About queries

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In this article

What counts as a query
What isn’t counted as a query

A query is a set of one or more expressions sent to an index to return matching relevant items. By entering a query that’s relevant to the items you want to retrieve, Coveo delivers relevant search results through intelligent search features from various amounts of data. To understand the complexity of the search operations that can be executed, it’s important to understand what exactly counts as query in a Coveo implementation.

Notes

As a rule of thumb, whenever search results are updated, you can be fairly certain that a query was performed.
Technically, each call to the /rest/search/v2 (or /rest/search) Search API route counts as a query. However, queries don’t all count against the queries per month (QPM) quota.
The sections in this article provide examples of what does and doesn’t count as a query. You can refer to the query entitlement metric for more detailed information.

What counts as a query

Queries can take many forms, but some of the most common are:

Search: An end user types in the search box and presses Enter, or clicks Submit.
Listing pages: An end user uses a Coveo-powered listing page that renders results without a manual query. In commerce, product listing requests have special entitlements if you’ve signed with Coveo before July 28, 2025. For more information, see product listing entitlements.
Applying filters: An end user filters the search results by selecting a tab, toggling facet values, etc.
Sort: An end user changes the sort criteria or the direction of search results.
Paging: An end user resizes the current page, or navigates to a specific page of the search results.
Document suggestions on a case deflection interface: An end user is creating a case. As they fill the case, relevant item suggestions are updated to reflect the user’s needs. A new query is sent to the index every time the suggestions are updated.
Case Classification requests using the Case Similarity method.
search-as-you-type: Each individual keystroke counts as a distinct query when the search-as-you-type feature is enabled in a search box.

Notes

You can control the number of characters required to trigger query suggestions. See Provide search box suggestions to learn how.
The default delay of which item suggestions are updated varies depending on the Coveo integration you’re using:
- When using the Coveo for Salesforce CaseDeflection Component, you can adjust the query delay through the queryDelay option.
- When using the Coveo for ServiceNow Case Deflection widget, you can adjust the query delay through the Minimum time between automatic queries option.

What isn’t counted as a query

Here are a few examples of actions that aren’t counted as queries:

Clicks: Clicking a search result isn’t counted as a query.
Coveo ML Content Recommendation (CR) and Product Recommendation (PR) models: Receiving these recommendations counts against a recommendations per month (RPM) quota.
Coveo ML IPX Recommendation (IPXRECS) model: Receiving recommendations in an IPX search interface counts against the recommendations per month (RPM) quota. One RPM is consumed per list of generated IPX recommendations.

Note

Searching in an IPX search interface triggers a search request, which counts against the queries per month (QPM) quota.
Coveo ML Query Suggestion (QS) model: Getting query suggestions in a search box isn’t counted as a query. However, selecting a rendered query suggestion triggers a search request, which then counts as a query.

This applies to:
- Facet value suggestions
- Field suggestions
- Coveo ML query suggestions, including Predictive Query Suggestions (PQS)
Query suggestions are different from search-as-you-type, which requests entirely new results on each keystroke.
Quick view: Opening a Quick view for a search result isn’t counted as a query.
Searching in a facet search box: Using a facet search box to find a value, such as a filter, isn’t counted as a query itself. However, selecting, deselecting, or excluding the value counts as a query.
OPTIONS requests: In your browser’s Network log, you might notice an OPTIONS request to a Coveo URL. This is a preflight permission check before a GET or POST request (that is, a real query) is logged, and it isn’t counted as a query. OPTIONS requests aren’t Coveo-specific and don’t impact your Coveo license usage or analytics.