How to search and explore your content in Dropbox Dash

Updated Apr 02, 2026

How to search and explore your content with Dropbox Dash

You can quickly and easily find and create content from apps that you or your admin have connected to Dash. Learn how to connect apps to Dropbox Dash.

How does searching web content in Dash work?

Dash uses OpenAI’s web search API (gpt-5-mini) to search the internet and summarize relevant web content in your Dash Chat results.

Enter your query in the search bar to find specific items, or click one of the options below the search bar before entering your query to use that feature:

Attach sources: Attach supported files or folders to include with your query.
Chat controls
- Web search: Enable or disable web search by using the checkbox.
- Model: Select the AI model you want to use, or leave it on “Best” to select the best option for your task.
- Connect apps: Connect third-party apps to Dash.

Note: You can only use the search bar to search content on the Dash desktop app and the Dash mobile app.

Attach sources

Follow these steps to attach sources to your query:

Log in to dash.ai.
- If you’re using the desktop app, press control-shift-e (Windows) or command-shift-e (macOS) to open the app window.
Click (add) and select your desired files or folders.

Notes:

File upload size limit: 25 MB per file.
Supported file types include:
- Documents: .csv, .doc, .docx, .md, .pdf, .txt, .xlsx, .xls
- Images (up to 50 per chat session): .bmp, .gif, .jpg (.jpeg), .png, .tiff, .webp
- Videos: .3gp, .3gpp, .3gpp2, .asf, .avi, .dv, .m2t, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .mp4, .mpeg, .mpg, .mts, .mxf

Chat controls

Web search

You can use Dash to search the internet for answers to your questions. Web search allows you to find answers from across the web and view them directly in Dash Chat.

Follow these steps to search the web from dash.ai.

Log in to dash.ai using your credentials.
Click (slider) All content at the bottom of the text box near the (Attach sources) button
Check “Web search”
- Note: Web search will be enabled by default. You can toggle between web search and searching your content and connected apps by checking or unchecking this box within the current or future chats.
Enter your question in the text box.
Click (send) to generate your answer.

Dash Chat will generate answers based on its web search. You can ask follow-up questions and refine answers by typing instructions in the text bar.

Learn more about Dash Chat.

Share Chat

You can allow others to view existing and future messages using the Share Chat feature.

Follow the steps below to share your Chat:

Enter a question or message into your Chat box.
Click (send) to generate your answer.
Click the Share button that appears next to the button on your screen.
Click the Copy Link button.
- You’ll see a small message in your Chat window that says “Shared link created. Manage links”
Send the link to the intended recipient(s).

Note: Drafts aren’t included in shared links. Only Chat messages will be shared.

Manage shared Chat links

You can manage previously-shared links to revoke access to that link.

You can manage your shared Chat links in two places:

Immediately after sharing a link, you may click “Manage links” as noted in the Share Chat section, above.
Go to Dash Settings by clicking Account > Settings > General > Data & Security.

Note: Managing a link to revoke access will prevent future access to that shared chat using that specific link. This does not impact anyone’s document access levels.

Model

You can select the AI model you want to use by browsing through the Model menu.

By default, “Best” is selected and will automatically determine the best available model for your query.

Connect apps

Use this option to connect supported, third-party apps to Dropbox Dash.

Notes:

Dash uses third-party AI to reference the web.
The data you send is not used to train or improve OpenAI models.
Dropbox does not use your data to build generative AI models. Learn more. Learn more about Dropbox Dash’s AI trust and security principles.

Log in to dash.ai.
- If you’re using the desktop app, press control-shift-e (Windows) or command-shift-e (macOS) to open the app window.
Enter your search term, question, or phrase in the search bar.
- Notes:
  - You can ask about content from a connected app, limiting results to that app.
  - Dash uses text from titles, content, and your recent interactions to quickly rank relevant results for you while you type. Select a suggestion or enter your full query.
  - You can search for video, image, and design files by title, folder and file path, and EXIF data (location, date taken, resolution, and camera model), where applicable.
You can also use typeahead filtering to refine your search, if you’d like:
- from: to find files or messages from a specific person
- in: to search within a particular app
- time: to filter by date
- type: to search by file type (such as documents, spreadsheets, emails, and images)
Press enter on your keyboard to see a full list of search results.
- Click the filters at the top of the search results page to refine your search by App, Type, Updated, or People, if you’d like.

You can filter for text found in images by clicking Type, followed by Image, and then clicking Text Found.

You’ll see previews of videos and images that match your query, and can enlarge that preview by clicking the thumbnail.

The following file types are supported when searching for multimedia:

Image files: .gif, .heic, .jpg, .png, .svg, .tiff, .webp
Text from image files: .jpg, .pdf, .png, .tiff
Video files: .3gp, .3gp2, .3gpp, .asf, .asx, .axv, .avi, .dif, .dl, .dv, .fli, .flv, .gl, .m2t, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .movie, .mpe, .mp4, .mpg, .mpv, .mts, .mxu, .ogv, .qt, .ts, .vob, .webm, .wm, .wmv, .wmx, .wvx
Design files: .aep, .ai, .indd, .psd, .prproj, Canva files

Dash can retrieve multimedia search results stored on Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Canva, as long as these apps have been connected to your Dash account. Learn how to connect apps to Dropbox Dash.

Notes:

Searching for text in image files is currently only supported on dash.ai and the Dropbox Dash desktop app
Follow-up questions are only available on dash.ai.

Searching for images by content

You can search for images based on the content of the image. For example, you can enter “sunset type:image” or “party type:image” in the search bar, and images featuring those terms will appear in your search results, even if the title or metadata of the file doesn’t include the search term.

Note: You can’t search for images of people by name using this feature.

Note: This feature is only available on Chrome and Edge browsers.

You can quickly search across all of your Dash content through the Dash browser extension.

To do so:

Click ①(Dropbox) next to the address bar of your browser.
- If you don’t see ① (Dropbox), click ☑ (extensions) and select ① Dropbox Dash from the dropdown.
Click ☑ in the top-left of the panel.
Enter your query in the text bar labelled Find.

Tips:

In the Dash desktop app, use control-e (Windows) or command-e (macOS) at any time to open a search box and start a search instantly.
If you have the Dropbox Dash browser extension installed, you can also search by entering “ds” and the space key directly into the address bar on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. “Dropbox Dash |” will appear, and you can start entering your query.
Admins can set files as verified, indicated by a (verification checkmark), meaning those files have been reviewed and confirmed as the most relevant and up-to-date resource for specific search terms. Learn more about verified results.