diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f1c80d5bac2..cc4d2d26be5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 - Adjusted `EuiDatePickerRange` to allow for deeper customization ([#1219](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/1219))
 - Added `contentProps` and `textProps` to `EuiButton` and `EuiButtonEmpty` ([#1219](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/1219))
 - TypeScript types are now published to a `eui.d.ts` top-level file ([#1304](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/1304))
+- Added `filterWith` option for `EuiSearchBar` filters of type `field_value_selection` ([#1328](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/1328))
 
 **Bug fixes**
 
@@ -162,7 +163,7 @@
 **Bug fixes**
 
 - Fixed an issue in `EuiTooltip` because IE1 didn't support `document.contains()` ([#1190](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/1190))
-- Fixed some issues around parsing string values in EuiSearchBar / EuiQuery ([#1189](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/1189))
+- Fixed some issues around parsing string values in `EuiSearchBar` and `EuiQuery` ([#1189](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/1189))
 
 ## [`4.0.0`](https://github.com/elastic/eui/tree/v4.0.0)
 
diff --git a/src-docs/src/views/search_bar/search_bar_example.js b/src-docs/src/views/search_bar/search_bar_example.js
index 175b42a2176..e407854d189 100644
--- a/src-docs/src/views/search_bar/search_bar_example.js
+++ b/src-docs/src/views/search_bar/search_bar_example.js
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import {
 
 import { SearchBar } from './search_bar';
 import { ControlledSearchBar } from './controlled_search_bar';
+import { SearchBarFilters } from './search_bar_filters';
 
 const searchBarSource = require('!!raw-loader!./search_bar');
 const searchBarHtml = renderToHtml(SearchBar);
@@ -20,6 +21,9 @@ const searchBarHtml = renderToHtml(SearchBar);
 const controlledSearchBarSource = require('!!raw-loader!./controlled_search_bar');
 const controlledSearchBarHtml = renderToHtml(ControlledSearchBar);
 
+const searchBarFiltersSource = require('!!raw-loader!./search_bar_filters');
+const searchBarFiltersHtml = renderToHtml(SearchBarFilters);
+
 export const SearchBarExample = {
   title: 'Search Bar',
   sections: [
@@ -116,6 +120,26 @@ export const SearchBarExample = {
         </div>
       ),
       demo: <ControlledSearchBar/>
+    },
+    {
+      title: 'Search Bar Filters',
+      source: [
+        {
+          type: GuideSectionTypes.JS,
+          code: searchBarFiltersSource,
+        }, {
+          type: GuideSectionTypes.HTML,
+          code: searchBarFiltersHtml,
+        }
+      ],
+      text: (
+        <div>
+          <p>
+            A <EuiCode>EuiSearchBar</EuiCode> can have custom filter drop downs that control how a user can search.
+          </p>
+        </div>
+      ),
+      demo: <SearchBarFilters/>
     }
   ],
 };
diff --git a/src-docs/src/views/search_bar/search_bar_filters.js b/src-docs/src/views/search_bar/search_bar_filters.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..086bef43785
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src-docs/src/views/search_bar/search_bar_filters.js
@@ -0,0 +1,300 @@
+import React, { Component, Fragment } from 'react';
+import { times } from 'lodash';
+import { Random } from '../../../../src/services/random';
+import {
+  EuiHealth,
+  EuiCallOut,
+  EuiSpacer,
+  EuiFlexGroup,
+  EuiFlexItem,
+  EuiCodeBlock,
+  EuiTitle,
+  EuiBasicTable,
+  EuiSearchBar,
+} from '../../../../src/components';
+
+const random = new Random();
+
+const tags = [
+  { name: 'marketing', color: 'danger' },
+  { name: 'finance', color: 'success' },
+  { name: 'eng', color: 'success' },
+  { name: 'sales', color: 'warning' },
+  { name: 'ga', color: 'success' },
+  { name: 'presales', color: 'success' },
+  { name: 'product', color: 'warning' },
+  { name: 'engineering', color: 'success' },
+  { name: 'design', color: 'warning' },
+  { name: 'earlybirds', color: 'success' },
+  { name: 'people-ops', color: 'danger' },
+  { name: 'solutions', color: 'success' },
+  { name: 'elasticsearch', color: 'success' },
+  { name: 'kibana', color: 'success' },
+  { name: 'cloud', color: 'danger' },
+  { name: 'logstash', color: 'warning' },
+  { name: 'beats', color: 'warning' },
+  { name: 'legal', color: 'danger' },
+  { name: 'revenue', color: 'success' },
+  { name: 'public-relations', color: 'success' },
+  { name: 'social-media-management', color: 'warning' },
+];
+
+const types = [
+  'dashboard',
+  'visualization',
+  'watch',
+];
+
+const users = [
+  'dewey',
+  'wanda',
+  'carrie',
+  'jmack',
+  'gabic',
+];
+
+const items = times(10, (id) => {
+  return {
+    id,
+    status: random.oneOf(['open', 'closed']),
+    type: random.oneOf(types),
+    tag: random.setOf(tags.map(tag => tag.name), { min: 0, max: 3 }),
+    active: random.boolean(),
+    owner: random.oneOf(users),
+    followers: random.integer({ min: 0, max: 20 }),
+    comments: random.integer({ min: 0, max: 10 }),
+    stars: random.integer({ min: 0, max: 5 })
+  };
+});
+
+const initialQuery = EuiSearchBar.Query.MATCH_ALL;
+
+export class SearchBarFilters extends Component {
+
+  constructor(props) {
+    super(props);
+    this.state = {
+      query: initialQuery,
+      result: items,
+      error: null
+    };
+  }
+
+  onChange = ({ query, error }) => {
+    if (error) {
+      this.setState({ error });
+    } else {
+      this.setState({
+        error: null,
+        result: EuiSearchBar.Query.execute(query, items, { defaultFields: ['owner', 'tag', 'type'] }),
+        query
+      });
+    }
+  };
+
+  renderSearch() {
+    const filters = [
+      {
+        type: 'field_value_selection',
+        field: 'tag',
+        name: 'Tag ("prefix" filter, default)',
+        multiSelect: 'or',
+        options: tags.map(tag => ({
+          value: tag.name,
+          view: <EuiHealth color={tag.color}>{tag.name}</EuiHealth>
+        }))
+      },
+      {
+        type: 'field_value_selection',
+        field: 'tag',
+        name: 'Tag ("includes" filter)',
+        filterWith: 'includes',
+        multiSelect: 'or',
+        options: tags.map(tag => ({
+          value: tag.name,
+          view: <EuiHealth color={tag.color}>{tag.name}</EuiHealth>
+        }))
+      },
+      {
+        type: 'field_value_selection',
+        field: 'tag',
+        name: 'Tag (custom filter)',
+        filterWith: () => Math.random() > 0.5,
+        multiSelect: 'or',
+        options: tags.map(tag => ({
+          value: tag.name,
+          view: <EuiHealth color={tag.color}>{tag.name}</EuiHealth>
+        }))
+      }
+    ];
+
+    const schema = {
+      strict: true,
+      fields: {
+        active: {
+          type: 'boolean'
+        },
+        status: {
+          type: 'string'
+        },
+        followers: {
+          type: 'number'
+        },
+        comments: {
+          type: 'number'
+        },
+        stars: {
+          type: 'number'
+        },
+        created: {
+          type: 'date'
+        },
+        owner: {
+          type: 'string'
+        },
+        tag: {
+          type: 'string',
+          validate: (value) => {
+            if (!tags.some(tag => tag.name === value)) {
+              throw new Error(`unknown tag (possible values: ${tags.map(tag => tag.name).join(',')})`);
+            }
+          }
+        }
+      }
+    };
+
+    return (
+      <EuiSearchBar
+        defaultQuery={initialQuery}
+        box={{
+          placeholder: 'e.g. type:visualization -is:active joe',
+          incremental: true,
+          schema
+        }}
+        filters={filters}
+        onChange={this.onChange}
+      />
+    );
+  }
+
+  renderError() {
+    const { error } = this.state;
+    if (!error) {
+      return;
+    }
+    return (
+      <Fragment>
+        <EuiCallOut
+          iconType="faceSad"
+          color="danger"
+          title={`Invalid search: ${error.message}`}
+        />
+        <EuiSpacer size="l"/>
+      </Fragment>
+    );
+  }
+
+  renderTable() {
+    const columns = [
+      {
+        name: 'Type',
+        field: 'type'
+      },
+      {
+        name: 'Open',
+        field: 'status',
+        render: (status) => status === 'open' ? 'Yes' : 'No'
+      },
+      {
+        name: 'Active',
+        field: 'active',
+        dataType: 'boolean'
+      },
+      {
+        name: 'Tags',
+        field: 'tag'
+      },
+      {
+        name: 'Owner',
+        field: 'owner'
+      },
+      {
+        name: 'Stats',
+        width: '150px',
+        render: (item) => {
+          return (
+            <div>
+              <div>{`${item.stars} Stars`}</div>
+              <div>{`${item.followers} Followers`}</div>
+              <div>{`${item.comments} Comments`}</div>
+            </div>
+          );
+        }
+      }
+    ];
+
+    const queriedItems = EuiSearchBar.Query.execute(this.state.query, items, {
+      defaultFields: ['owner', 'tag', 'type']
+    });
+
+    return (
+      <EuiBasicTable
+        items={queriedItems}
+        columns={columns}
+      />
+    );
+  }
+
+  render() {
+    const {
+      query,
+    } = this.state;
+
+    const esQueryDsl = EuiSearchBar.Query.toESQuery(query);
+    const esQueryString = EuiSearchBar.Query.toESQueryString(query);
+
+    const content = this.renderError() || (
+      <EuiFlexGroup>
+        <EuiFlexItem grow={4}>
+
+          <EuiTitle size="s">
+            <h3>Elasticsearch Query String</h3>
+          </EuiTitle>
+          <EuiSpacer size="s"/>
+          <EuiCodeBlock language="js">
+            {esQueryString ? esQueryString : ''}
+          </EuiCodeBlock>
+
+          <EuiSpacer size="l"/>
+
+          <EuiTitle size="s">
+            <h3>Elasticsearch Query DSL</h3>
+          </EuiTitle>
+          <EuiSpacer size="s"/>
+          <EuiCodeBlock language="js">
+            {esQueryDsl ? JSON.stringify(esQueryDsl, null, 2) : ''}
+          </EuiCodeBlock>
+
+        </EuiFlexItem>
+
+        <EuiFlexItem grow={6}>
+          <EuiTitle size="s">
+            <h3>JS execution</h3>
+          </EuiTitle>
+
+          <EuiSpacer size="s"/>
+
+          {this.renderTable()}
+        </EuiFlexItem>
+      </EuiFlexGroup>
+    );
+
+    return (
+      <Fragment>
+        {this.renderSearch()}
+        <EuiSpacer size="l"/>
+        {content}
+      </Fragment>
+    );
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/components/search_bar/filters/field_value_selection_filter.js b/src/components/search_bar/filters/field_value_selection_filter.js
index b206fbfcc7d..0628541d017 100644
--- a/src/components/search_bar/filters/field_value_selection_filter.js
+++ b/src/components/search_bar/filters/field_value_selection_filter.js
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ export const FieldValueSelectionFilterConfigType = PropTypes.shape({
   autoClose: PropTypes.boolean,
   name: PropTypes.string.isRequired,
   options: FieldValueOptionsType.isRequired,
+  filterWith: PropTypes.oneOfType([ PropTypes.func, PropTypes.oneOf([ 'prefix', 'includes' ]) ]),
   cache: PropTypes.number,
   multiSelect: PropTypes.oneOfType([ PropTypes.bool, PropTypes.oneOf([ 'and', 'or' ]) ]),
   loadingMessage: PropTypes.string,
@@ -48,6 +49,7 @@ const FieldValueSelectionFilterPropTypes = {
 const defaults = {
   config: {
     multiSelect: true,
+    filterWith: 'prefix',
     loadingMessage: 'Loading...',
     noOptionsMessage: 'No options found',
     searchThreshold: 10,
@@ -108,23 +110,41 @@ export class FieldValueSelectionFilter extends Component {
     });
   }
 
-  filterOptions(prefix = '') {
+  filterOptions(q = '') {
     this.setState(prevState => {
       if (isNil(prevState.options)) {
         return {};
       }
+
+      const predicate = this.getOptionFilter();
+
       return {
         options: {
           ...prevState.options,
-          shown: prevState.options.all.filter(option => {
-            const name = this.resolveOptionName(option);
-            return name.toLowerCase().startsWith(prefix.toLowerCase());
+          shown: prevState.options.all.filter((option, i, options) => {
+            const name = this.resolveOptionName(option).toLowerCase();
+            const query = q.toLowerCase();
+            return predicate(name, query, options);
           })
         }
       };
     });
   }
 
+  getOptionFilter() {
+    const filterWith = this.props.config.filterWith || defaults.config.filterWith;
+
+    if (typeof filterWith === 'function') {
+      return filterWith;
+    }
+
+    if (filterWith === 'includes') {
+      return (name, query) => name.includes(query);
+    }
+
+    return (name, query) => name.startsWith(query);
+  }
+
   resolveOptionsLoader() {
     const options = this.props.config.options;
     if (isArray(options)) {