Use the $search query parameter

In addition to other OData query parameters, Microsoft Graph supports the $search query parameter to restrict the results of a request to match a search criterion.

The support for the $search query parameter varies by entity, with some, such as Microsoft Entra resources that derive from directoryObject, supporting $search only in advanced queries. This article outlines the search syntax and behavior in the following three main areas:

Using $search on message collections

You can search messages based on a value in specific message properties. The results of the search are sorted by the date and time that the message was sent. A $search request returns up to 1,000 results.

If you do a search on messages and specify only a value without specific message properties, the search is carried out on the default search properties of from, subject, and body.

The following example returns all messages in the signed-in user's Inbox that contains "pizza" in any of the three default search properties:

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/messages?$search="pizza"

Alternatively, you can search messages by specifying message property names in the following table, that are recognized by the Keyword Query Language (KQL) syntax. These property names correspond to properties defined in the message entity of Microsoft Graph. Outlook and other Microsoft 365 applications such as SharePoint support KQL syntax, providing the convenience of a common discovery domain for their data stores.

Searchable email property Description Example
attachment The names of files attached to an email message. GET ../me/messages?$search="attachment:api-catalog.md"
bcc The bcc field of an email message, specified as an SMTP address, display name, or alias. GET ../me/messages?$search="bcc:samanthab@contoso.com"&$select=subject,bccRecipients
body The body of an email message. GET ../me/messages?$search="body:excitement"
cc The cc field of an email message, specified as an SMTP address, display name, or alias. GET ../me/messages?$search="cc:danas"&$select=subject,ccRecipients
from The sender of an email message, specified as an SMTP address, display name, or alias. GET ../me/messages?$search="from:randiw"&$select=subject,from

GET ../me/messages?$search="from:adelev OR from:alexw OR from: allanD"&$select=subject, from
hasAttachment true if an email message contains an attachment that isn't an inline attachment, false otherwise. GET ../me/messages?$search="hasAttachments:true"
importance The importance of an email message, which a sender can specify when sending a message. The possible values are low, medium, or high. GET ../me/messages?$search="importance:high"&$select=subject,importance
kind The type of message. The possible values are contacts, docs, email, faxes, im, journals, meetings, notes, posts, rssfeeds, tasks, or voicemail. GET ../me/messages?$search="kind:voicemail"
participants The from, to, cc, and bcc fields of an email message, specified as an SMTP address, display name, or alias. GET ../me/messages?$search="participants:danas"
received The date that an email message was received by a recipient. GET ../me/messages?$search="received:07/23/2018"&$select=subject,receivedDateTime
recipients The to, cc, and bcc fields of an email message, specified as an SMTP address, display name, or alias. GET ../me/messages?$search="recipients:randiq"&$select=subject,toRecipients,ccRecipients,bccRecipients
sent The date that an email message was sent by the sender. GET ../me/messages?$search="sent:07/23/2018"&$select=subject,sentDateTime
size The size of an item in bytes. GET ../me/messages?$search="size:1..500000"
subject The text in the subject line of an email message. GET ../me/messages?$search="subject:has"&$select=subject
to The to field of an email message, specified as an SMTP address, display name, or alias. GET.../me/messages?$search="to:randiw"&$select=subject,toRecipients

For more information about searchable email properties, KQL syntax, supported operators, and tips on searching, see the following articles:

Using $search on person collections

You can apply $search to the displayName and emailAddresses properties of the person resource. The request returns up to 250 results by default.

The following request searches for "Irene McGowan" in the collection person objects of the signed-in user. Microsoft Graph scopes the search to the displayName or emailAddresses properties.

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/people/?$search="Irene McGowen"

The following example shows the response.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-type: application/json

{
    "value": [
       {
           "id": "C0BD1BA1-A84E-4796-9C65-F8A0293741D1",
           "displayName": "Irene McGowan",
           "givenName": "Irene",
           "surname": "McGowan",
           "birthday": "",
           "personNotes": "",
           "isFavorite": false,
           "jobTitle": "Auditor",
           "companyName": null,
           "yomiCompany": "",
           "department": "Finance",
           "officeLocation": "12/1110",
           "profession": "",
           "userPrincipalName": "irenem@contoso.com",
           "imAddress": "sip:irenem@contoso.com",
           "scoredEmailAddresses": [
               {
                   "address": "irenem@contoso.com",
                   "relevanceScore": -16.446060612802224
               }
           ],
           "phones": [
               {
                   "type": "Business",
                   "number": "+1 412 555 0109"
               }
           ],
           "postalAddresses": [],
           "websites": [],
           "personType": {
               "class": "Person",
               "subclass": "OrganizationUser"
           }
       }
   ]
}

To learn more about the People API, see Get information about relevant people.

Using $search on directory object collections

Microsoft Entra ID resources and their relationships that derive from directoryObject support the $search query parameter only in advanced queries.

Note

The $search query parameter is currently not available in Azure AD B2C tenants.

There's a known issue related to $search on directory objects for values that contain an ampersand (&) symbol.

The search implementation does not support "contains" logic. Instead, it uses a tokenization approach that works by extracting words from the property value and the search string using spaces, numbers, different casing, and symbols as shown in the following examples:

  • Spaces: hello world => hello, world
  • Different casing1⁾: HelloWorld or helloWORLD => hello, world
  • Symbols2⁾: hello.world => hello, ., world, helloworld
  • Numbers: hello123world => hello, 123, world

1⁾ For different casing, tokenization currently only works when the casing is changing from lowercase to uppercase, so HELLOworld is considered a single token: helloworld, and HelloWORld is two tokens: hello, world.

2⁾ Tokenization logic also combines words that are separated only by symbols; for example, searching for helloworld finds hello-world and hello.world.

After tokenization, the tokens are matched independently of the original casing, and they're matched in any order. For example, displayName 李四(David Li) matches search strings such as 李四(David Li), 李四, David, Li, David), (李四, Li 李. A change in the alphabet, such as from Latin to Cyrillic or Chinese, doesn't create a new token. For example, displayName 蓝色group matches the 蓝色group and 蓝色 search strings, but not group; while displayName group蓝色 matches the group蓝色 and group search strings, but not 蓝色 or .

The tokenized search support works only on the displayName and description fields. Any field of String type can be put in $search; fields other than displayName and description default to $filter startswith behavior.

For example:

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/groups/?$search="displayName:OneVideo" OR "mail:onevideo"
ConsistencyLevel: eventual

This looks for all groups with display names that have one and video tokens, or mail starting with onevideo.

$search can be used together with $filter:

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/groups/?$filter=mailEnabled eq true&$search="displayName:OneVideo"
ConsistencyLevel: eventual

This looks for all mail-enabled groups with display names that look like "OneVideo". The results are restricted based on a logical conjunction ("AND") of the $filter and the entire query in the $search.

The syntax of search follows these rules:

  • Generic format: $search="clause1" [AND | OR] "\clauseX".
  • Any number of clauses is supported. Parentheses for precedence is also supported.
  • The syntax for each clause is: "<property>:<text to search>".
    • The property name must be specified in the clause.
    • The whole clause must be declared inside double quotes. If it contains double quotes or backslash, it should be escaped with a backslash. All the other special characters must be URL encoded.
  • Logical AND and OR operators must be put outside double quotes and they must be in upper case.
  • True search is only supported by displayName and description properties; but any property that can be used in $filter can also be used inside $search. Depending on the property, the search behavior is either "search" or $filter with "startsWith" if search isn't supported on the property.
  • Both the string inputs you provide in $search, and the searchable properties, are split up into parts by spaces, different casing, and character types (numbers and special characters).

The following table shows some examples.

Object class Description Example
User Address book display name of the user. GET ../users?$search="displayName:Guthr"
User Address book display name or mail of the user. GET ../users?$search="displayName:Guthr" OR "mail:Guthr"
Group Address book display name or description of the group. GET ../groups?$search="description:One" AND ("displayName:Video" OR "displayName:Drive")
Group Address book display name on a mail-enabled group. GET ../groups?$filter=mailEnabled eq true&$search="displayName:OneVideo"