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File search supported file types in OpenAI

Q: File search supported file types in OpenAI

OpenAI file search supports text-based files including .txt, .json, .csv, and .pdf (text-extractable). You upload these files via the OpenAI API and then perform search queries on their content using the file.search endpoint.

Quick answer

OpenAI file search supports text-based files including .txt, .json, .csv, and .pdf (text-extractable). You upload these files via the OpenAI API and then perform search queries on their content using the file.search endpoint.

PREREQUISITES

Python 3.8+
OpenAI API key (free tier works)
pip install openai>=1.0

Setup

Install the official OpenAI Python SDK and set your API key as an environment variable.

bash

pip install openai>=1.0

Step by step

Upload a supported file and perform a search query on its contents using the OpenAI Python SDK v1.

python

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(api_key=os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"])

# Upload a text file (e.g., .txt, .json, .csv, or text-extractable .pdf)
with open("example.txt", "rb") as f:
    upload_response = client.files.create(file=f, purpose="search")
file_id = upload_response.id

# Search the uploaded file for a query
search_response = client.files.search(
    file=file_id,
    query="search term",
    max_rerank=5
)

# Print top search results
for result in search_response.data:
    print(f"Score: {result.score}, Text: {result.text}")

output

Score: 0.95, Text: Relevant excerpt containing 'search term'
Score: 0.87, Text: Another relevant excerpt

Common variations

Use .jsonl files for structured data search.
PDF files must contain extractable text; scanned images are not supported.
Use different models for search ranking by specifying model parameter in files.search.

Troubleshooting

If upload fails, verify file format and size limits (max 100MB).
If search returns no results, check that the file contains searchable text.
Ensure your API key has file access permissions enabled.

✅

Key Takeaways

OpenAI file search supports text-based files like .txt, .json, .csv, and text-extractable .pdf.
Upload files with purpose='search' to enable search queries on their content.
Use the OpenAI Python SDK v1 with environment variable API keys for secure integration.

Verified 2026-04 · gpt-4o, gpt-4o-mini

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