Does "Content search" show all matches or the first match?

Last updated: 2026-09-21

Understand how Content Search displays matching results — whether it shows all matches or only the first match found in each document or item.

This article will advise you how the SharePoint Content Search report matches and displays results.

Question

When I use Content Search to find content with text, does it show all matches for a single document/item (hence, multiple rows in report for each match) or does it only show the first match (for a document/item)?

Answer

Content Search will show ALL MATCHES based on the criteria provided.

You can specify to show results in a separate row, or to merge all results into a single row.

For example, if we use these search options

It will display the results in separate rows: