documentation/content/en/methods/search.md

---

title: search API methods description: Search for content in accounts, statuses and hashtags. menu: docs:

weight: 60
name: search
parent: methods
identifier: methods-search

aliases: [ "/methods/search", "/api/methods/search",

]

Perform a search {#v2}

GET /api/v2/search HTTP/1.1

Returns: 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. Attempt WebFinger lookup? Defaults to false.

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"
}

---

(REMOVED) Search results (v1) {#v1}

GET /api/v1/search HTTP/1.1

Returns: 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" >}}