What filtering ships means and why you'd want to do it

Filtering ships on AO3 means telling the site to hide stories that contain romantic or sexual relationships you don't want to read. AO3 is the Archive of Our Own, a fan fiction site where millions of stories are tagged by the relationships they feature — called "ships." When you filter, you're creating a list of ships to exclude, so only stories matching what you actually want to read show up in your search results.

People filter ships for different reasons. You might want to avoid a particular pairing because you don't like how those characters interact, or because a ship appears in a story alongside content you're looking for but don't want to see. Filtering is faster than reading through dozens of story summaries to check the tags yourself.

Key Takeaways

  • You can filter ships by going to the search page, scrolling to "Relationships," and typing the ship name into the "Exclude" box instead of the search box.
  • Ship names on AO3 use a forward slash between character names, like "Character A / Character B," and you need to type them exactly as they appear in the tags.
  • Filtering works on any search — by fandom, by author, or by general tags — and the filter stays active until you clear it or close your browser.
  • If you filter the same ships repeatedly, you can save your search settings so you don't have to type them in every time.

Finding the filter box on the search page

Start by going to AO3's main search page. You can reach it by clicking the "Search" link in the top navigation bar, or by typing a fandom name into the search box on the home page and hitting enter. Either way, you'll land on a page with many filter options arranged in boxes down the left side.

Scroll down the left side until you see a box labeled "Relationships." This box has two text fields: one says "Include" and one says "Exclude." The "Include" field is for ships you want to find. The "Exclude" field is where you type the ships you want to hide. Click inside the "Exclude" field — it's the second text box in that section.

Typing the ship name correctly

Ship names on AO3 follow a specific format, and you need to match it exactly or the filter won't work. The format is the first character's name, then a forward slash, then the second character's name. For example, if you want to filter out a romantic pairing between characters named Alex and Jordan, you would type Alex / Jordan — with spaces on both sides of the slash.

The tricky part is that AO3 tags use the exact spelling and capitalization from the canon source material. If a character's name is spelled "Hermione" in the books, you have to type "Hermione," not "Hermoine." If you're not sure of the exact spelling or capitalization, you can start typing the ship name and AO3 will show you suggestions that match what's actually tagged in the archive. Click the suggestion that matches what you want to filter.

If you want to filter multiple ships at once, type the first one, then press Enter or click outside the box. Type the second ship name in the same "Exclude" field, and repeat. Each ship you add will appear as a separate tag or line in the filter box.

Running your search with the filter active

Once you've typed all the ships you want to exclude, scroll down to the bottom of the filter options and click the blue "Search" button. AO3 will search for stories using whatever other filters you've set — by fandom, by rating, by word count, or anything else — but it will automatically hide any story tagged with the ships you excluded.

The results page will show you how many stories matched your search. If you see a number that seems too low, it might mean your filter is excluding a lot of stories, or it might mean there aren't many stories in that fandom with the tags you're looking for. You can always go back and remove a ship from the "Exclude" box if you want to broaden your results.

Saving your filter settings so you don't repeat them

If you filter the same ships every time you search — for example, if you always want to exclude a particular pairing in a fandom you read a lot — you can save your search so you don't have to type them in again. After you run a search with your filters set, look at the top of the results page. You'll see a link that says "Save this search" or a heart icon you can click.

Click that link or icon, and AO3 will save your search settings under your account. The next time you want to search with those same filters, you can go to your saved searches and click the one you want. Your excluded ships will already be filled in, and you can run the search when ready or add new filters on top of the saved ones.

What happens if you filter a ship that doesn't exist as a tag

If you type a ship name that isn't actually tagged in AO3, nothing bad happens — the filter just won't exclude anything, because there's nothing to exclude. You might see all the stories you would have seen without that filter. This is why matching the exact spelling and format matters: if you type "Alex/Jordan" without spaces and the actual tag is "Alex / Jordan" with spaces, AO3 won't recognize it as the same ship.

If you're not getting the results you expected, double-check that the ship names in your filter match the suggestions AO3 shows you when you start typing. You can also clear all your filters and start over by clicking a "Clear filters" button, usually near the search button.

Filtering ships versus filtering other content

Filtering ships is different from filtering other tags on AO3. Ships are relationships, so they live in the "Relationships" box. If you want to exclude other things — like a specific trope, a rating, or a warning tag — you'll find those in different boxes. For example, "Major Character Death" is in the "Additional Tags" box, and "Explicit" is in the "Rating" box. The same "Exclude" method works for all of them, but you need to use the right box for what you're filtering.

You can combine filters across different boxes. You might exclude a ship in the "Relationships" box and also exclude "Major Character Death" in the "Additional Tags" box in the same search. AO3 will hide stories that have either of those things, so you'll only see stories that match all your other criteria but have neither the excluded ship nor that warning tag.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to create an account to filter ships?

No. You can filter ships without logging in. However, if you want to save your searches so the filters are there the next time you visit, you do need an account. Creating an account on AO3 is free and takes a few minutes.

If I filter a ship, will it hide all stories with that pairing, even if it's not the main relationship?

Yes. AO3 filters by tags, and if a story is tagged with a ship you've excluded, the whole story will be hidden, even if that ship is a minor subplot. If you want to read stories where a ship appears but isn't the focus, you'll need to remove it from your filter or search without filtering.

Can I filter ships on my phone or mobile app?

The web version of AO3 works on phones, and you can filter ships the same way. The official AO3 mobile app has limited filtering options, so if you need to filter ships, the web version is more reliable.

What if the ship name has special characters or punctuation?

Type it exactly as AO3 shows it in the tag suggestions. If a character's name includes an apostrophe or other punctuation, include that in your filter. AO3 will show you the correct format when you start typing.

Can I filter ships by one direction only, like "Alex / Jordan" but not "Jordan / Alex"?

Not directly through the filter. AO3 treats "Alex / Jordan" and "Jordan / Alex" as separate tags, so you would have to exclude both if you want to hide that pairing entirely. You can type both ship names into the "Exclude" box to filter both directions at once.