Getting started with Meilisearch Cloud

This guide will walk you through setting up your Meilisearch Cloud account. From creating your account to performing your first search, we'll cover each step to ensure a smooth onboarding experience. In addition, you can explore the list of all popular web development languages and frameworks supported by Meilisearch in this **guide** and how to seamlessly integrate them into your application. If you're looking for more resources, our Awesome Meilisearch repository offers a curated collection of demos with different use cases, community tools, integrations, and guides that will surely interest you. Without further ado, let's get started:

Account creation

First, you need to sign up for an account:

Click on the sign-up page and fill in the required information, including your full name, email address, and secure password.
Once submitted, check your email for a confirmation message from Meilisearch Cloud.
Click on the confirmation link provided in the email to activate your account.

Provisioning a project

A project is a dedicated Meilisearch instance hosted in our managed infrastructure. To provision a project:

Click the "New Project" button in your dashboard to initiate the project creation process and choose a project name.
Select the region where your Meilisearch instance will be deployed.
Finally, select a project plan (ex, Free trial) and click the “Create project” button. Wait for the system to provision your project. It may take a few moments. Once provisioned, you will have the choice to go to the project list page or to the index list of the newly created project. Choose the latter to create a search index next.

The free trial plan includes 14 days. After the trial period, to continue using Meilisearch Cloud, you'll need to add your billing details following this guide. Please visit our pricing page for more information on project plans and pricing.

Creating a search index

An index is a collection of documents with its own settings. A document is an object composed of one or more fields. Each field consists of an attribute and its associated value.

Go to your project’s index list tab (if you are not already there) and click the “Create an index” button
Choose a name for your index and click the “Create an index” button. Next you will be able to add your documents.

Adding documents to the search index

Before adding your documents. Make sure they contain a unique id attribute. Meilisearch accepts datasets in the following formats: .json, .ndjson, and .csv.

To import your documents into Meilisearch, you have two options: either drag and drop the desired file directly or click to browse through your files and select the desired one.
Click the “Import documents” button to start the indexing process. It may take a few moments.
Go back to your index list. When the indexing process will finish, you’ll see the total number of indexed documents next to the index name.

Setting up your search index

Each index includes customizable settings that enable you to tailor the search behavior according to your specific needs.

To access the settings in Meilisearch:

Navigate to the index list
Click on the settings button corresponding to the index you wish to configure.
Browse through the settings interface to choose the configuration that suits your needs. This includes selecting which fields should be searchable and which shouldn't, defining synonyms, and making various other adjustments.

Performing your first search

Explore your dataset using Meilisearch's search preview feature.

To access this feature, simply click on the “search preview” link located in the top menu of your project. This action will open a new tab, providing you with direct access to the search preview interface, where you can begin searching through your data right away.

Check our documentation to learn how to build a front-end integration.

Updated on: 23/08/2023