The X Search Operator Cheatsheet

Every column on a Power Search board is an X search, and operators are what make one column different from the next. This page lists the ones we use, grouped by what they do.

A caution first. X doesn't publish a complete list of operators, and their behavior changes from time to time without an announcement. Some below come straight from X's Advanced Search form; others are widely used and work as we write this, but X has never documented them. We've marked the ones we see behaving inconsistently. Test a column before you rely on it, and if something here stops working, tell us.

Words and phrases

Brackets are where most broken columns come from. acme OR acmeapp -from:acme doesn't mean what it looks like; the exclusion attaches to the second term only. Write (acme OR acmeapp) -from:acme and keep every OR group in brackets. The planner warns about a lowercase or and unbalanced brackets or quotes, because both fail quietly.

Matching isn't case-sensitive, and X tends to match some plural and stemmed forms on its own, though not consistently. If a variant matters, add it with OR.

Accounts

Type handles without the @ inside from: and to:. For list:, use the number at the end of the list's URL. A list column is one of the most useful things you can put on a board: build a list of the local reporters or official agencies on your beat and every column can be limited to them.

filter:verified still exists, but a checkmark on X now mostly reflects a paid subscription. Don't use it as a stand-in for trustworthy sources.

Engagement

The names are older than X's current labels; likes used to be favorites and reposts used to be retweets, and the operators kept the old names. Counts in the thousands are rounded, so treat high thresholds as approximate. Negated forms such as -min_faves:10 are widely reported to find low-engagement posts, but we've seen them behave unevenly. Test before you depend on one.

Pick thresholds for your topic, not a global brand. min_faves:500 is a sensible bar for the iPhone and an empty column for a local bakery.

Dates

until: excludes the date you give, so a week of November 1 to 7 is since:2026-11-01 until:2026-11-08. Dates need another term next to them. For a standing board, use since: sparingly: a fixed date makes a column slowly drift into history. It's most useful for event boards, where it keeps last year's edition out. Older date ranges also come back with gaps, since X's search is most complete for recent posts.

Content

-filter:replies is the single most useful cleanup on a Latest column. -filter:links is good for questions and complaints, which almost never carry a link, and it removes a lot of promotion.

url: matches text in a linked address, which makes it handy for catching posts that link to your site. Domains with hyphens are a known quirk; if a hyphenated domain returns nothing, try the domain's main word on its own.

Reposts are generally left out of search results. include:nativeretweets is reported to bring them back, but it's inconsistent and of little use on a monitoring board.

Language and location

lang: uses two-letter ISO 639-1 codes: en, es, pt, ja, fr and so on. X detects language from the text, so short posts and mixed-language posts are sometimes misfiled.

Location operators only match posts with location data, and very few people attach it. We consider near: unreliable and don't use it on any keyword board. To follow a place, put its name in the query and use the local language instead.

Operators we don't rely on

The question mark operator (?, meant to find questions) and attitude operators such as :) and :( appeared in old Twitter documentation. They're no longer offered in Advanced Search and don't behave predictably. For questions, search for the phrases people actually use, as our boards do with "how do", "anyone know" and "does anyone".

Time operators such as within_time: and since_time: circulate in operator lists. Some users report them working, others don't, and X has never documented them. We leave them out.

Search URL tabs

Each column in the planner opens as an address like this:

https://x.com/search?q=acme%20-filter%3Areplies&src=typed_query&f=live

The q= part is the query, URL-encoded. f=live opens the Latest tab, f=media opens Media, and leaving f out opens Top. The planner builds these links for you, and they make good browser bookmarks too.

When a column breaks

Remove operators one at a time until results come back; the last one you removed is the problem. The usual suspects are a lowercase or, an unclosed bracket or quote, a handle with an @ inside from:, a threshold that's too high, or two filters that cancel out, like filter:links -filter:links. You also need to be signed in to X to see any search results, and posts from protected accounts never appear.

Power Search is independent and not affiliated with X Corp.

Questions

Does X publish an official list of search operators?

X's help center documents the Advanced Search form and some operators, but there is no complete, versioned list. Most of the operators people use come from what the Advanced Search form writes into the search box, plus ones users have tested. Behavior can change without notice.

Why does my search return nothing?

The usual causes are a lowercase or, an unclosed bracket or quote, a since date later than the until date, a handle typed with the @ inside from:, or an engagement threshold that is too high. Remove operators one at a time until results come back.

Can I use these operators in the X mobile app?

Yes. Type them into the search field the same way. The tab choice (Latest, Top, Media) is made by tapping the tab after the search runs.