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Search features

OpenSearch provides many features for customizing your search use cases and improving search relevance.

Search methods

OpenSearch supports the following search methods.

Exact matching and keywords

OpenSearch implements lexical (keyword) text search using the BM25 algorithm to match and rank documents based on term frequency and document length.

Keyword (BM25) search

Find exact and close matches using traditional text search

Similarity and meaning

OpenSearch supports similarity (k-nearest neighbor) search using dense and sparse vector embeddings to power use cases such as semantic search, retrieval-augmented generation, and multimodal image search.

Vector search

Search by similarity using dense or sparse vector embeddings

OpenSearch supports AI-powered search capabilities beyond vector embeddings. OpenSearch’s AI search enables search and ingestion flows to be enriched by any AI service to power the full range of AI-enhanced search use cases.

AI search

Build intelligent search applications using AI models

Query languages

In OpenSearch, you can use the following query languages to search your data:

  • Query domain-specific language (DSL): The primary OpenSearch query language that supports creating complex, fully customizable queries.

  • Query string query language: A scaled-down query language that you can use in a query parameter of a search request or in OpenSearch Dashboards.

  • SQL: A traditional query language that bridges the gap between traditional relational database concepts and the flexibility of OpenSearch’s document-oriented data storage.

  • Piped Processing Language (PPL): The primary language used with observability in OpenSearch. PPL uses a pipe syntax that chains commands into a query.

  • Dashboards Query Language (DQL): A simple text-based query language for filtering data in OpenSearch Dashboards.

Search performance

OpenSearch offers several ways to improve search performance:

Search relevance

OpenSearch provides the following search relevance features:

  • Compare Search Results: A search comparison tool in OpenSearch Dashboards that you can use to compare results from two queries side by side.

  • Querqy: Offers query rewriting capability.

  • User Behavior Insights: Links user behavior to user queries to improve search quality.

Search results

OpenSearch supports the following commonly used operations on search results:

Search pipelines

You can process search queries and search results with search pipelines.

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