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SEC API has three different search jobs. Choose the one that matches how you will use the result:
  • Full-text search finds both filing records and matching sections for an exact query.
  • Semantic search retrieves conceptually related sections when the wording may differ.
  • Section search searches extracted filing sections and returns citation-ready passages.
Search is retrieval, not a conclusion. Read the returned passage, preserve its accession number and source URL, and let an investor or downstream policy decide what the disclosure means.

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Full-text search: exact terms across filings and sections

curl "https://api.secapi.ai/v1/search/fulltext?q=revenue%20recognition%20policy&ticker=AAPL&form=10-K&limit=5" \
  -H "x-api-key: $SECAPI_API_KEY"
The response contains both filings and sections lists. Use this when you want exact-term matches and the filing record around them. 
curl "https://api.secapi.ai/v1/search/semantic?q=supply%20chain%20disruption%20risk&ticker=MSFT&form=10-K&mode=hybrid&limit=5" \
  -H "x-api-key: $SECAPI_API_KEY"
mode can be keyword, semantic, or hybrid; the default is hybrid. The response has a sections.data list. In the default view, each result includes retrieval metadata. view=agent keeps the citation fields while omitting score and retrieval-mode metadata where the endpoint documents that projection.

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Section search: a cited passage for a known research question

curl "https://api.secapi.ai/v1/sections/search?q=going%20concern&ticker=AAPL&form=10-K&limit=5&view=agent" \
  -H "x-api-key: $SECAPI_API_KEY"
Section and semantic-search results can include accession, section_key, source_url, char_start, char_end, and highlighted_snippet. The character offsets refer to the returned section markdown, not raw SEC HTML. When offsets are unavailable, keep the accession and source URL but do not try to slice text; the response explains the degraded citation state.

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Use the result safely

  1. Open the source_url or retrieve the section by (accession, section_key).
  2. Keep the accession number, filing date, and request ID beside your excerpt or model output.
  3. Treat a match as evidence to review, not proof that a company has the risk, event, or accounting treatment you searched for.
  4. Constrain repeatable work with ticker, form, date, or filing-year filters before expanding the corpus.

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Learn the exact contract

For commercial context, see the search feature page, semantic-search glossary entry, and SEC filing RAG guide.