---
title: "Email search by words or meaning"
description: "Search the folder you are reading with forgiving words and operators like from:, has:pdf and newer_than:7d, or describe the mail and search by meaning, in any language."
url: "https://nextmail.sh/features/search"
---

[Reading & organising](https://nextmail.sh/features.md#reading)

# Search by words or meaning Type it the way you remember it.

Search runs on the folder you are reading and forgives case, accents, separators and small typos. Operators like from: and has:pdf narrow it, and search by meaning finds the mail you can only describe.

[Open mail](https://nextmail.sh/mail/inbox) [Get Started](https://nextmail.sh/signup.md)[All features](https://nextmail.sh/features.md)

In short

## What is full-text email search?

Full-text search reads the words inside your mail, not just the subject. A good one forgives a half-remembered word and gets strict when you quote a phrase.

How it works

## The folder you are in narrows it

A search from Inbox does not reach Archive, Sent or Spam. Name another with in:archive, or use in:anywhere for all of them.

## Loose words, strict quotes

Case, accents and separators are ignored and part of a word counts, so min finds Benjamin. When nothing matches exactly, a small typo is forgiven, so benjimin does too. A quoted phrase must appear as written.

## Operators read the way they look

OR, parentheses and a leading minus combine, so (from:stripe OR from:paddle) has:pdf -is:read finds unread threads with a PDF from either.

## The vocabulary

Unknown operators are searched as plain text.

from: the sender to: a recipient subject: the subject body: the message text in:anywhere every folder is:unread unread has:pdf a PDF attached after:2026/01/31 that day onward -is:read leaves read mail out

What you get

## In the product today

One key away

Press / from the list, or click the box above it.

Matches are marked

Subject and sender in the list show where your words matched.

Newest first, or best match

Results come best match first. With search by meaning turned off in the privacy settings, they follow the list's own order.

No outside engine

Your query never goes to anybody else's search engine. Searching by meaning sends your words to an embedding model, with the same no-retention routing as the other AI features.

Good practice

## Getting the most out of it

1. 01
   
   Start with a word
   
   Type what you remember, then add an operator if the list runs long.
2. 02
   
   Quote to tighten
   
   When loose words bring back too much, quote the phrase.
3. 03
   
   Widen before browsing
   
   Lost a thread? Add in:anywhere rather than opening each folder.

Questions

## Asked often

Keep going

## Works well with

Keyboard-first

Search is /, the assistant is ⌘0, and the list moves under the arrow keys.

Labels

Name a label, pick a colour, and filter the list down to it.

Attachments

Pick them with the paperclip or paste them in. A pasted image lands in the body rather than the file list, and a file dragged onto the composer is not attached at all. In a mailbox hosted on Nextmail, incoming files sit in object storage, one object each, and a file is fetched only when you open or download it.

Start

## Your domain, your mail.

Point a domain at Nextmail and read it in a mailbox built around it. The free plan covers one domain.

[Open mail](https://nextmail.sh/mail/inbox) [Get Started](https://nextmail.sh/signup.md)[Read the reference](https://nextmail.sh/docs/knowledge/reading/search.md)