[[query-dsl-boosting-query]]
=== Boosting query
++++
<titleabbrev>Boosting</titleabbrev>
++++

Returns documents matching a `positive` query while reducing the
<<relevance-scores,relevance score>> of documents that also match a
`negative` query.

You can use the `boosting` query to demote certain documents without
excluding them from the search results.

[[boosting-query-ex-request]]
==== Example request

[source,console]
----
GET /_search
{
    "query": {
        "boosting" : {
            "positive" : {
                "term" : {
                    "text" : "apple"
                }
            },
            "negative" : {
                 "term" : {
                     "text" : "pie tart fruit crumble tree"
                }
            },
            "negative_boost" : 0.5
        }
    }
}
----

[[boosting-top-level-params]]
==== Top-level parameters for `boosting`

`positive`::
(Required, query object) Query you wish to run. Any returned documents must
match this query.

`negative`::
+
--
(Required, query object) Query used to decrease the <<relevance-scores,relevance
score>> of matching documents.

If a returned document matches the `positive` query and this query, the
`boosting` query calculates the final <<relevance-scores,relevance score>> for
the document as follows:

. Take the original relevance score from the `positive` query.
. Multiply the score by the `negative_boost` value.
--

`negative_boost`::
(Required, float) Floating point number between `0` and `1.0` used to decrease
the <<relevance-scores,relevance scores>> of documents matching the
`negative` query.