Brave on Your Pi: A Quick Guide to Install the Brave Browser

I’ve been using Brave on my desktop for a while now, and honestly, the privacy features are hard to beat. For a long time, you couldn’t run it on a Raspberry Pi, but that’s changed. If you’re already a fan on your PC, you might want to give it a shot on your Pi too. I’ll show you exactly how to get it installed.

A custom repository can be added to the APT package manager to install the Brave browser on any 64-bit Raspberry Pi distribution. Once the repository is added, Brave can be installed and updated like any other application on the system.

You’ll need a few commands to do this, but don’t worry, I’ll give you everything in this tutorial. Stay with me, and you’ll have Brave running on your Pi in less than 5 minutes.

If you’re new to Raspberry Pi or Linux, I’ve got something that can help you right away!
Download my free Linux commands cheat sheet – it’s a quick reference guide with all the essential commands you’ll need to get things done on your Raspberry Pi. Click here to get it for free!

Requirements for Brave Browser on Raspberry Pi

The Brave Browser requires a 64-bit environment to run on Raspberry Pi, so it won’t work on all Raspberry Pi models or operating systems.

Here are the requirements to follow this tutorial:

• Raspberry Pi model – A Raspberry Pi that can handle 64-bit operating system, so the more recent ones like Raspberry Pi 3, 4/400, 5/500/500+ or Zero 2 is required.
  
• Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit – The only version of Brave available currently is for ARM64, so using the 64-bit edition of Raspberry Pi OS is required. It should also work with other 64-bit distributions.
  
  (Lost about this? Read this article: What CPU Does the Raspberry Pi Use?)
  
• Curl – It’s a command line allowing you to access a URL. We’ll use it to install the Brave Browser on your Pi. In theory, it’s preinstalled on Raspberry Pi OS so it shouldn’t be an issue. However, you can check if you have it (and install it if needed), with:
  sudo apt install curl

For your information, I did the tests for this article with this configuration:

• Raspberry Pi 4 (4 GB).
• Raspberry Pi OS with Desktop (Trixie, 64-bit) installed on this USB drive.
• My usual monitor and my favorite Raspberry Pi keyboard (links to my reviews if you need one).

Aside from that, nothing more is needed. Once you have these requirements, you can follow the next section to install it on your Raspberry Pi with a few commands.

Install & Use Brave Browser on Raspberry Pi

Brave browser is not available in the default Raspberry Pi OS repository. Luckily for us, there’s now an official script to handle installation for you.

This official script made by the developers will:

• Download the GPG key for the Brave repository.
• Add the Brave repository to your package sources.
• Refresh your packages.
• Use APT to install the Brave package.

All you need to do is open a terminal and install Brave with this single command:
curl -fsS https://dl.brave.com/install.sh | sudo sh

Tip: Command lines can be a pain to memorize. I put the essential Linux commands on a printable cheat sheet so you don't have to keep googling them. You can grab the PDF here if you want to save some time.

Use Brave Browser

After installation, Brave shows up automatically in Raspberry Pi OS main menu under the “Internet” category (it might take a few minutes for the menu to refresh).

Brave is not set as the system’s default browser automatically (it will ask you if you want to do it); however, the Internet shortcut in your top bar will now open Brave instead of Chromium.

You can now enjoy reading your favorite Raspberry Pi website with this powerful browser :-).

Please let me know how it works for you, I may need to update my top web browsers list for the Raspberry Pi to add it after doing a bit more testing.

In terms of features, you should have access to the same ones you are used to on your PC (sync is available, ad-blocker works, etc.).

Related Questions

Is Brave faster than Chromium on Raspberry Pi?

According to the Speedometer browser test, Brave is slightly faster than Chromium on Raspberry Pi OS (around 20% faster).

I got around 22 with Brave and 18 with Chromium, keeping the default settings. So, the benchmark is clear, but a bit more time with both of them is required to know if you’ll really see the difference in daily use.

Can I install Brave Browser on Raspberry Pi via the GUI?

The Brave browser is available via Pi-Apps, a useful tool you can install on Raspberry Pi OS to download and install the most popular applications in one click.

That would be the easiest way if you already have it on your Raspberry Pi. But installing Pi-Apps also requires the command line, so I wouldn’t bother if it’s only for Brave.

How do I change the Internet icon application shortcut on Raspberry Pi OS?

After installing the Brave Browser, it now starts Brave instead of Chromium.
Here’s how to change this behavior:

• Open the main menu > Preferences > Control Centre.
• Navigate to the System tab.
• Select the browser you want to set for the shortcut.
  

Another way to do it is to just manually add it to the launcher, by right-clicking on the shortcut and choosing the “Add to Launcher” option.

If you want even more privacy online, you can also try Tor Browser, that fits in the same category, but uses the Tor network by default, to hide your data.

Not getting the same result?

Even when you follow every step, small differences in OS version, hardware or config can change the outcome. Instead of wasting time guessing, get help from people who have already fixed the same kind of issue.

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