and you never sign up for a search API.

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | https://github.com/sweetcornna/free-search-mcp |
| GitHub stars | 112 |
| License | MIT |
| Language | Python |
| Transport | stdio |
| Packages | pypi: free-search-mcp |
| Remote URL | none |
| Needs API key | no |
| Official | no |
| Works with | Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code |
| Category | Web & browsing |
| Latest release | v0.13.1 (Sep 26, 2026) |
| Last commit | Oct 4, 2026 |
| MCP registry name | io.github.sweetcornna/free-search-mcp |

## Install

### Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "free-search": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "free-search-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SEARCH_MCP_PROXY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Settings > Developer > Edit Config. macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.

### Claude Code

```sh
claude mcp add --env SEARCH_MCP_PROXY=your-value --transport stdio free-search -- uvx free-search-mcp
```

### Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "free-search": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "free-search-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SEARCH_MCP_PROXY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Project file; use ~/.cursor/mcp.json to enable it in every project.

### VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json)

```json
{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "search_mcp_proxy",
      "description": "SEARCH_MCP_PROXY",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "free-search": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "free-search-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SEARCH_MCP_PROXY": "${input:search_mcp_proxy}"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Config formats checked against the official docs on 2026-10-07.

## Environment variables

- `SEARCH_MCP_PROXY` (secret): Optional outbound proxy URL (http://, https:// or socks5://) for engines that block your network.
- `SEARCH_MCP_REGION`: Optional default region-language for results, e.g. us-en, uk-en, cn-zh. Default: us-en.
- `SEARCH_MCP_CACHE_DIR`: Optional directory for the local search/page cache. Default: ~/.cache/search-mcp.

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