Can I combine include and exclude lists?

Yes, along with boost_domains on search and news. q plus the compiled operators must stay within 2,048 characters.

Do filters work with engine=consensus?

include_domains and exclude_domains do: every provider receives them and they apply to the merged rows. A provider whose rows were all dropped isn't billed.

Can I use a date range with time=day?

No. start_date and end_date can't be combined with time or tbs; pick one.

Can monitors use filters?

Search and news monitors save include and exclude lists and time, but not absolute date ranges, boosts or highlights.

include_domains · exclude_domains · boost_domains

Domain and date filters

Keep an agent on the sources you trust: restrict results to a list of domains, path prefixes or TLDs, drop the ones you don't want, move favourites to the top, and bound everything by publish date.

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How it works

Include, exclude and boost domains; bound by publish date.

include_domains and exclude_domains take up to 20 entries each: a domain (example.com, subdomains included), a path prefix (github.com/serpkite) or a TLD (.gov). They're compiled into search operators and then enforced on the returned rows, so a result from an unwanted site never slips through, whichever engine answered.

boost_domains filters nothing: matching rows move to the top and both groups keep their order. start_date and end_date (YYYY-MM-DD) bound results by publish date, and every dated result carries a typed published_at in ISO 8601.

Filters work on search, news, images and videos and cost nothing extra. A page where nothing matches is an empty result and isn't billed.

Trusted sources only

cURL

TypeScript

Python

curl https://api.serpkite.com/v1/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SERPKITE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"q":"rust async runtime","include_domains":["github.com","docs.rs"],"exclude_domains":["reddit.com"],"start_date":"2026-01-01"}'

What an entry matches

What an entry matches
Entry	Matches
`example.com`	`example.com` and every subdomain (`www.`, `docs.`…)
`github.com/serpkite`	Pages under that path prefix only
`.gov`	Every host in that top-level domain

Why it matters

What you get

Enforced, not hinted

Rows that don't match are dropped and positions renumbered, even if an engine treats site: as a hint.

Boost without filtering

boost_domains lifts your preferred sources while keeping the rest of the page.

Date ranges and typed dates

start_date and end_date bound results; published_at turns "3 days ago" into a real date.

No extra credits

Filters are free, and a filtered page with nothing left isn't billed.

FAQ