x.com search operators: a practical cheat sheet
The search box on x.com understands far more than plain words. A handful of operators let you narrow millions of posts down to the one you want: by account, by date, by how many likes it got, or whether it had a photo. Here is each one, with an example you can paste.
How operators work
An operator is a short instruction typed into the normal search box, such as from:nasa. You can mix operators with ordinary words and with each other; x.com returns only posts that match all of them. There is no special page to open. If you prefer forms, the advanced search page on x.com covers some of these, but typing them is faster once you know them.
After searching, switch to the Latest tab. The default Top tab shows a selection the site thinks you will like and can hide exactly the post you are looking for.
Words and phrases
| Type | Finds |
|---|---|
coffee cake | Posts with both words, anywhere, in any order. |
"coffee cake" | The exact phrase. |
coffee OR tea | Either word. OR must be in capitals. |
coffee -decaf | Posts with "coffee" but without "decaf". |
#worldcup | Posts with that hashtag. |
(cake OR pie) recipe | Brackets group alternatives. |
Accounts
| Type | Finds |
|---|---|
from:nasa | Posts written by @nasa. |
to:nasa | Replies sent to @nasa. |
@nasa | Posts that mention @nasa, including replies to it. |
from:nasa -filter:replies | Only @nasa's own posts, not its replies to others. |
Use the handle without the @ after from: and to:. If someone has changed their handle, search with the new one; old posts move with the account.
Dates
| Type | Finds |
|---|---|
since:2024-06-01 | Posts from 1 June 2024 onwards. |
until:2024-07-01 | Posts before 1 July 2024. The end date itself is not included. |
since:2024-06-01 until:2024-07-01 | Everything in June 2024. |
Dates are always written year-month-day. Because until: excludes its own day, to search a single day write that day after since: and the next day after until:.
Engagement
| Type | Finds |
|---|---|
min_faves:500 | Posts with at least 500 likes. |
min_retweets:100 | Posts reposted at least 100 times. |
min_replies:50 | Posts with at least 50 replies. |
These are the quickest way to find the post "everyone was talking about". Add min_faves:1000 to a topic and a date range and the noise disappears.
Media, links and replies
| Type | Finds |
|---|---|
filter:media | Posts with a photo or video. |
filter:images | Posts with a photo. |
filter:videos | Posts with a video. |
filter:links | Posts with a link. |
url:youtube.com | Posts linking to that site. |
filter:replies | Only replies. |
-filter:replies | No replies, only original posts. |
-filter:retweets | Leave out reposts. |
filter:blue_verified | Posts from accounts with a paid verification badge. |
Any filter can be reversed with a minus sign in front of it.
Language
lang:tr limits results to posts written in Turkish; use the two-letter language code (en, es, de, ja and so on). The language is detected by x.com from the text, so very short posts and posts mixing languages are sometimes labelled wrongly.
Putting it together
Operators are most useful combined. A few real-world patterns:
- A famous post from one account:
from:nasa min_faves:50000 since:2023-01-01 until:2024-01-01 - Photos of an event, in one language:
eclipse filter:images lang:es since:2024-04-08 until:2024-04-09 - What people replied to a brand:
to:spotify -filter:links - A link you remember someone sharing:
from:username url:github.com - The conversation without the reposts:
"world cup final" -filter:retweets min_replies:20
When a search finds nothing
- Remove one operator at a time. A typo in a date or handle silently empties the results.
- Loosen the words. You may remember the meaning but not the wording. Search one or two distinctive words instead of a whole sentence.
- Check that you are logged in. x.com shows far fewer search results to visitors who are not signed in.
- Protected and deleted posts never appear. If the account is private or the post was removed, search cannot reach it.
Operators can change without notice; x.com does not publish an official, complete list. The ones above are the long-standing ones that work at the time of writing. If you would rather describe the post in a sentence than type operators, PostFinder turns a description like "a photo nasa posted last summer with over 10k likes" into the exact search.