Brainy Prices — UAE Cost of Living

Source-backed UAE costs: groceries, schools, housing, transport, utilities, telecom and relocation. Read-only; every answer carries its source and date.

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npx add-mcp 'https://prices.brainy.ae/mcp/v2'

S’installe dans Claude Code, Codex, Cursor et plus

Documentation

REST API v2

Base URL: https://prices.brainy.ae/api/v2. Start with service metadata and the OpenAPI 3.1 description. The JSON schema documents each route, input, response and source condition. CORS is enabled.

Routes below /api/v2	Scope
GET /grocery/products?q=… GET /grocery/products/{product_id} GET /grocery/products/{product_id}/offers GET /grocery/stores GET /grocery/stores/{store_id} POST /grocery/comparisons	Admitted grocery catalogue, pack and unit prices, exact/equivalent offers, store delivery rules and a supplied list of up to 40 items (120 characters each). Delivery, availability and final checkout totals may be unknown; a partial basket is explicit.
GET /grocery/official-prices GET /grocery/shopper-reports	Separate Ministry of Economy and Tourism (MOET) reference prices and moderated public buyer observations. Neither is a current checkout offer. Select a product, category, chain or documented query for reference prices; a product or store for reports.
GET /schools GET /schools/{school_id} GET /schools/{school_id}/uniform-items	Historical KHDA tuition with original Year/Grade labels, approximate straight-line distances and separately sourced bus information. Search with `q`, `area`, `curriculum`, `grade`, `max_annual_fee_aed`, `rating` or `near`; `radius_km` requires `near`. Uniform items are paused.
GET /housing/zones?q=… GET /housing/zones/{zone_id} GET /housing/rents GET /housing/sales	DLD zone discovery and registered contractual rent/sale medians, quartiles, sample counts and reference periods. Select a `zone_id`, or both `property_type` and `bedrooms`. Rents and sales are separate resources; these are historical registered figures, not asking prices or listings.
GET /costs/areas GET /costs/households GET /costs/emirates GET /costs/emirates/{emirate_id} GET /indices/family	Partial household cost components, area comparisons, emirate coverage and dated tax-savings scenarios. Unknown rent outside Dubai stays `null`. Preserve assumptions, currencies, tax years and exclusions; totals are not full budgets or guaranteed savings.
GET /transport/fuel-prices GET /transport/fuel-prices/history GET /transport/taxi-fares GET /transport/public-transport GET /transport/parking GET /transport/tolls GET /transport/commute-estimate GET /transport/commutes	Monthly fuel in AED/litre; taxi, fare, parking and toll rules with per-component pauses; car estimates and selected published commute routes. Supply all required car-estimate inputs, or filter routes by `emirate_id`, `from_area` or `to_hub_id`.
GET /utilities/dewa/tariff POST /utilities/dewa/bill-estimates GET /telecom/plans GET /telecom/plans/{plan_id}	DEWA slabs and dated fuel surcharges, bill estimates and VAT-inclusive mobile/home internet plans. Bill inputs are JSON body fields: `kwh`, either `water_m3` or imperial `water_gallons`, and optional `annual_rent_aed`. Keep excluded bill components explicit.
GET /health-insurance/rules GET /residence/routes GET /residence/routes/{route_id} GET /residence/common-fees GET /companies/free-zones	Health insurance payer/coverage rules, residence requirements and fees, and separately scoped company packages. Not insurer quotes; a licence price is not an all-in relocation cost. Source conditions and paused steps remain explicit.
GET /tax/country-models GET /references/fx-rates POST /relocation/estimates	Supported country tax models, dated CBUAE exchange rates and a supplied salary/household scenario. Estimate, not tax advice. Personal inputs belong in the POST body; they are not stored.
GET /today GET /sources GET /sources/{source_id}	Dated highlights and source metadata, licences, conditions and pause reasons. No dataset download.
GET /grocery/online-references?q=… GET /electronics/models?q=…	Paused resources with empty data and a notice. They have no v2 tools. Check source metadata; do not retry paused sources.

Read the envelope before using a figure

Successful data responses contain meta, data and links. meta.dataset identifies the dataset and its dates, reference period, sources[] and availability:

ok: the requested dataset is available.
partial: some components or sources are paused or unavailable; inspect row-level status and preserve the notice.
paused: deliberately withheld; HTTP 200, empty data, no retry instruction. Never use a previous copy of excluded prices.
not_published: not published yet; HTTP 200 with empty data. A temporary fetch/service failure is instead an HTTP 503 problem.

historical describes the source's reference period, such as KHDA tuition for 2024–2025. stale describes our cache: a previous admitted copy served after a failed refresh. They are independent. Observation, publication and compilation dates have their stated precision; an unknown date or amount is null, never invented.

Rows carry provenance. Resolve each source_id and license_id in meta.dataset.sources to retain the publisher, URL, dates, licence, conditions and required attribution. Preserve links.open_in_browser and row links where present.

Pagination and selective queries

For paginated lists, page_size defaults to 20 and must be 1–50. meta.page contains returned, total (matches for this query), result_window (200), has_more, next_cursor, snapshot_id and cursor_ttl_s. Pass the opaque cursor unchanged as cursor, with the same filters, sorting, language and page size. Stop when next_cursor is null.

The window is at most 200 rows across all pages, even when total is higher. At the window boundary has_more is false; refine the question instead of splitting queries to enumerate a dataset. HTTP 400 filter_required means a substantive documented filter is missing: this applies to product and zone searches, schools, housing rents/sales, reference prices, buyer reports and commute routes. These routes cannot be used to list the entire inventory.

Errors, validators and privacy

Errors use application/problem+json (RFC 9457), with type, title, HTTP status, stable code, detail, request_id, invalid_params and retry information. Check the code, not message text. Invalid filters return 400; unavailable resources return 404; unsupported methods return 405; oversized bodies return 413; quota limits return 429 and transient failures 503. Respect Retry-After.

An invalid/mismatched cursor returns 400 cursor_invalid. An expired cursor or changed snapshot returns 409 cursor_expired or snapshot_changed: start again without a cursor. GET data responses include an ETag; send If-None-Match to receive HTTP 304 when the representation is unchanged. Conditional requests still count toward quota. GET data uses private caching; POST calculations and MCP responses use Cache-Control: no-store.

Relocation and DEWA calculations require POST JSON. Salary, household and consumption inputs are not persisted by the service. Never put them in URL parameters.

curl examples

# Current monthly fuel
curl -s 'https://prices.brainy.ae/api/v2/transport/fuel-prices'

# Select products and a school shortlist
curl -s 'https://prices.brainy.ae/api/v2/grocery/products?q=milk&page_size=20'
curl -s 'https://prices.brainy.ae/api/v2/schools?near=Jumeirah%20Park&grade=YEAR%207&radius_km=10&page_size=50'

# Registered 1-bedroom apartment rents in Dubai Marina; discover zone ids separately
curl -s 'https://prices.brainy.ae/api/v2/housing/rents?zone_id=dubai-marina&property_type=apartment&bedrooms=1&page_size=20'
curl -s 'https://prices.brainy.ae/api/v2/housing/zones?q=Dubai%20Marina'

# Supplied grocery list (POST only)
curl -s 'https://prices.brainy.ae/api/v2/grocery/comparisons' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"items":["milk","eggs"],"area":"JLT"}'

# Monthly DEWA estimate; water_m3 and water_gallons are alternatives
curl -s 'https://prices.brainy.ae/api/v2/utilities/dewa/bill-estimates' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"kwh":1000,"water_m3":15}'

# Supplied example, not personal data: estimate, not tax advice
curl -s 'https://prices.brainy.ae/api/v2/relocation/estimates' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"country":"GB","gross_annual":80000,"currency":"GBP","household":{"status":"single","children":0},"area":"Dubai Marina","bedrooms":1}'

To paginate, reuse a response's actual meta.page.next_cursor, retaining the original query. To validate a cached result, use that response's actual ETag in If-None-Match. Do not fabricate cursors or validators.

MCP v2

Remote endpoint: https://prices.brainy.ae/mcp/v2, Streamable HTTP, stateless JSON responses, no authentication. Supported protocol versions: 2025-11-25, 2025-06-18 and 2025-03-26. Application version 2.0.0 is separate from the MCP protocol version.

24 read-only tools, grouped below from the service catalogue. Input and output schemas are returned by tools/list. List tools support page_size up to 50 where their selected operation is paginated; the REST window and shared quota apply.

Groceries

grocery_products — products, pack/unit offers/dates; product_id: history. Not MOET/reports.
grocery_compare_list — proposed items, subtotals, delivery/minimums. Not MOET/reports.
grocery_stores — stores, delivery fees/free thresholds/minimums. Not prices.
official_shop_prices — unaltered MOET Dubai pack prices/branch counts. Not live offers.
shopper_price_reports — moderated prices/store/date/promos. Not MOET/live offers.

Schools

schools — historical KHDA grade tuition, bus fees/year, distances. q: school name/part; near: zone; school_id: detail. Year ≠ Grade; uniforms paused.

Housing and household costs

housing_rents — registered annual/monthly rent medians, contracts and zone sales. Not listings.
housing_sales — ready/off-plan registered medians/counts and rent context. Not listings.
costs_by_area — area ranks, rent/shared costs and tuition. Not full budgets.
fixed_monthly_costs — profile monthly costs/assumptions; separate basket. Not full budgets.
costs_by_emirate — emirate rent/utilities/school costs. Non-Dubai rent unknown.
tax_savings_by_country — country household income/tax savings/years. Not tax advice.

Transport and utilities

fuel_prices — current/previous grades, changes, 50/70 L tank costs, transport context/history.
transport_fares — taxi tariffs/trip estimate or public/parking/tolls plus fuel. Not app quotes.
commute_cost — monthly/annual fuel+Salik inputs/rates or routes. Excludes parking/ownership.
dewa — slabs/surcharges/examples; kwh: water/VAT/housing-fee estimate. Not full bill.
mobile_internet_plans — VAT-inclusive mobile/home prices, promo then regular, data and contracts.

Health and relocation

health_insurance — payer rules, EBP band/benefits, fines/legal citations. Not insurer quotes.
residence_visas — route payer/requirements, fees, common medical/insurance bands and paused steps.
free_zone_companies — setup packages, annual/monthly prices/visas and paused zones. Not visa routes.
move_to_dubai — home/Dubai net, taxes, FX, costs/savings; omit country: models. Not tax advice.
fx_rates — dated CBUAE AED rates. Not bank quotes.

Highlights and sources

today — dated highlights, sources/figures/caveats. Not live.
data_sources — publishers/links, licence conditions/dates and pause reasons. Not dataset rows.

Every successful tool returns the v2 envelope as structuredContent, with a compact content[].text summary that preserves numbers, units, source, date, warnings and a browser link. A text summary can show fewer rows than structured content: use the declared total and continuation instruction. A deliberate pause is a normal result (isError: false), never an instruction to retry; invalid input is isError: true.

Resources and prompts

resources/list advertises nine static metadata/method resources; resources/templates/list advertises brainy-prices://datasets/{dataset_id}/metadata for allowlisted dataset IDs. They explain scope, sources, licences, dates and pauses; they do not expose dataset rows or bulk exports.

brainy-prices://catalog/datasets — Metadata-only catalogue of dataset cards and tools, no rows.
brainy-prices://methodology/groceries — Observed offers, units, exact/equivalent, cohort, delivery and single-store methodology.
brainy-prices://methodology/schools — Historical KHDA Year/Grade tuition, OSM straight-line distance, bus/uniform scope and rights.
brainy-prices://methodology/housing — Registered DLD rents/sales, samples, quartiles, period and license.
brainy-prices://methodology/costs — Fixed partial costs, component assumptions and missing emirate coverage.
brainy-prices://methodology/relocation — Dated tax/FX calculations, residency assumptions, exclusions, no personal input storage.
brainy-prices://policies/sources — Rights metadata and deliberate pauses by source, not the underlying datasets.
brainy-prices://policies/access — Anonymous/free-key quotas, double opt-in and no bulk access policy.
brainy-prices://changes/current — Latest20 metadata-only changes, no row diffs.

The current changes resource states when no dated change ledger is available; do not infer a publication history from its name. prompts/list advertises five optional templates. prompts/get prepares messages from supplied arguments; it does not execute tools:

compare_moving_from — Compare a supplied home-country salary scenario with Dubai, using dated tax, FX and partial costs; ask for missing personal assumptions.
school_shortlist — Shortlist nearby schools by the exact published Year/Grade label, historical tuition and approximate straight-line distance.
compare_grocery_list — Compare only the grocery items a user actually supplied; distinguish observed offers, official reference prices and buyer reports.
compare_areas — Compare fixed cost components for a supplied housing scenario without inventing rental coverage outside Dubai.
check_sources — Inspect metadata, methods and source permissions for a topic without downloading its dataset.

Connect a client

Claude Code: add a remote HTTP server in the terminal (connection guide).

claude mcp add --transport http brainy-prices-v2 https://prices.brainy.ae/mcp/v2

Claude Desktop: add a custom remote connector in Connectors with https://prices.brainy.ae/mcp/v2. Availability depends on your plan and administrator settings (connection guide).

Cursor: add this to your project's .cursor/mcp.json (connection guide):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brainy-prices-v2": { "url": "https://prices.brainy.ae/mcp/v2" }
  }
}

VS Code: add this to .vscode/mcp.json and start the server from the editor's MCP controls (connection guide):

{
  "servers": {
    "brainy-prices-v2": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://prices.brainy.ae/mcp/v2"
    }
  }
}

Other clients: choose a remote Streamable HTTP server, paste the endpoint and select no authentication. The client must support one of the protocol versions above; MCP discovery supplies the schemas, resources and prompts.

Raw JSON-RPC session with curl

# 1. initialize
curl -s 'https://prices.brainy.ae/mcp/v2' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-11-25","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"curl","version":"1.0"}}}'

# 2. acknowledge initialization (HTTP 202, no body)
curl -s 'https://prices.brainy.ae/mcp/v2' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -H 'MCP-Protocol-Version: 2025-11-25' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"notifications/initialized"}'

# 3. discover tools
curl -s 'https://prices.brainy.ae/mcp/v2' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -H 'MCP-Protocol-Version: 2025-11-25' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/list"}'

# 4. call a tool
curl -s 'https://prices.brainy.ae/mcp/v2' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -H 'MCP-Protocol-Version: 2025-11-25' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"grocery_compare_list","arguments":{"items":["milk","eggs"],"area":"JLT"}}}'

No Mcp-Session-Id is issued. POST only: GET and DELETE return 405. JSON-RPC batches are rejected. Discovery and initialization have a separate request-rate control; each tool call consumes the shared data quota.

Limits and fair use

Anonymous v2 access: 30 requests per minute and 500 per UTC day per verified network identity (IPv6 /64). REST v2 requests and MCP v2 tool calls share the same quota across service instances.
HTTP 304, validation errors and paused data results still consume data quota. HTTP 429 includes Retry-After; inspect RateLimit and RateLimit-Policy headers.
Cache responses privately, retain their source/date/status and revalidate using ETag when supported. Different datasets refresh on different schedules; consult their metadata.
No mass downloads, systematic enumeration or open dataset is offered. Free access and metadata resources do not expand a source licence.

Attribution and source licences

When displaying a result, cite the original source and its date or reference period, plus “Source: Brainy Prices, prices.brainy.ae, <date>” and the browser link. Retain source-specific attribution, notices, exclusions and licence conditions. There is no blanket licence over all responses.

KHDA: unaltered, not for profit. Tuition data is for non-commercial use and must not be altered. Keep the original published Year/Grade labels and academic year; do not sell, monetise or modify the data.
Dubai Land Department: Dubai Open Data Licence. Retain the DLD attribution and the reference period; contractual medians are not listings.
OpenStreetMap: ODbL. Credit © OpenStreetMap contributors; locations are approximate and school distances are straight-line distances.
Store, operator and other sources have their own permissions and conditions, supplied in meta.dataset.sources. Public accessibility is not permission to collect or redistribute them.
No bulk downloads or open dataset. The API serves selective queries. Source metadata and free anonymous access are not an export or redistribution licence.
Excluded sources: never. Their prices must not appear in responses, nested content or cached fallback. Paused sources remain empty until their permission/source review permits publication.

Store offers can change during the day and at checkout. Unknown delivery stays unknown, never free; missing items and assumptions remain explicit. A comparison ranks only the common comparable subset, and a single-store result is not a store ranking.

See methodology, source conditions and privacy. Do not strip their warnings when reusing a figure.

Deprecated: API v1 and the legacy MCP endpoint (/mcp)

API v1 and https://prices.brainy.ae/mcp remain available. No removal date has been set; removal will be announced with notice. Existing v1 integrations continue to work. New integrations should use v2. The table maps the legacy tool names and routes to the v2 design; use v2 input schemas rather than copying old parameter names.

Legacy tool / route	v2 tool / route
`search_products · GET /products?q=`	`grocery_products · GET /grocery/products?q=`
`get_product · GET /products/{id}`	`grocery_products · GET /grocery/products/{product_id}, /grocery/products/{product_id}/offers`
`compare_grocery_list · GET/POST /compare`	`grocery_compare_list · POST /grocery/comparisons`
`list_stores · GET /stores`	`grocery_stores · GET /grocery/stores, /grocery/stores/{store_id}`
`get_school_fees · GET /schools`	`schools · GET /schools, /schools/{school_id}`
`get_school_uniforms · GET /school-uniforms`	`schools (uniform status) · GET /schools/{school_id}/uniform-items (paused)`
`get_rent_prices · GET /rent (rents)`	`housing_rents · GET /housing/rents, /housing/zones?q=…, /housing/zones/{zone_id}`
`get_rent_prices · GET /rent (sales)`	`housing_sales · GET /housing/sales`
`compare_areas_cost_of_living · GET /areas`	`costs_by_area · GET /costs/areas`
`get_cost_of_living · GET /cost-of-living`	`fixed_monthly_costs · GET /costs/households`
`get_fuel_prices · GET /fuel (fuel)`	`fuel_prices · GET /transport/fuel-prices, /transport/fuel-prices/history`
`get_fuel_prices · GET /fuel (tolls, parking, public fares)`	`transport_fares · GET /transport/tolls, /transport/parking, /transport/public-transport`
`get_taxi_fares · GET /taxi-fares`	`transport_fares (mode=taxi) · GET /transport/taxi-fares`
`estimate_commute_cost · GET /commute`	`commute_cost · GET /transport/commute-estimate, /transport/commutes`
`get_dewa_tariff · GET /dewa`	`dewa · GET /utilities/dewa/tariff; POST /utilities/dewa/bill-estimates`
`get_mobile_internet_plans · GET /mobile-internet-plans`	`mobile_internet_plans · GET /telecom/plans, /telecom/plans/{plan_id}`
`get_health_insurance · GET /health-insurance`	`health_insurance · GET /health-insurance/rules`
`get_visa_and_company_costs · GET /visas (residence)`	`residence_visas · GET /residence/routes, /residence/routes/{route_id}, /residence/common-fees`
`get_visa_and_company_costs · GET /visas (companies)`	`free_zone_companies · GET /companies/free-zones`
`estimate_move_to_dubai · POST /move`	`move_to_dubai · POST /relocation/estimates; GET /tax/country-models`
`get_today · GET /today`	`today · GET /today`
`find_price_online · GET /search (paused)`	`No v2 tool · GET /grocery/online-references?q=… (paused); data_sources for status`
`get_electronics_prices · GET /electronics (paused)`	`No v2 tool · GET /electronics/models?q=… (paused); data_sources for status`

official_shop_prices, shopper_price_reports, costs_by_emirate, tax_savings_by_country, fx_rates and data_sources are new tools without a direct legacy equivalent. Online references and electronics have no v2 tool; their paused REST resources and metadata remain available. School uniform status is included in schools.

Parameter changes include q for REST product searches, max_annual_fee_aed for REST tuition filtering, zone_id for REST housing (resolve names with /housing/zones?q=…), profile_id for household costs, and category / max_aed_per_month for telecom. MCP tools retain their own documented inputs, including housing zone names/aliases. Grocery comparisons, DEWA estimates and relocation estimates use POST JSON.