Bright Data MCP server

The Bright Data Web MCP server enables LLMs and AI agents to effectively search, extract data, and navigate websites without getting blocked. It includes 5,000 free monthly requests, perfect for everyday use and prototyping smart agentic workflows. The service works with all major LLMs, IDEs, and agent frameworks.

Installation

Using a Hosted MCP Server with Claude Desktop

Through Connectors:

1. Open Claude Desktop
2. Go to: Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector
3. Choose a Name, and in the "Remote MCP server URL" section, paste:

   https://mcp.brightdata.com/mcp?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE
   

4. Replace YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE with your actual API token, and click "Add"

Through Developer Settings:

1. Open Claude Desktop
2. Go to: Settings → Developer → Edit Config
3. Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "Bright Data": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": [
           "mcp-remote",
           "https://mcp.brightdata.com/mcp?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE"
         ]
       }
     }
   }
   

4. Replace YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE with your actual API token
5. Save and restart Claude Desktop

Using a Self-Hosted MCP Server with Claude Desktop

Through Claude Desktop Extension:

1. Download the Bright Data's MCP Extension
2. Open Claude and go to: Settings → Extensions
3. Drag the .dtx file from Step 1 into the dropping area
4. Enable the service and restart Claude

Through claude_desktop_config.json:

1. Install nodejs to get the npx command from node.js website
2. Go to Claude > Settings > Developer > Edit Config > Edit "claude_desktop_config.json" to include:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "Bright Data": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": ["@brightdata/mcp"],
         "env": {
           "API_TOKEN": "<insert-your-api-token-here>"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

Advanced Configuration Options:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Bright Data": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@brightdata/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "API_TOKEN": "<insert-your-api-token-here>",
        "RATE_LIMIT": "<optional rate limit format: limit/time+unit, e.g., 100/1h>",
        "WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE": "<optional web unlocker zone name - default is mcp_unlocker>",
        "BROWSER_ZONE": "<optional browser zone name - defaults is mcp_browser>",
        "PRO_MODE": "<optional boolean, defaults to false. Set to true for all tools>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Installation for Other MCP Clients

Make sure the API_TOKEN=<your-token> environment variable is set before running:

macOS / Linux (bash/zsh)

export API_TOKEN=your-token
npx @brightdata/mcp

Windows (Command Prompt)

set API_TOKEN=your-token
npx @brightdata/mcp

Windows (PowerShell)

$env:API_TOKEN="your-token"
npx @brightdata/mcp

Setting Up Your Account

1. Create an account on brightdata.com
2. Get your API key from the user settings page or from your welcome email

Optional Configuration:

• Pro Mode: Set PRO_MODE=true to access all tools including browser automation
• Rate Limiting: Configure with RATE_LIMIT environment variable (format: limit/time+unit, e.g., 100/1h)
• Custom Zones: Create custom Web Unlocker or Browser API zones through your control panel

Available Tools

By default, only basic tools (search_engine and scrape_as_markdown) are available. Enabling Pro Mode (not included in the free tier) provides access to all 60 tools including browser automation and web data extraction tools.

Usage Examples

The Web MCP server can help with queries like:

• "Google some movies that are releasing soon in [your area]"
• "What's Tesla's current market cap?"
• "What's the Wikipedia article of the day?"
• "What's the 7-day weather forecast in [your location]?"
• "Of the 3 highest paid tech CEOs, how long have their careers been?"

Security Best Practices

Always treat scraped web content as untrusted data. Never use raw scraped content directly in LLM prompts to avoid potential prompt injection risks. Instead:

• Filter and validate all web data before processing
• Use structured data extraction rather than raw text

Troubleshooting

Timeouts when using certain tools

Set a high enough timeout in your agent settings. A value of 180s should be sufficient for most requests.

"spawn npx ENOENT" error

This occurs when your system cannot find the npx command. Find your Node.js path:

• macOS: Use which node
• Windows: Use where node

Then update your MCP configuration, replacing the npx command with the full path to Node.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "Bright-Data" '{"command":"npx","args":["@brightdata/mcp"],"env":{"API_TOKEN":"<insert-your-api-token-here>","WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE":"<optional if you want to override the default mcp_unlocker zone name>","BROWSER_ZONE":"<optional browser zone name, defaults to mcp_browser>","RATE_LIMIT":"<optional rate limit format: limit/time+unit, e.g., 100/1h, 50/30m, 10/5s>"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "Bright Data": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "@brightdata/mcp"
            ],
            "env": {
                "API_TOKEN": "<insert-your-api-token-here>",
                "WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE": "<optional if you want to override the default mcp_unlocker zone name>",
                "BROWSER_ZONE": "<optional browser zone name, defaults to mcp_browser>",
                "RATE_LIMIT": "<optional rate limit format: limit/time+unit, e.g., 100/1h, 50/30m, 10/5s>"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "Bright Data": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "@brightdata/mcp"
            ],
            "env": {
                "API_TOKEN": "<insert-your-api-token-here>",
                "WEB_UNLOCKER_ZONE": "<optional if you want to override the default mcp_unlocker zone name>",
                "BROWSER_ZONE": "<optional browser zone name, defaults to mcp_browser>",
                "RATE_LIMIT": "<optional rate limit format: limit/time+unit, e.g., 100/1h, 50/30m, 10/5s>"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect