diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/components/tag-chooser.js.es6 b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/components/tag-chooser.js.es6
index c942cf59933..88e7577d1e2 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/components/tag-chooser.js.es6
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/components/tag-chooser.js.es6
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ export default Ember.TextField.extend({
         url: Discourse.getURL("/tags/filter/search"),
         dataType: 'json',
         data: function (term) {
-          return { q: term, limit: self.siteSettings.max_tag_search_results };
+          return { q: term, limit: self.siteSettings.max_tag_search_results, filterForInput: true };
         },
         results: function (data) {
           if (self.siteSettings.tags_sort_alphabetically) {
diff --git a/app/controllers/tags_controller.rb b/app/controllers/tags_controller.rb
index 23eac88860a..c5040d3a2bc 100644
--- a/app/controllers/tags_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/tags_controller.rb
@@ -112,6 +112,11 @@ class TagsController < ::ApplicationController
       query = query.where('tags.name like ?', "%#{term}%")
     end
 
+    if params[:filterForInput] && !guardian.is_staff?
+      staff_tag_names = SiteSetting.staff_tags.split("|")
+      query = query.where('tags.name NOT IN (?)', staff_tag_names) if staff_tag_names.present?
+    end
+
     tags = query.count.map {|t, c| { id: t, text: t, count: c } }
 
     render json: { results: tags }