Best MCP servers for search & research (October 2026)
Live web search and research sources for grounded answers.
Updated 2026-10-18 · live checks of 45,029 servers · How we rank
Top picks
| # | Server | Status | Sign-in | Tools | Trust | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exa Exa · Official | Live | No auth | 2 | A | All Exa servers |
| 2 | AIMentionTracker Perplexity · Community | Live · sign-in | OAuth sign-in | — | B | All Perplexity servers |
| 3 | Brave Search Brave Search · Community | Live | No auth | — | B | All Brave Search servers |
| 4 | Tavily Tavily · Community | Live | No auth | — | B | All Tavily servers |
| 5 | Firecrawl Firecrawl · Community | Live | No auth | — | B | All Firecrawl servers |
| 6 | Arxiv MCP Server arXiv · Community | Live | No auth | 4 | B | All arXiv servers |
| 7 | Pubmed MCP Server PubMed · Community | Live | No auth | 11 | A | All PubMed servers |
| 8 | Wikipedia MCP Server Wikipedia · Community | Live | No auth | 6 | B | All Wikipedia servers |
| 9 | NotebookLM NotebookLM · Community | Live | No auth | 43 | B | All NotebookLM servers |
More live servers, ranked by trust
| Server | Status | Sign-in | Tools | Trust |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitbybit CAD MCP | Live | No auth | 7 | A |
| beehiiv | Live · sign-in | OAuth sign-in | — | A |
| Atlassian Rovo MCP Server | Live · sign-in | OAuth sign-in | — | A |
| Mapbox | Live · sign-in | OAuth sign-in | — | A |
| MCP Registry Server | Live | No auth | 3 | A |
| Amplitude | Live · sign-in | OAuth sign-in | — | A |
| COTAL actions (cotal.ai) | Live | No auth | 12 | A |
| runx | Live | No auth | 2 | A |
| Docs | Live | No auth | 4 | A |
| Mu | Live | No auth | 167 | A |
| UICapsule | Live | No auth | 2 | A |
| Ferritin — Rust documentation | Live | No auth | 2 | A |
| fojin — Buddhist Canon Tools | Live | No auth | 8 | A |
| Cellarion Wine Registry | Live | No auth | 7 | A |
| Zoom Meetings | Live · sign-in | OAuth sign-in | — | A |
| classifier.dev docs | Live | No auth | 4 | A |
| Fireflies.ai | Live · sign-in | OAuth sign-in | — | A |
| Sui Knowledge Base (kapa.ai) | Live · sign-in | OAuth sign-in | — | A |
| OrchestKit Docs MCP | Live | No auth | 2 | A |
| SEO Skill | Live · sign-in | OAuth sign-in | — | A |
| GitHits | Live · sign-in | OAuth sign-in | — | A |
| Clinicaltrialsgov MCP Server | Live | No auth | 7 | A |
| ESG Hub MCP Server | Live | No auth | 12 | A |
| pmndrs docs | Live | No auth | 3 | A |
| Google Ads + Meta Ads + SEO/GEO MCP | Live · sign-in | OAuth sign-in | — | A |
| mcp.film directory | Live | No auth | 15 | A |
| flightclaw | Live · sign-in | OAuth sign-in | — | A |
| Rokha | Live | No auth | 290 | A |
| Gondola Award Travel Search | Live | No auth | 46 | A |
| Skillmd | Live | No auth | 5 | A |
What are the best mcp servers for search & research?
Exa, AIMentionTracker, Brave Search, based on search demand and canmyaiuse live checks on 2026-10-18.
How is this list ranked?
Our picks follow real search demand for each app's MCP server, then we choose the best live server for that app (official first). The second list ranks every other live server by trust score: uptime, verified publisher, maintenance, adoption and transparency.
Can I pay to be on this list?
No. Rankings and grades can't be bought. Sponsored slots are always labeled Featured and sit outside the ranking.
Why are some popular servers missing?
This list only includes remote servers that use OAuth or no sign-in, because that's all ChatGPT and claude.ai can connect to. Local servers work in Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code.
Build one of these? Add the free live badge or get featured.