---
title: searchChats
description: Searches for specified query in the title and username of known chats, offline request. Returns chats in the order of them in the chat list
---
## Method: searchChats  
[Back to methods index](index.md)


Searches for specified query in the title and username of known chats, offline request. Returns chats in the order of them in the chat list

### Params:

| Name     |    Type       | Required | Description |
|----------|:-------------:|:--------:|------------:|
|query|[string](../types/string.md) | Yes|Query to search for, if query is empty, returns up to 20 recently found chats|
|limit|[int](../types/int.md) | Yes|Maximum number of chats to be returned|


### Return type: [Chats](../types/Chats.md)

### Example:


```
$MadelineProto = new \danog\MadelineProto\API();
if (isset($token)) {
    $this->bot_login($token);
}
if (isset($number)) {
    $sentCode = $MadelineProto->phone_login($number);
    echo 'Enter the code you received: ';
    $code = '';
    for ($x = 0; $x < $sentCode['type']['length']; $x++) {
        $code .= fgetc(STDIN);
    }
    $MadelineProto->complete_phone_login($code);
}

$Chats = $MadelineProto->searchChats(['query' => string, 'limit' => int, ]);
```

Or, if you're into Lua:

```
Chats = searchChats({query=string, limit=int, })
```