---
title: Smart Search AI
description: Smart Search AI enables intent-driven search for WordPress by combining full-text matching with semantic understanding, on any host.
url: https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/
image: https://developers.wpengine.com/og/docs/smart-search.png
---

# Smart Search AI

Smart Search AI is a turnkey AI-powered search solution for WordPress. It combines full-text search with AI-powered semantic search, surfacing relevant results based on meaning and context rather than exact keyword or phrase matches. Smart Search AI runs on managed infrastructure, which allows site content to be continuously indexed without sacrificing speed. It is available to all sites built on WordPress, regardless of hosting provider.

[Getting Started with the Smart Search API](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/getting-started/)Authenticate and make your first request to the Smart Search AI GraphQL API.

[Smart Search AI Architecture](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/architecture/)How Smart Search AI is built and how the components fit together.

[Support Guide for Smart Search AI](https://wpengine.com/support/wp-engine-smart-search/)Setup details, troubleshooting tips, and product basics.

## Configure Search Behavior

Use the WordPress dashboard to adjust how Smart Search AI matches content across full-text, semantic, and hybrid models.

- **Full-text Search**: Select **Stemming** to reduce search terms to their root forms or **Fuzzy Search** to handle typos and minor spelling variations automatically.
- **[AI-Powered Hybrid Search](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/graphql-api/semantic-search-config/)**: Combines traditional full-text exact matching with semantic search. Use the balance slider to adjust the ratio between keyword matching and semantic context.
- **Semantic Search**: Uses semantic similarity to surface relevant content even when exact search terms aren’t found.

## Customize Search Results

Manually control search outputs to highlight priority content, manage promotions, and define term synonyms.

- **[Custom Search Results](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/graphql-api/find#custom-search-results)**: Specify exact search terms in WordPress to override standard algorithmic results and return a manually curated set of pages or posts.
- **[Search Promotions](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/graphql-api/find#promoted-documents)**: Pin key landing pages, products, or promotional content to the top of search result lists using drag-and-drop.
- **[Synonyms Engine](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/graphql-api/synonyms/)**: Group equivalent keywords and acronyms (e.g., “jacket” and “coat”) so query terms resolve to unified content pools without requiring site content changes.
- **[Field weighting & prioritization](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/graphql-api/find#field-weighting)**: Assign custom priority weights to specific post titles, body content, taxonomies, and custom fields to promote high-value data in results.

## Integrations

Includes native support for WordPress tools, custom APIs, and external data sources. Works with any WordPress installation and hosting provider. Indexing and queries run on dedicated infrastructure, reducing load on your WordPress server.

- **Hosting agnostic** - Not limited to WP Engine-hosted sites. Available to all WordPress sites, regardless of hosting provider.
- **Native ACF & WooCommerce support**: Out-of-the-box compatibility with Advanced Custom Fields (ACF & ACF Pro) and native WooCommerce product schemas without manual data mapping.
- **API-first**: Expose search results, filters, and facets programmatically across a [custom theme](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/plugin/hooks/) or [custom frontend](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/getting-started/).
- **[External data indexing](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/graphql-api/indexing/)**: Index content from external sources outside WordPress, such as custom APIs, databases, or third-party systems.

## Advanced Features

Additional capabilities for extended indexing formats, frontend search controls, AI agent integration, and analytics.

- **Faceted Filtering**: Enable taxonomy filters (checkboxes or dropdowns) and numeric range sliders with auto-reloading search results.
- **[Multimodal & Asset Indexing](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/graphql-api/content-extraction-api/) Beta**: Index text from PDF attachments and image metadata alongside posts and pages.
- **[Model Context Protocol (MCP) server](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/mcp/) Beta**: Connect live site content directly to external AI agents (such as Claude or ChatGPT) as a live knowledge base.
- **[Search Insights & Analytics](https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/smart-search/graphql-api/insights/)**: Access search query volume, popular terms, and zero-result queries directly from the WP Engine User Portal to optimize synonyms and content.

## Was this helpful?

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