X (Twitter) Advanced Search: 25 Operators That Find Buyers

To find people on X who are asking for a product like yours, combine search operators in the X search bar: an exact request phrase in quotes, your category, lang:en, -filter:links to drop promotional posts, and since: to keep results fresh. For example, ("any recommendations" OR "looking for a tool") crm lang:en -filter:links since:2026-11-01 returns recent posts from people shopping for a CRM. X's advanced search form at x.com/search-advanced builds some of these for you; the rest you type by hand.

This guide lists the 25 operators that matter for finding customers, ten searches you can copy today, and the quirks we hit when we ran them on X on November 9, 2026. If you would rather not run them by hand every morning, Prospy runs this kind of search daily across X and 11 other platforms and scores each result for buying intent.

The short version

• Open advanced search at x.com/search-advanced, or type operators straight into the search bar on web or mobile.
• The operators that find buyers: "exact phrase", OR, -exclude, lang:, since:, -filter:links, -filter:replies and min_faves:.
• Search for requests ("any recommendations"), switching ("alternative to [competitor]") and complaints about competitors, not for your category name alone.
• Add since: or use the Latest tab. Without it, X's default Top results can surface posts that are years old.
• X does not send alerts for searches. To catch posts daily, save your searches or use a monitoring tool.

How to open X advanced search

On the web: go to x.com/search-advanced, or run any search and pick "Advanced search" from the results page. The form has fields for words (all, exact phrase, any, none, hashtags, language), accounts (from, to, mentioning), filters (replies, links), engagement (minimum replies, likes, reposts) and dates.

On mobile: the apps have no advanced search form, but the search bar accepts the same operators. Type from: or min_faves: directly.

Saving searches: X lets you save a search from the results page menu and reopen it from the search box (X Help Center). That saves the query, not a notification.

The 25 operators that matter for finding customers

Words and phrases

#	Operator	Example	What it finds
1	space (AND)	crm recommendations	Posts with both words
2	"..."	"looking for a tool"	The exact phrase
3	OR	crm OR "sales pipeline"	Either term. Must be uppercase
4	-	crm -hiring -"job opening"	Excludes a word or phrase
5	( )	(crm OR invoicing) "any recommendations"	Groups terms so OR applies where you want
6	* in quotes	"best * for freelancers"	A phrase with one wildcard word
7	#	#buildinpublic crm	A hashtag
8	lang:	lang:en	Posts X detects as that language
9	url:	url:hubspot.com	Posts linking to a domain

Accounts

#	Operator	Example	What it finds
10	from:	from:levelsio crm	Posts by one account
11	to:	to:HubSpot expensive	Replies to an account
12	@	@HubSpot -from:HubSpot	Posts mentioning an account, minus its own
13	list:	list:123456 "any recommendations"	Posts by members of a public list
14	filter:follows	crm filter:follows	Posts from accounts you follow

Time

#	Operator	Example	What it finds
15	since:	since:2026-11-01	Posts on or after a date
16	until:	until:2026-11-08	Posts before a date
17	within_time:	within_time:3d	Posts from the last N days (h and m also work)

Post type

#	Operator	Example	What it finds
18	filter:replies	-filter:replies	Only replies, or with - no replies
19	filter:links	-filter:links	Posts with links, or with - none (drops most promotion)
20	filter:media	-filter:media	Posts with images or video, or without
21	filter:quote	crm filter:quote	Quote posts
22	conversation_id:	conversation_id:1234567890	Every reply in one thread

Engagement

#	Operator	Example	What it finds
23	min_faves:	min_faves:5	At least 5 likes: a question other people care about too
24	min_retweets:	min_retweets:3	At least 3 reposts
25	min_replies:	min_replies:5	At least 5 replies: a live discussion worth joining

What we found when we tested them

We ran a set of searches on X on November 9, 2026, logged in, and compared results with and without each operator. Five things stood out.

1. Top results ignore recency. "looking for a tool" (crm OR invoicing) lang:en -filter:links returned popular posts going back to 2023. Adding since: or switching to the Latest tab fixed it.
2. The ? operator did nothing useful. crm recommendations returned results. The same search with ? (which older guides say finds questions) returned none. Use request phrases instead.
3. Negated engagement filters are unreliable. Community guides say -min_replies:3 means "fewer than 3 replies". Our search with it returned a post with 9 replies. Don't count on it to find unanswered questions; sort by Latest instead.
4. Keywords match more than the post text. crm within_time:3d returned posts that never said "CRM" in the text, because X also matches display names and handles. Quotes and lang: cut most of this.
5. The combination works. "any recommendations" crm min_faves:2 since:2026-10-01 returned four posts. One was a founder asking for a self-hostable CRM their team could share: a real buyer, five days old.

10 searches that find people ready to buy

Swap in your category, your competitor and your customers' words. Run each in the Latest tab.

1. Direct requests

("any recommendations" OR "can anyone recommend" OR "looking for a tool") crm lang:en -filter:links since:2026-11-01

2. People leaving a competitor

("alternative to hubspot" OR "hubspot alternative" OR "switching from hubspot") -from:hubspot -filter:links

3. Complaints about a competitor

hubspot ("too expensive" OR "price increase" OR "cancel" OR "so slow") -from:hubspot lang:en

4. Unhappy replies to a competitor's account

to:hubspot (pricing OR expensive OR "doesn't work" OR support)

5. Fresh questions from the last day

("what do you use for" OR "how do you track") invoices within_time:1d

6. Your customers' problem, in their words

"chasing late invoices" -filter:links -filter:replies lang:en

7. Questions with traction

("is there a tool" OR "is there an app") invoices min_faves:5

8. Requests inside other people's threads

"any recommendations" crm filter:replies since:2026-11-01

9. Your brand, minus your own account

(prospy OR "prospy.io") -from:yourhandle

10. People comparing options

(hubspot OR pipedrive) ("vs" OR "or") "which one" lang:en

The requests (1, 7, 8) are the warmest. Switching and complaint searches (2, 3, 4) find buyers your competitor is about to lose. Problem searches (6) find people who don't yet know your category exists.

How to reply without becoming a reply guy

Finding the post is half the job. On X, a pitch under someone's question reads as spam fast.

1. Answer the question first. If they asked for a CRM for a five-person team, name two or three that fit, with one line on each.
2. Disclose. "I built X, so I'm biased" earns more trust than pretending to be a happy customer.
3. Skip the link unless they ask. Your handle and bio do that work.
4. Never paste the same reply twice, and never reply from extra accounts.
5. Follow up once, if they reply. Do not DM people who didn't ask.

Where manual search stops working

Advanced search is free and precise, but it has limits as a daily lead source.

• No alerts. You have to rerun every saved search yourself, every day.
• One platform. The same buyer may ask on Reddit, LinkedIn or Hacker News instead.
• No ranking. Ten searches return a hundred posts, and you read them all to find the five that matter.

Prospy automates that loop. Each day it runs your keywords on X the same way you would by hand (your phrase and its aliases in quotes, joined with OR, minus your exclusions and reposts), does the same on 11 other platforms, and gives each mention an intent label (buyer, switching, question, complaint, praise) and a lead score from 0 to 100. Set it up with the same request, competitor and problem phrases from this guide; our keywords docs cover aliases and exclusions. It also flags Reddit, Hacker News and YouTube threads that rank on Google for your keywords.

Prospy never posts for you. If you use an AI assistant, connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor to Prospy's MCP server, ask it for this week's buyer posts, and let it draft replies. Then you post them yourself, from your own account. Plans are on the pricing section.

FAQ

How do I use advanced search on X?

Go to x.com/search-advanced and fill in the form, or type operators directly into the search bar, such as "any recommendations" crm lang:en since:2026-11-01. Operators can be combined, and the Latest tab shows the newest matches first.

Does X advanced search work on mobile?

The X mobile apps have no advanced search form, but the search bar accepts the same operators. Type them directly, for example from:handle min_faves:10.

Why is X advanced search not working?

The usual causes are a space after the colon (since: 2026-11-01 fails), a lowercase or, or relying on Top results, which favor old popular posts. Some community-documented operators also change without notice; in our November 2026 test, ? returned nothing and -min_replies: did not filter.

Can I get alerts when someone tweets a keyword?

Not from X itself. You can save a search and rerun it, but X does not notify you about new matches. Monitoring tools such as Prospy, Octolens or KWatch watch X keywords and send you new posts.

How do I find leads on X?

Search for requests ("any recommendations", "looking for a tool"), switching ("alternative to [competitor]") and complaints about competitors, filtered with lang:, -filter:links and since:. Reply with a helpful answer, disclose that you built your product, and follow up only if they respond.

Catch buyers on X before your competitors doProspy runs your searches daily and ranks every post by buying intent.