Jetpack Search

Power up your visitors’ search results with Jetpack Search, a powerful replacement for the standard WordPress search capability.

Jetpack Search replaces the standard WordPress search with a faster, more relevant search experience powered by Elasticsearch. Search 3.0 introduces composable search blocks that integrate directly into your theme, AI-powered answers that summarize your content for visitors, and a redesigned dashboard with search analytics.

Elasticsearch is a trademark of Elasticsearch BV, registered in the U.S. and other countries.

Choose the right Jetpack Search plugin

Jetpack Search can be used via one of two plugins:

• Jetpack (includes other Jetpack features)
• Jetpack Search (Jetpack Search only)

Read about general Jetpack requirements to make sure it is compatible with your website.

Once you have installed and activated one of the plugins, navigate to Jetpack → Search in WP Admin.

Choose the right Jetpack Search Plan

Jetpack Search is free for sites with up to a limited number of records and search requests per month.

For larger sites with more traffic, upgrade to Jetpack Search subscription or a Jetpack bundle that includes Search.

Read more about the Jetpack Search pricing and billing structure.

After choosing a plan, Jetpack will get to work on indexing the records in your website so that we can serve up results to your visitors.

WooCommerce Search Features

When WooCommerce is active, Jetpack Search unlocks an additional set of product-specific filter blocks — price range, stock status, star rating, product attributes, and a ready-made shop sidebar. These blocks only appear in the block editor on WooCommerce sites and are documented separately:

• WooCommerce features in Jetpack Search Blocks — overview of every WooCommerce-specific block and the WooCommerce additions to shared blocks

• WooCommerce filter blocks — setup and settings for Filter by Price, Filter by Rating, Filter by Stock Status, Filter by Product Attribute, and the Product Filters container

Indexing your website

When you first install Jetpack, it may take a few minutes or hours before your content is fully indexed. After that, new and updated content is usually indexed within seconds.

Jetpack Search automatically indexes:

• All public posts
• All public pages
• WooCommerce products
• Products from other eCommerce platforms
• The metadata of the publicly-accessible items in your Media Library, such as alt text

Jetpack Search does not index:

• Draft posts and pages
• Private pages and posts
• Password-protected pages and posts
• The content of PDF files

Search Experiences

Jetpack Search offers several search experiences: Off (the default WordPress search), Overlay (an instant-search modal), Theme (uses our theme’s search layout), and Embedded Search Blocks (the Jetpack Search 7.0.0 experience, which places search and Reader Chat directly inside your pages).

Choose your experience in Jetpack → Search under Search Experience.

Off

This option disables Jetpack Search, and your site uses the default WordPress search.

Overlay search

Overlay search displays results in a floating modal that appears over your page content. This is the experience previously known as “Instant Search.” Visitors type a query, and results appear in real time within the overlay without navigating away from the current page.

To customize the overlay appearance, result format, filters, and sorting options, see Customize Jetpack Instant Search.

Theme search

Theme search uses your theme’s built-in search template to display results. Jetpack Search still powers the backend, but the search results page inherits your theme’s layout, fonts, and styles as-is. No Jetpack Search template is applied.

Theme search has no additional Jetpack-side customization options. To change how results look, edit your theme’s search template in the Site Editor or theme files.

Embedded search

Embedded search uses composable Gutenberg blocks to build a search results page that integrates directly with your theme. Instead of a floating modal, search results appear on a dedicated page that inherits your theme’s fonts, colors, and spacing.

Embedded search includes a set of blocks for the search input, results list, filters, sorting, and pagination. You can arrange these blocks however you like using the block editor, and choose from pre-built patterns such as the blog search page layout and the compact search layout.

On block-based themes, the auto-generated search template integrates natively with your theme’s layout. No custom CSS is needed in most cases. On classic themes, the template renders within the theme wrapper but may need minor styling adjustments.

Learn more about getting started with Embedded search in Jetpack Search blocks.

Switching from overlay to embedded search

If you’re currently using overlay search (previously called “Instant Search”) and want to try embedded search, here’s what to expect:

• The floating modal is replaced entirely. There is no coexistence mode where both run at the same time.
• The search URL (/?s=query) renders the embedded page template instead of triggering the overlay.
• Any custom CSS written to style the overlay modal will not apply to the embedded experience. Review your custom styles after switching.
• Customizations made to the legacy Jetpack Search widget (sidebar widget) are not carried over. The block-based template starts fresh.
• You can switch back to overlay at any time from Jetpack → Search in WP Admin using the experience selector. No data is lost when switching.

AI Answers

Jetpack Search can use AI to summarize your content and answer visitor questions directly within the search results. AI answers appears at the top of the results list when the AI has something useful to add, and stays out of the way for standard keyword searches.

AI answers is available on paid Jetpack Search plans and Jetpack Complete. Learn more about setting up and customizing AI answers in the AI answers in Jetpack Search guide.

Privacy Information

The Search block is deactivated by default. You can activate or deactivate the feature by toggling the Enable Search setting in the Search section from Jetpack → Settings → Performance in your dashboard.

Data Used
Site Owners / Users We use the WordPress.com-connected blog ID in order to submit a visitor’s search request to the WordPress.com servers. Additionally, for activity tracking (detailed below): IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID and URL, Jetpack version, user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.	Site Visitors We use any of the visitor-chosen search filters and query data in order to process the search request on the WordPress.com servers. We also use aggregate data about page views and searches to adjust our search results.
Activity Tracked
Site Owners / Users We track when, and by which user, the feature is activated and deactivated. We also track when, and which, configuration settings are modified (and by which user), as well as when, and by which user, the Jetpack Search widget is updated.	Site Visitors None.
Data Synced (Read More)
Site Owners / Users We sync website content and options to provide search results and improve our search results ranking algorithms.	Site Visitors None.