diff --git a/awx/api/filters.py b/awx/api/filters.py
index a231c8af8d..105403bd17 100644
--- a/awx/api/filters.py
+++ b/awx/api/filters.py
@@ -242,11 +242,10 @@ class FieldLookupBackend(BaseFilterBackend):
                 # Search across related objects.
                 if key.endswith('__search'):
                     for value in values:
-                        for search_term in force_text(value).replace(',', ' ').split():
-                            search_value, new_keys = self.value_to_python(queryset.model, key, search_term)
-                            assert isinstance(new_keys, list)
-                            for new_key in new_keys:
-                                search_filters.append((new_key, search_value))
+                        search_value, new_keys = self.value_to_python(queryset.model, key, force_text(value))
+                        assert isinstance(new_keys, list)
+                        for new_key in new_keys:
+                            search_filters.append((new_key, search_value))
                     continue
 
                 # Custom chain__ and or__ filters, mutually exclusive (both can
diff --git a/awx/api/templates/api/_list_common.md b/awx/api/templates/api/_list_common.md
index 706ae732a5..de58292756 100644
--- a/awx/api/templates/api/_list_common.md
+++ b/awx/api/templates/api/_list_common.md
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 The resulting data structure contains:
 
     {
-        "count": 99, 
-        "next": null, 
-        "previous": null, 
+        "count": 99,
+        "next": null,
+        "previous": null,
         "results": [
             ...
         ]
@@ -60,6 +60,10 @@ _Added in AWX 1.4_
 
     ?related__search=findme
 
+Note: If you want to provide more than one search terms, please use multiple
+search fields with the same key, like `?related__search=foo&related__search=bar`,
+All search terms with the same key will be ORed together.
+
 ## Filtering
 
 Any additional query string parameters may be used to filter the list of
@@ -70,7 +74,7 @@ in the specified value should be url-encoded. For example:
     ?field=value%20xyz
 
 Fields may also span relations, only for fields and relationships defined in
-the database: 
+the database:
 
     ?other__field=value