---
title: "Expand options overview"
slug: "expand-options-overview"
abstract: "Overview of Expand options, which enable you to control the amount of related data that is returned with each contact or interaction."
---
# Expand options overview

Expand options allow you to control the amount of related data that is returned with each contact or interaction. For example, contacts are only returned with related facets and interactions if these are requested. You can use expand options when getting or search experience data, and when using the data extraction feature. Refer to the following pages for more information about how to use expand options:

- Get contact and [load related facets](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/100/sitecore-experience-platform/get-contact-with-facets.html "Get contact with facets") and [related interactions](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/100/sitecore-experience-platform/get-contact-with-interactions.html "Get contact with interactions")
- Get interaction and load [related facets](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/100/sitecore-experience-platform/get-interaction-facets.html "Get interaction facets") and [related contact](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/100/sitecore-experience-platform/expand-related-contact.html "Expand related contact")
- [Search contacts](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/100/sitecore-experience-platform/search-contacts.html "Search contacts") and load related facets and interactions
- [Search interactions](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/100/sitecore-experience-platform/search-interactions.html "Search interactions") and load related facets and contact
- Define which facets should be retrieved by an [interaction aggregation processor](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/100/sitecore-experience-platform/walkthrough--using-the-interactions-pipeline-to-aggregate-and-store-reporting-data.html "Walkthrough: Using the interactions pipeline to aggregate and store reporting data")

All expand options inherit `Sitecore.XConnect.Model.ExpandOptions`, and can both be passed into `.GetAsync<TEntity>`. If you use an expand options type that is not supported by the entity (for example, using `ContactExpandOptions` instead of `InteractionExpandOptions` when retrieving an interaction), you will get an `ArgumentOutOfRange`.

When an interaction is returned, you can inspect the `ExpandOptions` property on that interaction to see what expand options was used when it was retrieved. This will help you determine if a facet is null because it was not set, or because it was not requested.