diff --git a/packages/api/src/services/library_item.ts b/packages/api/src/services/library_item.ts
index 515abdb6b..dbb0a0998 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/services/library_item.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/services/library_item.ts
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ export interface SearchArgs {
   includeContent?: boolean
   noFilters?: NoFilter[]
   rangeFilters?: RangeFilter[]
+  useFolders?: boolean
 }
 
 export interface SearchResultItem {
@@ -106,9 +107,14 @@ const buildWhereClause = (
 
   if (args.inFilter !== InFilter.ALL) {
     switch (args.inFilter) {
-      case InFilter.INBOX:
+      case InFilter.INBOX: {
+        // if useFolders is true, we only return items in the inbox folder
+        args.useFolders &&
+          queryBuilder.andWhere("library_item.folder = 'inbox'")
+        // for old clients, we return items that are not archived
         queryBuilder.andWhere('library_item.archived_at IS NULL')
         break
+      }
       case InFilter.ARCHIVE:
         queryBuilder.andWhere('library_item.archived_at IS NOT NULL')
         break
diff --git a/packages/api/src/utils/search.ts b/packages/api/src/utils/search.ts
index dde0e019d..bfd0fe1e0 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/utils/search.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/utils/search.ts
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ export interface SearchFilter {
   recommendedBy?: string
   noFilters: NoFilter[]
   rangeFilters: RangeFilter[]
+  useFolders?: boolean
 }
 
 export enum LabelFilterType {
@@ -444,6 +445,7 @@ export const parseSearchQuery = (query: string | undefined): SearchFilter => {
       'rss',
       'wordsCount',
       'readPosition',
+      'use',
     ],
     tokenize: true,
   })
@@ -546,6 +548,9 @@ export const parseSearchQuery = (query: string | undefined): SearchFilter => {
           rangeFilter && result.rangeFilters.push(rangeFilter)
           break
         }
+        case 'use':
+          result.useFolders = keyword.value === 'folders'
+          break
       }
     }
   }