Search API Returns Irrelevant Track on Limit=1

ooneoneo — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 11:02:58 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

Malaysia

Device

Mac Mini M2

Operating System

macOS 15.4.1

My Question or Issue

I’ve been experimenting with the Spotify Web API (v1) and noticed something odd with the /search endpoint that I’m not sure how to explain. I’m wondering if anyone else has encountered this or can shed some light.

Here are two specific examples:

Request:
/v1/search?q=not%20like%20us&limit=1&type=track
Expected: “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar
Actual: “LUTHER (with SZA)” by Kendrick Lamar, SZA
Request:
/v1/search?q=i%20gotta%20feeling&limit=1&type=track
Expected: “I Gotta Feeling” by The Black Eyed Peas
Actual: “We Hug Now” by Sydney Rose

In both cases, if I increase the limit to 2 or higher, the expected result appears correctly as one of the top items. This makes me wonder:

Is this an issue with how the API handles ranking when limit=1?
Could it be a token/authorization scope issue?
Or am I structuring my query incorrectly?

Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

topic Search API Returns Irrelevant Track on Limit=1 in Spotify for Developers

Search API Returns Irrelevant Track on Limit=1