Kaizen #178 - Filters & Criteria in Zoho CRM APIs

Kaizen #178 - Filters & Criteria in Zoho CRM APIs


Hey everyone, and welcome back to another week of Kaizen!

Ever felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data in your Zoho CRM? Sifting through countless records to find exactly what you need, or to operate on specific records that meet a certain criteria, can indeed be a real time-sink. Fortunately, Zoho CRM provides powerful filtering capabilities through its APIs to streamline this process.

What is criteria or filter?

In Zoho CRM APIs, criteria refer to the conditions applied to filter records when making API requests. These conditions can be simple (single condition) or complex (multiple conditions) and are specified using various comparators.

Depending on the API type and request method, the filter can be provided either:
  • As a query parameter (filters) – Used in GET requests.
  • As an input key in the request body (criteria)– Used in POST and PUT requests   

Where is "filters" used in Zoho CRM APIs?

The filters parameter is supported across multiple Zoho CRM API endpoints, including but not limited to:

Where is "criteria" used in Zoho CRM APIs?

The criteria key is supported across multiple Zoho CRM API endpoints, including but not limited to:
The filters parameter and criteria key are supported across multiple Zoho CRM API endpoints. Refer to our API help documentation for individual APIs to check if these options are available. Check the Parameters section for filters and the Input JSON section for criteria
 in the API's help documentation.

Constructing a criteria or a filter

Zoho CRM APIs use JSON-based criteria/filters expressions, which consist of:
  • Field API Name – The field to filter (e.g., Email, Created_Time, Status).
  • Comparator – The operator defining how the field should be compared (equals, greater_than, etc.).
  • Value – The specific value to compare against.

Single Condition

A single condition is structured as follows:
{
  "field": {
    "api_name": "Post_Number"
  },
  "comparator": "greater_than",
  "value": 1
}

Here,
  • field specifies the API name of the field to be filtered.
  • comparator indicates the type of comparison to be made (e.g., greater_than).
  • value is the value against which the field is compared.

Multiple Conditions

When multiple conditions are required, they can be grouped using the logical operators "and" or "or". Here’s the syntax of how to structure multiple conditions:
{
  "group_operator": "or",
  "group": [
    {
      "field": {
        "api_name": "Post_Number"
      },
      "comparator": "greater_than",
      "value": 1
    },
    {
      "field": {
        "api_name": "Pre_Number"
      },
      "comparator": "greater_than",
      "value": 1
    }
  ]
}

Here,
  • group_operator can be "and" or "or". It defines how the conditions within the group array are evaluated. "and" means all conditions must be true, while "or" means at least one condition must be true.
  • group
     contains an array of condition objects, each with its own field, comparator, and value.
Following is an example for a criteria with more than two conditions:
{
  "criterion": {
    "group_operator": "and",
    "group": [
      {
        "field": {
          "api_name": "Post_Number"
        },
        "comparator": "greater_than",
        "value": 1
      },
      {
        "group_operator": "or",
        "group": [
          {
            "field": {
              "api_name": "Pre_Number"
            },
            "comparator": "greater_than",
            "value": 1
          },
          {
            "field": {
              "api_name": "Status"
            },
            "comparator": "equals",
            "value": "Active"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Supported Comparators for Different Field Types

The available comparators depend on the field type. The following table outlines the supported comparators for different field types:

Field Type
Supported Comparators
Example
text/ textarea
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains , starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "text"
   },
   "value": "zoho"

}
email
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "contains",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Email"
   },
   "value": "patricia"
}
phone
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Phone"
   },
   "value": "9999999999"
}
website
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "contains",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "website"
   },
   "value": "zoho"
}
picklist
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "picklist"
   },
   "value": [
       "Cold Call",
        "Call"
   ]
}
multiselectpicklist
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Multi_Select_Picklist"
   },
   "value": [
         "Cold Call",
        "Call"
   ]
}
date
equal, not_equal, less_than, greater_than, between, not_between, less_equal, greater_equal
Example 1:
{
   "comparator": "less_than",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "date"
   },
   "value": "01-01-2025"

}
Example 2:
{
   "comparator": "between",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "date"
   },
   "value": [
          "01-01-2025",
           "02-01-2025",
}
datetime
equal, not_equal, less_than, greater_than, between, not_between, less_equal, greater_equal
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "date"
   },
   "value": "2025-01-01T12:12:06+05:30"
}
autonumber
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "starts_with",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Auto_Number"
   },
   "value": "A01"
}
integer
equal, not_equal, less_than, less_equal, greater_than, greater_equal, between, not_between
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "integer"
   },
   "value": 4
}
currency
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Currency"
   },
   "value": "INR"
}
double
equal, not_equal, less_than, less_equal, greater_than, greater_equal, between, not_between
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Double"
   },
   "value": "123"
}
Boolean
equal
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Boolean"
   },
   "value": true
}
big int
equal, not_equal, less_than, less_equal, greater_than, greater_equal, between, not_between
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "id"
   },
   "value": "1234800023843923"
}
lookup
equal, not_equal, less_than, less_equal, greater_than, greater_equal, between, not_between
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Lookup.name"
   },
   "value": "Name1"
}
ownerlookup/userlookup
in, not_in 
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Modified_By",
       "id": "400029000000000479"
   },
   "value": [
       {
           "id": "400029000003984001",
           "name": "User1"
       },
       {
           "id": 400029000003984002,
           "name": "User2"
       }
   ]
}
formula
Comparator will depend on the return type
-



Notes
Note: 
  • Use quotes for strings and picklists; do not use quotes for numbers and boolean values.
  • While Zoho CRM’s filtering capabilities are extensive, certain field types — including subforms, multi-select lookup fields, multi-user lookup fields, and multi-module lookup fields — are not supported in filters and criteria. The above table lists all the supported field types. 

Filtering in COQL Queries

COQL (CRM Object Query Language) provides a structured way to retrieve records from Zoho CRM using SQL-like queries. Unlike the standard API filters discussed above, COQL uses the WHERE clause to define conditions.

Here is a sample COQL query:

{
  "select_query": "SELECT Full_Name, Email FROM Leads WHERE Lead_Status = 'Qualified'"
}

Here, Lead_Status = 'Qualified' acts as the filtering criteria.

{
  "select_query": "SELECT Full_Name, Email FROM Leads WHERE (Lead_Status = 'Qualified' AND City = 'New York') OR (Industry = 'Software')"
}

The AND and OR operators allow for multiple conditions in the WHERE clause. We have covered COQL API, and all the supported field types and operators in detail in our Kaizen posts. Kindly refer to them for more details.

Criteria in Search API

In Search API, filtering records is done using the criteria (string) input key in the request body. Unlike filters in GET requests or criteria in other APIs, criteria here is a text-based filter expression that follows a specific syntax.

(({api_name}:{operator}:{value})and/or({api_name}:{operator}:{value}))
  • You can combine up to 10 conditions using and or or.
  • Only the equals operator is supported for encrypted fields.
  • When using "equals" in Search API, it behaves like "contains", meaning it fetches records that include the specified value, not just exact matches.
  • If you use parentheses (), commas, or backslashes \ in values, you must escape them properly and encode the value before making the request.
Field Type
Supported Operators
Date, DateTime
equals, not_equal, greater_equal, greater_than, less_equal, less_than, between, in
Integer, Currency, Decimal
equals, not_equal, greater_equal, greater_than, less_equal, less_than, between, in
Boolean
equals, not_equal
textarea
equals, not_equal, starts_with
Lookup (user/owner)
equals, not_equal, in
Picklist, Autonumber
equals, not_equal, in
Text, Email, Phone, Website 
equals, not_equal, starts_with, in
multiselectpicklist
equals, not_equal, in, starts_with.
bigint
equals, not_equal, greater_than, greater_equal, less_than, less_equal, between, in
percent
equals, not_equal, greater_than, greater_equal, less_than, less_equal, between, in
formula
The supported operators of the formula datatype will depend on the return type of the formula


Have questions or use cases to share? Feel free to share them in the comments below or reach out to our support team directly at support@zohocrm.com.

Thank you for joining us this week. Stay tuned for more insights in our upcoming Kaizen posts! Happy Coding!!



    • Recent Topics

    • Incoming mails blocked

      Zoho User ID : 60005368884 My mail Id is marketing#axisformingtechnology.com .I am getting following message "Your Incoming has been blocked and the emails will not be fetched in your Zoho account and POP Accounts. Click here to get unblocked." Please

    • Configuring Email Notifications with Tautulli for Plex

      Hi I'm new to Zoho. I am from Canada and I have a I use a web based application called Tautulli for Plex that monitors my Plex media server. It also sends a newsletter to my followers. To set this up they require a "From" email address., a smtp server

    • How to Set Up Zoho Mail Without Cloudflare on My Website

      I'm having some trouble with Cloudflare here in Pakistan. I want to configure Zoho Mail for my domain, but I'm not sure how to set it up without going through Cloudflare. My website, https://getcrunchyrollapk.com/ , is currently using CF, but I'd like

    • Spam is Being Forwarded

      I am filtering a certain sender directly to the Trash folder. Those messages are still being forwarded. Is this supposed to happen?

    • IMAP Block

      My two accounts have been blocked and I am not able to unblocked them myself. Please respond to email, I am traveling and this is urgent.

    • "DKIM not configured"

      Hello. I have been attempting get the DKIM verified but Toolkit keeps sending the message that it is not configured, but both Namecheap and Zoho show it as configured properly. What am I missing?

    • Zoho mail with custom domain not receiving email

      i registered zoho mail with my own domain. I can login and access the mail app. I tried to send email from an outlook email account and an icloud email account. Both emails were not received. My plan is free. I also tried to send email from this zoho

    • Set connection link name from variable in invokeurl

      Hi, guys. How to set in parameter "connection" a variable, instead of a string. connectionLinkName = manager.get('connectionLinkName').toString(); response = invokeurl [ url :"https://www.googleapis.com/calendar/v3/freeBusy" type :POST parameters:requestParams.toString()

    • Waterfall Chart

      Hello, I would like to create a waterfall chart on Zoho analytics which shows the movement in changes of budget throughout a few months, on a weekly basis. Should look something like the picture below. Does anyone know how to?

    • Issue with Importing Notes against Leads

      Hi, I am attempting to import some Notes into Zoho CRM which need to be assigned to various Leads. I have created a csv file which I am testing that contains just one record. This csv file contains the following columns: Note Id Parent Id       (I have

    • Trigger a Workflow Function if an Attachment (Related List) has been added

      Hello, I have a Case Module with a related list which is Attachment. I want to trigger a workflow if I added an attachment. I've seen some topics about this in zoho community that was posted few months ago and based on the answers, there is no trigger

    • Option to Hide Project Overview for Client Profiles

      In Zoho Projects, the Project Overview section is currently visible to client profiles by default. While user profiles already have the option to restrict or hide access to the project overview, the same flexibility isn’t available for client profiles.

    • Creator Add Records through API - Workflows not triggered ?

      Hi Everyone, I am trying to add records to my Creator application through a third party app that I am developing. Currently, I am testing this through Postman. The records I need to add have a lot of workflows to run to populate dropdowns, fields, use

    • Important Update: Changes to Google Translate Support in Zoho SalesIQ

      We’re updating our default chat translation options across all Zoho SalesIQ data centres to offer a more secure, in-house solution for your translation needs. What’s changing? We will be offering Zoho Translate (our in-house tool) as the default translation

    • Zoho CRM Community Digest - July P1 | 2025

      Hey everyone, The start of July 2025 marked a special milestone: 200 posts in our Kaizen series! For those new here, Kaizen is a go-to series for Zoho CRM developers, where we regularly share best practices, tips, and expert insights to help you build

    • What’s New in Zoho Expense (April – July 2025)

      Hello users, We're happy to bring you the latest updates and enhancements we've made to Zoho Expense over the past three months, which include introducing the Trip Expense Summary report in Analytics, extending Chatbot support to more editions, rolling

    • Weekly Tips: Insert frequently used phrases in a jiffy using Hotkeys

      You often find yourself using similar phrases in an email —like confirming appointments or providing standard information. Constantly switching between the mouse and keyboard interrupts your flow and slows you down.Instead of typing the same phrases over

    • Undo Command in Notebook

      It would be handy to have an Undo in the row of icons at the bottom of the notes.

    • New Customization options in the module builder: Quick Create and Detail view

      Hello everyone, We have introduced two new components to the module builder: Quick create and Detail view. The Quick Create Component It is a mini form used to create a record and associate it to the parent record from a lookup field. For example, if you have a Deals lookup in the Contacts module, then you can associate existing deals or create a deal and associate it with the contact. You can customize this Quick Create form by adding standard as well as custom fields. There is no limit to the number

    • Narrative 9: GC—Meaningful conversations that benefit your customers

      Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system - BTS Series Narrative 9: GC—Meaningful conversations that benefit your customers Customers often seek immediate solutions, which is why self-service options are essential. Guided Conversations provides

    • FSM App Oddity

      We recently rolled out FSM to our technicians, and only one technician is having an issue. He's using an iPhone with iOS 18.6 installed. When he goes to service appointments using the calendar icon at the bottom of the app, he gets a list view only. Typically,

    • Cliq Not Working !

      Zoho Cliq has been experiencing connectivity issues since this morning. The app is unable to establish a connection with the server.

    • Injecting CSS into ZML pages

      Is there a way to inject CSS into ZML pages? Use case: 1. Dashboard displays 'Recent Activities' card displaying a list of newly added records 2. Each item in list links to the record onClick 3. When a user points the cursor over an item in the list,

    • Power of Automation :: Automated Weekly Notifications for Unapproved Timesheets

      Hello Everyone, A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate

    • Extracting Data from Sitelink APIs

      Hi All, I'm working to pull data on Sitelink using API calls but i can't seem to extract it. If you click expand, you will see it has a lot of data in it. I tried extracting from the map but it's not giving me anything. Is there a workaround on this or

    • Export a list of fields for all modules in a spreadsheet with specific field data

      Many of my clients are using spreadsheets to create lists of fields for all modules when starting a new implementation or when updating an existing setup. This is a useful process but also a very time consuming one. It would be good a list of fields could

    • [Important announcement] Zoho Writer will mandate DKIM configuration for automation users

      Hi all, Effective Dec. 31, 2024, configuring DKIM for From addresses will be mandatory to send emails via Zoho Writer. DKIM configuration allows recipient email servers to identify your emails as valid and not spam. Emails sent from domains without DKIM

    • 【Zoho Backstage】2025年7月のアップデート紹介

      本投稿は、本社のZoho Desk コミュニティに投稿された以下の記事を翻訳し、一部抜粋したものです。 What's New - July 2025 | Zoho Backstage ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの中野です。 本投稿では、Zoho Backstage の直近のアップデートを3点抜粋して、ご紹介します。 目次 1.参加可否の確認：RSVP 2.証明書作成ツール：Certificate Builder 3.登録の承認 ：Registration Approval 1.参加可否の確認：RSVP

    • Can we have Backorder Management ?

      Can we have Backorder Management ?

    • Display a field of an Account on the Ticket view

      Hi there, We would like to display of the Account of the user submitting a ticket on the ticket view. See for example: How can this be achieved? It doesn't really matter where it will be placed as long as it is shown there. Thanks, Snir

    • Insurance Agencies

      I am reaching out to see if anyone has any experience in the Insurance Agency world with using Zoho exclusively for the CRM and commissions side of things. Lots of strong features like drip campaigns, meeting, calendars, emails, can all be found in here.

    • Problem with Egyptian internet ISP

      Dears,  We have problem with our ADSL internet SP, That your site not working with. So, we contact them and they asking us to contact you to solve this problem.  The problem that when we are connecting to Tedata ADSL your website not working (Business Email).  BR,, Mohamed Omar 

    • Mail Not Showing In Inbox or Sent Box

      Hi, there are mails that are not displaying in both my inbox and sent box. I just tried the iPad app and it is the same but there is a blank field where a mail should be and it refers to a server error. Please fix this.

    • Marketing Automation List Entry Criteria is no longer an option

      For a couple of years now we have used the "List Entry Criteria" option to filter our Journey recipient list. All of a suddent the option no longer exists for New Lists and I can only delete the option from existing lists but can no longer edit it. Anyone

    • GCLID arrives not in CRM with iframe integrated ZOHO Form

      Hello amazing community, I enabled Adwords integration in ZOHO CRM. I have a ZOHO Form integrated in a wordpress. I tested iframe and Javascript. I enabled the "handover" GCLID in the ZOHO Form. When I add a GLID with http://www.example.com/?gclid=TeSter-123.

    • Bidirectional sync between Zoho Bookings and Zoho CRM - Part 1

      Hey, community members! The default integration between Zoho CRM and Zoho Bookings is unidirectional, which means that any appointments booked, rescheduled, or deleted in Zoho Bookings will be reflected in Zoho CRM. However, any modifications made to

    • Is it possible to edit placeholder text?

      In the master slides I want to make sure my templates have more meaning for the users and want to replace the standard placeholder text with something more instructional. Instead of "Click to edit Mast subtitle styles" I want to have "Click to enter reporting

    • Delay function execute

      I've got a workflow which uses a webhook to send information to Flow, which in return updates a record in Creator. Problem is, by the time this has executed, the rest of my script has run and can't find the (yet to be) updated info in the record. Is there

    • How to allow download of a file AFTER information is collected?

      I can't find this anywhere. Can someone help with what seems to be a pretty basic web function today? - File is stored in Workdrive - Prospect goes to a URL where the file is located - System requests prospect to enter "Name" and "Email" - An email is

    • Add Baseline methods to API

      There are no API methods for creating or querying baselines,  Use case: Customer is notified of the current project start date according to plan via another product/integration. We would like to auto create a baseline (Automated via API) at the point

    • Next Page