Search by people, things & places in your photos

Search your photos for anything. For example, you can search for:

• A wedding you attended last summer
• Your best friend
• A pet
• Your favorite city

You can also use Search to find different features and collections in Google Photos, like People & pets, Albums, Documents, and more.

Important: Some features aren't available in all geographic regions, all domains, or all account types.

Before you get started

Download and install the Google Photos app.

Search your photos

Important: To easily search and manage your photos, you can apply a label to people or pets that appear in photos grouped by Google Photos. Learn how to set up Face Groups.

You can use Search to find combinations of people and pets, locations, things, dates, and more using descriptive free-text:

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app .
2. At the bottom, tap Search.
3. Tap the search box.
4. Enter what you want to find.
   • You can use phrases like "Alice and me laughing," "colorful sunsets in Mexico," "Emma at the playground," and "drinking tea by the beach."
   • You can only search with a name or nickname if you’ve labeled people or pets.

Tip: Natural language queries work best in English.

You can also search with your recent searches or with suggestions from the Search tab:

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app .
2. At the bottom, tap Search.
   • To search with recent searches: Under “Recent,” select a recent search if you have any.
   • To search with suggestions: Under "Suggestions," select a search suggestion.

Search for a photo or video

Manage your search results

You can sort your search results by "Most recent" or "Best match."

On the search results page, at the top, tap Most recent or Best match:

• Most recent: Your search results are sorted by date.
• Best match: Your search results are sorted by relevance.

Tip: For each search, the default sort view varies. Both sort views aren’t available for all searches.

Search for your collections & other features

From the Collections view, you can find People & pets, Albums, Documents, and Places. You can also find other content organized in:

• Archive
• Favorites
• Locked Folder
• Partner Sharing
• Recently Added
• Screenshots
• Trash
• Videos

You can also search for these items:

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app .
2. At the bottom, tap Search.
3. Enter the name of the item that you want to find. 
   • You can use words like “Abigail,” “Documents,” “Favorites,” and more.
4. When it appears in the search suggestions, tap the item’s name.

Related resources

Can't find your photos? Get help finding photos.