documentation/content/en/methods/search.md

title	description	menu	aliases
search API methods	Search for content in accounts, statuses and hashtags.	docs weight name parent identifier 60 search methods methods-search	/methods/search /api/methods/search

Perform a search

GET /api/v2/search HTTP/1.1

Returns: [Search]({{< relref "entities/Search" >}})
OAuth: Public (without resolve or offset), or User token + read:search
Version history:
2.4.1 - added, limit hardcoded to 5
2.8.0 - add type, limit, offset, min_id, max_id, account_id
3.0.0 - add exclude_unreviewed param
3.3.0 - min_id and max_id can be used together
4.0.0 - no longer requires a user token. Without a valid user token, you cannot use the resolve or offset parameters.

Request

Headers

Authorization

{{}} Provide this header with Bearer <user_token> to gain authorized access to this API method.

Query parameters

q

{{}} String. The search query.

type

String. Specify whether to search for only accounts, hashtags, statuses

resolve

Boolean. Only relevant if type includes accounts. If true and (a) the search query is for a remote account (e.g., someaccount@someother.server) and (b) the local server does not know about the account, WebFinger is used to try and resolve the account at someother.server. This provides the best recall at higher latency. If false only accounts the server knows about are returned.

following

Boolean. Only include accounts that the user is following? Defaults to false.

account_id

String. If provided, will only return statuses authored by this account.

exclude_unreviewed

Boolean. Filter out unreviewed tags? Defaults to false. Use true when trying to find trending tags.

max_id

String. All results returned will be lesser than this ID. In effect, sets an upper bound on results.

min_id

String. Returns results immediately newer than this ID. In effect, sets a cursor at this ID and paginates forward.

limit

Integer. Maximum number of results to return, per type. Defaults to 20 results per category. Max 40 results per category.

offset

Integer. Skip the first n results.

Response

200: OK

Truncated results of a sample search for "cats" with limit=2.

{
  "accounts": [
    {
      "id": "180744",
      "username": "catstar",
      "acct": "catstar@catgram.jp",
      "display_name": "catstar",
      // ...
    },
    {
      "id": "214293",
      "username": "catsareweird",
      "acct": "catsareweird",
      "display_name": "Cats Are Weird",
      // ...
    }
  ],
  "statuses": [
    {
      "id": "103085519055545958",
      "created_at": "2019-11-05T13:23:09.000Z",
      // ...
      "content": "<p>cats<br>cats never change</p>",
      // ...
    },
    {
      "id": "101068121469614510",
      "created_at": "2018-11-14T06:31:48.000Z",
      // ...
      "spoiler_text": "Cats",
      // ...
      "content": "<p>Cats are inherently good at self-care. </p><p><a href=\"https://mspsocial.net/tags/cats\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">#<span>cats</span></a></p>",
      // ...
  ],
  "hashtags": [
    {
      "name": "cats",
      "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/cats",
      "history": [
        {
          "day": "1574553600",
          "uses": "10",
          "accounts": "9"
        },
        // ...
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "catsofmastodon",
      "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/catsofmastodon",
      "history": [
        {
          "day": "1574553600",
          "uses": "6",
          "accounts": "5"
        },
        // ...
      ]
    }
  ]
}

401: Unauthorized

Invalid or missing Authorization header.

{
  "error": "The access token is invalid"
}

---

Perform a search (v1) {{%removed%}}

GET /api/v1/search HTTP/1.1

Returns: [Search]({{< relref "entities/Search" >}}), but hashtags is an array of strings instead of an array of Tag.
OAuth: User token + read:search
Version history:
1.1 - added, limit hardcoded to 5
1.5.0 - now requires authentication
2.4.1 - deprecated in favor of v2 search
2.8.0 - added limit, pagination, and account options
3.0.0 - removed; use v2 search instead

Request

Headers

Authorization

{{}} Provide this header with Bearer <user_token> to gain authorized access to this API method.

Query parameters

q

{{}} String. The search query.

type

String. Specify whether to search for only accounts, hashtags, statuses

resolve

Boolean. Attempt WebFinger lookup? Defaults to false.

account_id

String. If provided, will only return statuses authored by this account.

max_id

String. All results returned will be lesser than this ID. In effect, sets an upper bound on results.

min_id

String. Returns results immediately newer than this ID. In effect, sets a cursor at this ID and paginates forward.

limit

Integer. Maximum number of results to return, per type. Defaults to 20 results per category. Max 40 results per category.

offset

Integer. Offset in search results, used for pagination. Defaults to 0.

Response

200: OK

v1 search was deprecated because hashtags were returned as strings instead of as Tag entities.

{
  "accounts": [...],
  "statuses": [...],
  "hashtags": ["cats","catsofmastodon"]
}

401: Unauthorized

Invalid or missing Authorization header.

{
  "error": "The access token is invalid"
}

---

See also

{{< page-relref ref="methods/accounts#search" caption="GET /api/v1/accounts/search" >}}

{{< page-relref ref="methods/accounts#lookup" caption="GET /api/v1/accounts/lookup" >}}

{{< caption-link url="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/main/app/controllers/api/v2/search_controller.rb" caption="app/controllers/api/v2/search_controller.rb" >}}