This quick reference cheat sheet lists of Google advanced search operators.
| Operator | Description | Category |
|---|---|---|
"" |
Allows searching for a specific phrase - exact match search. Individual word prevents synonyms | Basic,Mail |
OR/AND |
Boolean search function for OR searches as Google defaults to AND between words - must be all caps | Basic,Mail |
\ |
Implements OR | Basic |
() |
Allows grouping of operators and helps dictate order | Basic,Mail |
- |
Excludes a word from results | Basic,Mail |
* |
Acts as a wildcard and will match any word or phrase | Basic |
#..# |
# represents a number in this instance. Use to find numbers in a series. | Basic |
$ |
Allows for search of USD | Basic |
€ |
Allows for search of Euro | Basic |
in |
Allows searches for unit conversion (currency, unit or measure) | Basic |
~ |
Prefix - Include synonyms (potentially defunct) | Basic |
+ |
Prefix - Force exact match on single phrase | Basic,Mail |
AROUND(X) |
This is sandwiched between two words and the X declares how many words they must be mentioned between. I.e. if it’s (4) then the two keywords must be mentioned within 4 words of each other. | Advanced |
_ |
Acts as wildcard for autocomplete | Advanced |
| Operator | Description | Category |
|---|---|---|
inurl: |
Only returns results where the queried keyword(s) is present in the URL | Advanced |
allinurl: |
As above but only containing all of the specified words in the URL | Advanced |
blogurl: |
Find blog URLs under a specific domain. This was used in Google blog search, but I’ve found it does return some results in regular search. | Advanced |
site: |
Limit results to those from one site | Advanced |
related: |
Find similar domains to the queried domain | Advanced |
| Operator | Description | Category |
|---|---|---|
daterange: |
Return results in a specified range (requires julian dates) | Advanced |
after: |
Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received anytime after a set date | Drive,Mail |
before: |
Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received before a certain date | Drive,Mail |
older: |
Search for messages older than a certain date | |
newer: |
Search for messages newer than a certain date |
| Operator | Description | Category |
|---|---|---|
filename: |
Search for messages with a particular type of file attached, or the exact name of a file | |
type: |
Allows you to search drive by file type | Drive |
owner: |
Allows you to search drive by owner of file or folder | Drive |
to: |
Allows you to search drive for files shared with a specific person | Drive |
title: |
Searches drive for files with the keyword in their title alone | Drive |
source:domain |
Allows you to search for files or folders shared with everyone in your business | Drive |
filetype: |
Returns only files of a particular type associated with the keyword searched | Advanced |
ext: |
As above, based on extension | Advanced |
after: |
Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received anytime after a set date | Drive,Mail |
before: |
Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received before a certain date | Drive,Mail |
is:trashed |
Searches for the item in the Drive bin | Drive |
| Operator | Description | Category |
|---|---|---|
link: |
Find pages that link to the target domain | Advanced |
inanchor: |
Find pages linked to with the specified anchor text/ phrase. Data is heavily sampled. | Advanced |
allinanchor: |
Find pages with all individual terms after "inanchor:" in the inbound anchor text. | Advanced |
intitle: |
Returns pages based on the searched query appearing in their title | Advanced |
allintitle: |
Similar to intitle: but only returns titles where all the words in the title match | Advanced |
inposttile: |
Finds pages with keywords in their post titles (i.e. for researching blogs) | |
intext: |
Finds pages where the keyword(s) are mentioned within the page content. | Advanced |
allintext: |
Similar to “intext,” but only results containing all of the specified words somewhere on the page will be returned. | Advanced |
| Operator | Description | Category |
|---|---|---|
Business |
type E.g. cafe, restaurant, bar etc will return a selection of appropriate businesses in the are | Maps |
Petrol/Charging |
Station EV near me or perol station near me returns | Maps |
Search |
for a message with a google sheet attached | |
Search |
for a message with a google presentation attached |
| Operator | Description | Category |
|---|---|---|
+ |
Prefix - Force exact match on single phrase | Basic,Mail |
() |
Allows grouping of operators and helps dictate order | Basic,Mail |
- |
Excludes a word from results | Basic,Mail |
"" |
Allows searching for a specific phrase - exact match search. Individual word prevents synonyms | Basic,Mail |
OR/AND |
Boolean search function for OR searches as Google defaults to AND between words - must be all caps | Basic,Mail |
after: |
Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received anytime after a set date | Drive,Mail |
before: |
Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received before a certain date | Drive,Mail |
is:starred |
Searches only items that have been starred in drive | Drive,Mail |
from: |
Specify the sender in google mail | |
to: |
Specify the recipient in google mail | |
cc: |
Search by a recipient that was copied into an email | |
bcc: |
Search by a recipient that was blind copied into an email | |
older: |
Search for messages older than a certain date | |
newer: |
Search for messages newer than a certain date | |
Search |
for a message with a google sheet attached | |
Search |
for a message with a google presentation attached | |
AROUND |
Similar to the normal google search function, allows you to search for keywords near each other. | |
subject: |
Search by keywords featured in the subject line | |
{} |
Use for OR in mail instead of the OR function | |
label: |
Search for messages that have a certain label | |
has:attachment |
Search for messages that have an item attached | |
has:drive |
Search for messages with a google drive attached | |
has:document |
Search for messages with a google doc attached | |
has:youtube |
Search for a message containing a youtube video | |
list: |
Search for all messages from a particular mailing list | |
in:anywhere |
Includes all folders in your search, including spam and bin | |
is:important |
Search for messages that have been marked as important | |
label:important |
Same as is:important | |
is:snoozed |
Searches for messages that have been snoozed | |
is:unread |
Searches for unread messages | |
is:read |
searches for read messages only | |
has:yellow-star |
Searches for messages with coloured star icon | |
has:blue-info |
Searches for messages with colourd icon | |
is:chat |
Searches for messagse from chat | |
deliveredto: |
Search by email address for delivered messages | |
category: |
Searches by messages based on category. Follow the colon with the categoy name, i.e. category:primary | |
size: |
Messages larger than a certain size in bytes | |
larger: |
Messages larger than a certain size in bytes | |
smaller: |
Messages smaller than a certain size in bytes | |
has:userlabels |
Search for messages that have custom user labels | |
|
Search for messages that have no custom user labels |
| Operator | Description | Category |
|---|---|---|
define: |
Pulls a card response from Google displaying the dictionary definition of the word or phrase | Advanced |
cache: |
Returns the most up to date cache of an indexed web page | Advanced |
weather: |
Brings up the featured snipped for weather for that location | Advanced |
stocks: |
Returns stock information for the specified ticker | Advanced |
map: |
Force google map results for a particular query | Advanced |
movie: |
Find information for the specified movie (particularly useful when that movie has an ambiguous name). If the movie is still in theatres it’ll also return screen times | Advanced |
source: |
Use in google news, returns results from the specified source | Advanced |
loc: |
Returns results for a specific location | Advanced |
location: |
As above but with Google news | Advanced |
info: |
Returns information related to a domain (pages with domain text, similar on-site pages, cache etc) | Advanced |
near |
Part of the google maps lazy searches e.g. book shops near work | Maps |