# termQuery vs. termFilter

<https://discuss.elastic.co/t/termquery-vs-termfilter/4839>

Which query should I prefer? This filter query:

srb.setQuery(QueryBuilders.filteredQuery(QueryBuilders.matchAllQuery(),\
FilterBuilders.termFilter("someField", "someValue")));

or this termQuery:

srb.setQuery(QueryBuilders.termQuery("someField", "someValue"));

&#x20;**Use a term query if the terms you are looking for should affect the \_score (relevance). If it should just exclude all docs except for those that match, use a term filter.**

<https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/_queries_and_filters.html>

**Historically, queries and filters were separate components in Elasticsearch. Starting in Elasticsearch 2.0, filters were technically eliminated, and all queries gained the ability to become non-scoring.**

**However, for clarity and simplicity, we will use the term "filter" to mean a query which is used in a non-scoring, filtering context. You can think of the terms "filter", "filtering query" and "non-scoring query" as being identical.**

**Similarly, if the term "query" is used in isolation without a qualifier, we are referring to a "scoring query".**