How to search on Netflix for films, shows, categories, and more

Netflix has a lot of content. That’s evident from the statistics: The service hosts about 1,569 TV shows and 4,010 films in an expanding portfolio. And the video streaming company claims that its 139 million global subscribers watch 140 million hours of content each day.

If you’re one of those 139 million subscribers, you might sometimes have trouble finding the shows you want to watch amidst all those choices.

To help you out, Netflix provides a search tool on the website, and in the mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, as well as the TV-based apps. No matter how you use Netflix, there’s a way to zero in on the shows you want.

How to search on Netflix

1. Open Netflix, either by starting the app on your mobile device or streaming device, or by navigating to Netflix.com in a browser.

2. At the top of the screen (or at the top of the sidebar on TV apps), tap or click the search icon, shaped like a magnifying glass.

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3. Type your search.

There are a number of different kinds of searches you can perform:

• By title. If you search for the title of a TV show or movie, Netflix will display that item and similar shows and films. If Netflix doesn’t have the show you’re looking for, it’ll display the most similar match it can find.
• By actor. You can search for actors and actresses by name. You’ll get results that display shows and films in which they’ve appeared.
• By director. Likewise, you can search by the name of a director to find films and shows they’ve worked on.
• By genre. If you’re looking for a particular kind of show, like sci-fi, fantasy, drama, or comedy, you can enter that search term.
• By language. Want a Spanish, French, or German film? Search for “Spanish films” to see exactly that – Spanish-language films.
• By video quality. You can search by “UHD” to find shows and films that are in 4K UHD quality.

Notice that Netflix shows not just search results, but also categories at the top of the page – these are the categories it’s using to find results for you. If you want to see results from just one of those categories in particular, click on it to focus on that collection of films.

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How to browse Netflix by category

You’re no doubt already familiar with how to browse Netflix by genre and category — just scroll down the homepage, whether you’re in an app on in a web browser. But you have a couple of other options as well.

If you choose “TV Shows” or “Films” at the top of the screen, you’ll switch to a page that displays only one or the other. And when you do, you’ll see a dropdown menu in which you can choose a genre directly, without having to scroll to find it.

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You can also browse by truly oddball, unusual categories. Netflix tracks films by some niche categories, like “wine and beer appreciation,” “understated horror films,” and “quirky romances.” Read our article, “ 27 of the best secret categories on Netflix and how to find them,” to learn about many of these categories.

When you know a specific category’s tag number, you can access that category’s landing page by typing its number into your address bar after the word “genre,” like this: http://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/52858.