diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/ansible-galaxy-role-search-rc.yml b/changelogs/fragments/ansible-galaxy-role-search-rc.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a104f94865e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/ansible-galaxy-role-search-rc.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - >-
+    ``ansible-galaxy search rolename`` - give a warning instead of non-zero return code when search results are empty.
+    This is similar to the behavior when listing roles, which gives a warning if a role cannot be found and exits with a return code of ``0``.
diff --git a/docs/docsite/rst/porting_guides/porting_guide_core_2.15.rst b/docs/docsite/rst/porting_guides/porting_guide_core_2.15.rst
index 782288c1d1d..8b4478cd1e4 100644
--- a/docs/docsite/rst/porting_guides/porting_guide_core_2.15.rst
+++ b/docs/docsite/rst/porting_guides/porting_guide_core_2.15.rst
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ No notable changes
 Command Line
 ============
 
-No notable changes
+* The return code of ``ansible-galaxy search`` is now 0 instead of 1 and the stdout is empty when results are empty to align with other ``ansible-galaxy`` commands.
 
 
 Deprecated
diff --git a/lib/ansible/cli/galaxy.py b/lib/ansible/cli/galaxy.py
index f4148d924db..339094e035a 100755
--- a/lib/ansible/cli/galaxy.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/cli/galaxy.py
@@ -1721,8 +1721,8 @@ class GalaxyCLI(CLI):
                                          tags=context.CLIARGS['galaxy_tags'], author=context.CLIARGS['author'], page_size=page_size)
 
         if response['count'] == 0:
-            display.display("No roles match your search.", color=C.COLOR_ERROR)
-            return 1
+            display.warning("No roles match your search.")
+            return 0
 
         data = [u'']