Twitter advanced search: every filter and operator, with examples
By Steven Van ·
Unif API's free search runs X's operators without a login, with 20 lookups per 10 minutes, and reaches posts back to 2006 using date ranges.
Unif API's cookbook team has published a guide to Twitter (X) advanced search, covering the five filters in its free Unif API search tool, the operators behind them, and a date method for finding old tweets.
The five filters
The search page puts five filters under the search box, and each one adds an operator to the query:
- From @account adds from:handle.
- Today, Past 3 days, Past 7 days adds since:YYYY-MM-DD.
- 10+ to 10K+ likes adds min_faves:N.
- With photo or video adds filter:media.
- Hide replies adds -filter:replies.
The search box holds only the keywords. A Query line under the filters shows the full string being sent. Changing a filter after a search re-runs it. Operators typed into the box move into their matching filter, so nasa min_faves:100 leaves nasa in the box and sets the likes filter to 100+. An operator that appears twice, sits next to OR, or is inside quotes stays as typed, because moving it would change the query's meaning. Shared links fill the filters back in.
Operators beyond the filters
Whatever is typed goes to X's search as written, so the full operator set works. The guide lists:
- from:, -from:, to: and @handle for accounts and replies
- #hashtag, "exact phrase", -word and uppercase OR
- since: and until: for dates
- min_faves: and min_retweets: for popularity
- filter:media, filter:links, -filter:replies and -filter:retweets
- lang: with a two-letter code
Everything in one query has to match at once. The guide's example for NASA's photo and video posts since September with at least 1,000 likes and no replies is from:NASA since:2026-09-01 min_faves:1000 filter:media -filter:replies. It also gives ready-to-run examples, such as "ai agents" min_faves:500 and "open source" filter:links -filter:retweets.
Finding old tweets
Without a date, search returns the newest posts first and pages back 20 at a time. Adding until: jumps to a period, and the search reaches back to 2006. The guide's example is from:jack since:2006-03-01 until:2006-04-01, which returned Jack Dorsey's posts from the service's first weeks. Its tips:
- Pad dates by a day. X draws the day boundary in its own time zone, and an until:2006-04-01 search also returned a post stamped 04:49 UTC on April 2.
- Narrow the window rather than adding keywords, since results are newest first with no ranking.
- Quote remembered wording, and use the YYYY-MM-DD date format. since:10/01/2026 returns nothing.
For ranges beyond Today, Past 3 days and Past 7 days, type since: and until: into the box. The since: date then moves into the date filter, while until: stays in the box.
Access and limits
X's own search asks for a sign-in. The Unif API tool runs the same operators with no login or account, rate-limited to 20 lookups per 10 minutes per visitor, with each search counting as two. The line under the filters shows the lookups left and when they reset.
The guide lists common reasons for empty results: a space after the colon (from: nasa searches for the word), two from: operators without OR, a wrong date format, and protected, suspended or deleted posts, which are not searchable.
Each search is also an API call. A "Use in code" button gives the query as JSON, Markdown or curl, for example curl -s "https://unifapi.com/tools/x/search?q=from%3ANASA%20filter%3Amedia". Volume beyond the free limit runs through the X / Twitter API pay as you go with a workspace key.
