Google search operators: a cheat sheet with examples
Google search operators are short commands you type into the search box to tell Google exactly what you want: an exact phrase, one website, one file type or one date range. You don't need any special tool, and they work on your phone too. Below is a cheat sheet with examples you can copy, plus tips for when an operator seems to be ignored.
The Google search operators cheat sheet
Keep this table open while you practise. The first column is what you type; the second explains what it does.
| Operator | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
"..." | Exact word or phrase | "data entry jobs" |
- | Leaves out a word | jaguar speed -car |
OR | Either word | resume OR cv template |
site: | One website or part of it | site:who.int malaria |
filetype: | One file type | photosynthesis notes filetype:pdf |
intitle: | Word in the page title | intitle:syllabus economics |
intext: | Word in the page text | budget intext:"50/30/20" |
before: | Pages from before a date | budget india before:2025 |
after: | Pages from after a date | budget india after:2026-02-01 |
One rule applies to all of them: don't put a space after the colon. Google's own help page points out that site:nytimes.com works and site: nytimes.com doesn't.
Quotes: search for an exact phrase
Normally Google looks for pages about your words, in any order, and it also matches synonyms. Put a phrase in double quotes and Google looks for those words together, in that order.
"tallest building"finds pages with that exact phrase."error 0x80070005"is great for error messages and codes, where every character matters."to be or not to be"keeps short common words that Google might otherwise treat as unimportant.
Quotes also work on a single word. If Google keeps "correcting" an unusual name or a technical term, quoting it tells Google you really meant that spelling.
Minus: exclude a word
A minus sign directly in front of a word removes pages that contain it. Google's classic example is jaguar speed -car, which gives you the animal instead of the car brand.
You can stack several: python tutorial -snake -course. You can also exclude a phrase in quotes, such as internship -"unpaid", or a whole website with -site:, as in laptop review -site:youtube.com.
Leave no space between the minus and the word. -car excludes; - car is just a dash and a word.
OR: allow alternatives
Type OR in capital letters between two words to get pages with either one: resume OR cv template. It is handy when people use different words for the same thing, like mobile OR cellphone or colour OR color. You can combine it with quotes: "cover letter" OR "application letter".
Lowercase "or" is treated as a normal word, so the capitals matter.
site: search inside one website
site: is the operator most people end up using every day. It limits results to one domain, a part of a domain, or a type of domain:
site:who.int dengue: only the World Health Organization's website.site:gov.in scholarship: only Indian government websites ending in gov.in.site:edu python lecture notes: only websites ending in .edu, which are mostly American universities.site:reddit.com/r/learnprogramming first job: one section of a site.
A very useful trick is to search a website that has a weak search box of its own. Many university and government sites are hard to search from the inside; Google often finds the right page faster with site:.
The same operator works with Google Drive and Google Docs. That is how you can search public Google Drive files: site:drive.google.com plus your topic shows files that their owners chose to share with anyone who has the link.
filetype: find PDFs, spreadsheets and slides
filetype: limits results to one kind of file. Google can index many formats, including PDF, Word (doc, docx), Excel (xls, xlsx), PowerPoint (ppt, pptx), CSV, RTF, EPUB and plain text, according to Google Search Central's list of indexable file types.
photoelectric effect paper filetype:pdfmonthly budget filetype:xlsxmarketing plan filetype:pptxrainfall data filetype:csv
CSV searches are a quick way to find free public datasets from governments and research groups. If filetype: alone returns few results, try adding site: as well, for example site:gov filetype:csv population.
intitle: and intext: search the title or the body
intitle: asks for pages with a word in their title, which is the blue headline you see in the results. intitle:syllabus economics returns pages whose title includes "syllabus", which is much more precise than just typing both words.
intext: asks for a word in the main text of the page: budget template intext:"50/30/20".
A note of honesty: these two are not in Google's current official list of operators. They still work in practice and many researchers rely on them, but results can be less consistent than with site: or quotes.
before: and after: filter by date
Google's help page documents both. before: shows pages from before a date and after: shows pages from after it. You can give a year or a full date:
avengers endgame before:2019exam timetable after:2026-03-01monsoon forecast after:2026-05-01 before:2026-06-30for a date range.
This is the fastest way to skip outdated tutorials, old exam notices and expired offers. If you prefer tapping to typing, the Tools button under the search box offers a similar time filter.
Combine operators for precise searches
The real power comes from mixing them. Some recipes you can adapt:
- Official exam material:
site:gov.in "admit card" after:2026-09-01 - University lecture slides:
site:edu "machine learning" filetype:pptx - A spreadsheet template:
"weekly planner" filetype:xlsx -pinterest - Job listings without one site:
"graphic designer" remote -site:linkedin.com - Public Google Sheets on a topic:
site:docs.google.com/spreadsheets "expense tracker"
Build a search step by step. Start with a few words, look at the results, then add one operator at a time until the first page shows what you need.
When an operator seems not to work
- Check spaces. No space after the colon, no space after the minus sign.
- Use straight quotes. Some phone keyboards insert curly quotes; if a phrase search acts strangely, retype the quotes.
- Counts are estimates. Google itself says search operators have indexing and retrieval limits, so a
site:search won't list every page of a website. - Some operators are gone. Older guides still mention
cache:andrelated:, which Google has retired, and the+sign, which no longer forces a word. Use quotes instead of+. - Try Advanced Search. In Google, open Tools and then Advanced Search to fill in the same filters with a form.
Operators for public files
If what you want is a document, template or dataset that someone shared on Google Drive, you can type site:drive.google.com searches yourself, or use dedigger, a search engine built only for public Google Drive files. It does the operator work for you and lets you filter by file type.
Frequently asked questions
Do Google search operators work on the Google app for Android?
Yes. Type them into the search bar of the Google app or Chrome exactly as you would on a computer. Just watch out for autocorrect adding spaces after colons.
Are Google search operators case sensitive?
The operators like site: and filetype: work in lowercase. OR is the exception: write it in capital letters, otherwise Google reads it as a normal word.
How many operators can I use in one search?
You can combine several in the same search, as in the recipes above. If results disappear, remove operators one at a time to find the one that is too strict.
Do these operators work in other search engines?
Many do. Bing, DuckDuckGo and Brave Search support quotes, minus and site:, and several support filetype:, but the details differ, so test before relying on them.