diff --git a/app/controllers/users_controller.rb b/app/controllers/users_controller.rb
index 433ef60d890..b87c4f6964f 100644
--- a/app/controllers/users_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/users_controller.rb
@@ -288,43 +288,12 @@ class UsersController < ApplicationController
   end
 
   def search_users
-
     term = (params[:term] || "").strip.downcase
     topic_id = params[:topic_id]
     topic_id = topic_id.to_i if topic_id
 
-    sql = "select username, name, email from users u "
-    if topic_id
-      sql << "left join (select distinct p.user_id from posts p where topic_id = :topic_id) s on
-        s.user_id = u.id "
-    end
+    results = UserSearch.search term, topic_id
 
-    if term.length > 0
-      sql << "where username_lower like :term_like or
-              to_tsvector('simple', name) @@
-              to_tsquery('simple',
-                regexp_replace(
-	                regexp_replace(
-	                  cast(plainto_tsquery(:term) as text)
-		                ,'\''(?: |$)', ':*''', 'g'),
-                '''', '', 'g')
-              ) "
-
-    end
-
-    sql << "order by case when username_lower = :term then 0 else 1 end asc, "
-    if topic_id
-      sql << " case when s.user_id is null then 0 else 1 end desc, "
-    end
-
-    sql << " case when last_seen_at is null then 0 else 1 end desc, last_seen_at desc, username asc limit(20)"
-
-    results = User.exec_sql(sql, topic_id: topic_id, term_like: "#{term}%", term: term)
-    results = results.map do |r|
-      r["avatar_template"] = User.avatar_template(r["email"])
-      r.delete("email")
-      r
-    end
     render :json => results
   end
 
diff --git a/app/models/user_search.rb b/app/models/user_search.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c746d8763a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/models/user_search.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+class UserSearch
+
+  def self.search term, topic_id
+    sql = "select username, name, email from users u "
+    if topic_id
+      sql << "left join (select distinct p.user_id from posts p where topic_id = :topic_id) s on
+        s.user_id = u.id "
+    end
+
+    if term.length > 0
+      sql << "where username_lower like :term_like or
+              to_tsvector('simple', name) @@
+              to_tsquery('simple',
+                regexp_replace(
+                  regexp_replace(
+                    cast(plainto_tsquery(:term) as text)
+                    ,'\''(?: |$)', ':*''', 'g'),
+                '''', '', 'g')
+              ) "
+
+    end
+
+    sql << "order by case when username_lower = :term then 0 else 1 end asc, "
+    if topic_id
+      sql << " case when s.user_id is null then 0 else 1 end desc, "
+    end
+
+    sql << " case when last_seen_at is null then 0 else 1 end desc, last_seen_at desc, username asc limit(20)"
+
+    results = User.exec_sql(sql, topic_id: topic_id, term_like: "#{term}%", term: term)
+    results = results.map do |r|
+      r["avatar_template"] = User.avatar_template(r["email"])
+      r.delete("email")
+      r
+    end
+  end
+
+end
\ No newline at end of file