How to Find PDFs, Excel, and Word Files with Google filetype: Dorks

By the getdork team — Published June 12, 2026

The filetype: operator (alias: ext:) tells Google to return only results matching a specific document format. Pair it with keywords and an optional site: filter and you can surface publicly indexed PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoints, and CSVs that ordinary keyword searches bury. Common uses: finding government RFPs, competitor price lists, industry research reports, and public data exports.
On this page

Syntax and supported file formats

The basic syntax is: filetype:extension keyword. Order does not matter — filetype:pdf "annual report" and "annual report" filetype:pdf are equivalent. The ext: operator is an identical alias introduced by Google as an alternate form; both work the same way in 2026.

Format Operator What you find
PDF filetype:pdf Reports, RFPs, white papers, brochures, menus, rate sheets, government documents
Excel (modern) filetype:xlsx Data exports, price lists, vendor rosters, survey results, financial models
Excel (legacy) filetype:xls Older spreadsheets — many government and legacy systems still publish .xls
Word (modern) filetype:docx Proposals, policies, contracts (publicly posted), job descriptions
PowerPoint filetype:pptx / filetype:ppt Conference presentations, company overview decks, training materials
CSV filetype:csv Raw data, open-data exports from municipalities and agencies
Plain text filetype:txt Config files, README files, plain-text data dumps

Google does not index every file type. Binary formats, proprietary database files, images, audio, and video are not returned by filetype:. If you are unsure whether a format is indexed, run a broad test query with just filetype:ext and no other filters — if results come back at all, the format is indexed.

How to build a filetype: query (6 steps)

  1. Pick your format. Choose the file type that is most likely to contain the data you need. Government procurement offices publish RFPs as PDFs. Municipalities often publish open data as CSVs. Conference speakers publish decks as PPTXs.
  2. Add filetype: to your query. Place it anywhere in the string: filetype:pdf "vendor list" or "vendor list" filetype:pdf both work.
  3. Restrict the domain with site:. Combine with a TLD (site:.gov, site:.edu) or a specific domain (site:cityofmemphis.org) to focus on authoritative sources.
  4. Phrase-match your keyword. Wrap multi-word document types in quotes: "request for proposal", "price list", "annual report". This prevents Google from returning pages that mention those words separately.
  5. Add intitle: for named documents. When you know the document's title structure, add intitle:"procurement schedule" to require the phrase in the indexed title rather than just the body.
  6. Exclude noise with minus. If results include irrelevant domains, add -site:scribd.com or -site:slideshare.net to exclude aggregator sites re-hosting the file type you need.

Copy-paste examples by use case

Finding RFPs and government procurement documents

# RFP PDFs from US federal and state government sites
filetype:pdf "request for proposal" site:.gov 2026

# IT services RFPs specifically
filetype:pdf "request for proposal" "information technology" site:.gov

# Municipal procurement — city or county level
filetype:pdf "solicitation" OR "bid invitation" site:.gov "Memphis" OR "Tennessee"

Finding publicly indexed price lists and rate sheets

# General price list PDFs from a specific company domain
filetype:pdf "price list" site:supplier.com

# Excel rate sheets — useful for wholesale or distribution research
filetype:xlsx "rate sheet" OR "price list"

# Medical fee schedules (often published by insurers or CMS)
filetype:xlsx "fee schedule" site:.gov

Finding research reports and white papers

# Industry research reports from .edu or .gov sources
filetype:pdf "market research" "healthcare" site:.edu

# Annual reports from publicly traded companies
filetype:pdf "annual report" 2025 site:investor.companyname.com

# Conference presentation decks
filetype:pptx "keynote" "2026" "cybersecurity"

Finding CSV data exports

# Open data CSV files from government sources
filetype:csv "business license" site:.gov

# Publicly indexed data files from a known domain
filetype:csv site:data.cityofmemphis.org

Finding Word document proposals and policies

# Publicly posted RFP response templates
filetype:docx "proposal template" site:.gov

# HR policies that are intentionally public
filetype:docx "employee handbook" site:companyname.com

Combining filetype: with other operators

filetype: stacks cleanly with every other Google operator. The most useful combinations:

CombinationWhat it does
filetype:pdf site:.gov PDFs on government sites only — highest signal for procurement/policy docs
filetype:xlsx intitle:"vendor" Excel files whose indexed title contains "vendor" — finds rosters and approved-supplier lists
filetype:pdf inurl:"rfp" PDFs at URLs containing "rfp" — the URL often signals document type better than the body text
filetype:pdf "Q1 2026" -site:scribd.com Fresh quarterly reports, excluding document-hosting aggregators
filetype:csv OR filetype:xlsx Either spreadsheet format — useful when you do not know which version a publisher uses

For the full operator reference, see the Google search operators cheat sheet. For a complete introduction to how dork queries work, see What is Google dorking?

Build filetype: queries without memorizing syntax.
getdork's query builder includes file type filters, domain filters, and keyword fields in a single form. Generate the query string free — or run it in-app with a Pro account and get results with titles, URLs, and snippets ready to export.

Start free at getdork.com →
Responsible use of document dorks

All documents returned by filetype: are publicly indexed — placed on open web servers and crawled by Google. Reading them is no different from visiting any public webpage. However, two situations call for extra care:

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between filetype: and ext: in Google?

They are identical aliases — filetype:pdf and ext:pdf return the same results. Google introduced ext: as an alternate syntax. Either works reliably; most documentation uses filetype: by convention.

Which file types does Google index?

Google officially indexes: PDF, DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, PPT/PPTX, TXT, RTF, CSV, ODT, ODS, ODP, and a few others. It does not index binary proprietary formats, images, audio, video, or formats like DWG or PSD. When unsure, run a bare filetype:ext query with no other terms — if any results appear, the format is indexed.

Can I search for Excel files specifically — not all spreadsheets?

Yes. Use filetype:xlsx for the modern Office Open XML format or filetype:xls for the older binary format. Government and legacy systems often still publish .xls, so searching both is good practice: filetype:xlsx OR filetype:xls "vendor roster"

Is it legal to download publicly indexed documents I find this way?

Documents indexed by Google are publicly accessible — they are on open servers with no authentication. Reading or downloading them is generally lawful. Use common sense when the content looks accidental rather than intentional: an internal price list on a public server may be a publishing error. Use the data for research; do not republish personally identifiable information you find in such files.

Why do my filetype: searches return very few results?

Most commonly: the domain blocks Googlebot from crawling document paths in robots.txt, the files carry a noindex header, or the particular file type is simply not published on that domain. Try removing the site: filter first to confirm the file type exists broadly on the web, then re-add the domain filter.

Related guides