diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 181094f..6b3be3e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 venv/
+.venv/
 .idea/
 __pycache__/
 *.pyc
@@ -10,7 +11,8 @@ test/static
 flask_session/
 app/static/config
 app/static/custom_config
-app/static/bangs
+app/static/bangs/*
+!app/static/bangs/00-whoogle.json
 
 # pip stuff
 /build/
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a919d65..c56867c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ Contents
 6. [Extra Steps](#extra-steps)
     1. [Set Primary Search Engine](#set-whoogle-as-your-primary-search-engine)
 	2. [Custom Redirecting](#custom-redirecting)
+	2. [Custom Bangs](#custom-bangs)
     3. [Prevent Downtime (Heroku Only)](#prevent-downtime-heroku-only)
     4. [Manual HTTPS Enforcement](#https-enforcement)
     5. [Using with Firefox Containers](#using-with-firefox-containers)
@@ -61,6 +62,7 @@ Contents
 - Randomly generated User Agent
 - Easy to install/deploy
 - DDG-style bang (i.e. `!<tag> <query>`) searches
+- User-defined [custom bangs](#custom-bangs)
 - Optional location-based searching (i.e. results near \<city\>)
 - Optional NoJS mode to view search results in a separate window with JavaScript blocked
 
@@ -539,6 +541,14 @@ WHOOGLE_REDIRECTS="badA.com:goodA.com,badB.com:goodB.com"
 
 NOTE: Do not include "http(s)://" when defining your redirect.
 
+### Custom Bangs
+You can create your own custom bangs. By default, bangs are stored in 
+`app/static/bangs`. See [`00-whoogle.json`](https://github.com/benbusby/whoogle-search/blob/main/app/static/bangs/00-whoogle.json)
+for an example. These are parsed in alphabetical order with later files
+overriding bangs set in earlier files, with the exception that DDG bangs
+(downloaded to `app/static/bangs/bangs.json`) are always parsed first. Thus,
+any custom bangs will always override the DDG ones.
+
 ### Prevent Downtime (Heroku only)
 Part of the deal with Heroku's free tier is that you're allocated 550 hours/month (meaning it can't stay active 24/7), and the app is temporarily shut down after 30 minutes of inactivity. Once it becomes inactive, any Whoogle searches will still work, but it'll take an extra 10-15 seconds for the app to come back online before displaying the result, which can be frustrating if you're in a hurry.
 
diff --git a/app/__init__.py b/app/__init__.py
index d3cf3ce..d84997a 100644
--- a/app/__init__.py
+++ b/app/__init__.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 from app.filter import clean_query
 from app.request import send_tor_signal
 from app.utils.session import generate_key
-from app.utils.bangs import gen_bangs_json
+from app.utils.bangs import gen_bangs_json, load_all_bangs
 from app.utils.misc import gen_file_hash, read_config_bool
 from base64 import b64encode
 from bs4 import MarkupResemblesLocatorWarning
@@ -139,7 +139,9 @@ app.config['CSP'] = 'default-src \'none\';' \
                     'connect-src \'self\';'
 
 # Generate DDG bang filter
+generating_bangs = False
 if not os.path.exists(app.config['BANG_FILE']):
+    generating_bangs = True
     json.dump({}, open(app.config['BANG_FILE'], 'w'))
     bangs_thread = threading.Thread(
         target=gen_bangs_json,
@@ -181,6 +183,11 @@ warnings.simplefilter('ignore', MarkupResemblesLocatorWarning)
 
 from app import routes  # noqa
 
+# The gen_bangs_json function takes care of loading bangs, so skip it here if
+# it's already being loaded
+if not generating_bangs:
+    load_all_bangs(app.config['BANG_FILE'])
+
 # Disable logging from imported modules
 logging.config.dictConfig({
     'version': 1,
diff --git a/app/routes.py b/app/routes.py
index c1f6f36..331f4e8 100644
--- a/app/routes.py
+++ b/app/routes.py
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ import re
 import urllib.parse as urlparse
 import uuid
 import validators
+import sys
+import traceback
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta
 from functools import wraps
 
@@ -16,7 +18,7 @@ from app import app
 from app.models.config import Config
 from app.models.endpoint import Endpoint
 from app.request import Request, TorError
-from app.utils.bangs import resolve_bang
+from app.utils.bangs import suggest_bang, resolve_bang
 from app.utils.misc import empty_gif, placeholder_img, get_proxy_host_url, \
     fetch_favicon
 from app.filter import Filter
@@ -36,9 +38,6 @@ from cryptography.fernet import Fernet, InvalidToken
 from cryptography.exceptions import InvalidSignature
 from werkzeug.datastructures import MultiDict
 
-# Load DDG bang json files only on init
-bang_json = json.load(open(app.config['BANG_FILE'])) or {}
-
 ac_var = 'WHOOGLE_AUTOCOMPLETE'
 autocomplete_enabled = os.getenv(ac_var, '1')
 
@@ -130,7 +129,6 @@ def session_required(f):
 
 @app.before_request
 def before_request_func():
-    global bang_json
     session.permanent = True
 
     # Check for latest version if needed
@@ -172,15 +170,6 @@ def before_request_func():
 
     g.app_location = g.user_config.url
 
-    # Attempt to reload bangs json if not generated yet
-    if not bang_json and os.path.getsize(app.config['BANG_FILE']) > 4:
-        try:
-            bang_json = json.load(open(app.config['BANG_FILE']))
-        except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError:
-            # Ignore decoding error, can occur if file is still
-            # being written
-            pass
-
 
 @app.after_request
 def after_request_func(resp):
@@ -282,8 +271,7 @@ def autocomplete():
 
     # Search bangs if the query begins with "!", but not "! " (feeling lucky)
     if q.startswith('!') and len(q) > 1 and not q.startswith('! '):
-        return jsonify([q, [bang_json[_]['suggestion'] for _ in bang_json if
-                            _.startswith(q)]])
+        return jsonify([q, suggest_bang(q)])
 
     if not q and not request.data:
         return jsonify({'?': []})
@@ -314,7 +302,7 @@ def search():
     search_util = Search(request, g.user_config, g.session_key)
     query = search_util.new_search_query()
 
-    bang = resolve_bang(query, bang_json)
+    bang = resolve_bang(query)
     if bang:
         return redirect(bang)
 
diff --git a/app/static/bangs/00-whoogle.json b/app/static/bangs/00-whoogle.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0998a6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/static/bangs/00-whoogle.json
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+{
+  "!i": {
+    "url": "search?q={}&tbm=isch",
+    "suggestion": "!i (Whoogle Images)"
+  },
+  "!v": {
+    "url": "search?q={}&tbm=vid",
+    "suggestion": "!v (Whoogle Videos)"
+  },
+  "!n": {
+    "url": "search?q={}&tbm=nws",
+    "suggestion": "!n (Whoogle News)"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/app/utils/bangs.py b/app/utils/bangs.py
index ac18f6a..ea6a060 100644
--- a/app/utils/bangs.py
+++ b/app/utils/bangs.py
@@ -1,10 +1,58 @@
 import json
 import requests
 import urllib.parse as urlparse
+import os
+import glob
 
+bangs_dict = {}
 DDG_BANGS = 'https://duckduckgo.com/bang.js'
 
 
+def load_all_bangs(ddg_bangs_file: str, ddg_bangs: dict = {}):
+    """Loads all the bang files in alphabetical order
+
+    Args:
+        ddg_bangs_file: The str path to the new DDG bangs json file
+        ddg_bangs: The dict of ddg bangs. If this is empty, it will load the
+                   bangs from the file
+
+    Returns:
+        None
+
+    """
+    global bangs_dict
+    ddg_bangs_file = os.path.normpath(ddg_bangs_file)
+
+    if (bangs_dict and not ddg_bangs) or os.path.getsize(ddg_bangs_file) <= 4:
+        return
+
+    bangs = {}
+    bangs_dir = os.path.dirname(ddg_bangs_file)
+    bang_files = glob.glob(os.path.join(bangs_dir, '*.json'))
+
+    # Normalize the paths
+    bang_files = [os.path.normpath(f) for f in bang_files]
+
+    # Move the ddg bangs file to the beginning
+    bang_files = sorted([f for f in bang_files if f != ddg_bangs_file])
+
+    if ddg_bangs:
+        bangs |= ddg_bangs
+    else:
+        bang_files.insert(0, ddg_bangs_file)
+
+    for i, bang_file in enumerate(bang_files):
+        try:
+            bangs |= json.load(open(bang_file))
+        except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError:
+            # Ignore decoding error only for the ddg bangs file, since this can
+            # occur if file is still being written
+            if i != 0:
+                raise
+
+    bangs_dict = dict(sorted(bangs.items()))
+
+
 def gen_bangs_json(bangs_file: str) -> None:
     """Generates a json file from the DDG bangs list
 
@@ -37,22 +85,35 @@ def gen_bangs_json(bangs_file: str) -> None:
 
     json.dump(bangs_data, open(bangs_file, 'w'))
     print('* Finished creating ddg bangs json')
+    load_all_bangs(bangs_file, bangs_data)
 
 
-def resolve_bang(query: str, bangs_dict: dict) -> str:
+def suggest_bang(query: str) -> list[str]:
+    """Suggests bangs for a user's query
+
+    Args:
+        query: The search query
+
+    Returns:
+        list[str]: A list of bang suggestions
+
+    """
+    global bangs_dict
+    return [bangs_dict[_]['suggestion'] for _ in bangs_dict if _.startswith(query)]
+
+
+def resolve_bang(query: str) -> str:
     """Transform's a user's query to a bang search, if an operator is found
 
     Args:
         query: The search query
-        bangs_dict: The dict of available bang operators, with corresponding
-                    format string search URLs
-                    (i.e. "!w": "https://en.wikipedia.org...?search={}")
 
     Returns:
         str: A formatted redirect for a bang search, or an empty str if there
              wasn't a match or didn't contain a bang operator
 
     """
+    global bangs_dict
 
     #if ! not in query simply return (speed up processing)
     if '!' not in query:
diff --git a/test/test_routes.py b/test/test_routes.py
index 8cb79fa..6409f2d 100644
--- a/test/test_routes.py
+++ b/test/test_routes.py
@@ -48,6 +48,13 @@ def test_ddg_bang(client):
     assert rv.headers.get('Location').startswith('https://github.com')
 
 
+def test_custom_bang(client):
+    # Bang at beginning of query
+    rv = client.get(f'/{Endpoint.search}?q=!i%20whoogle')
+    assert rv._status_code == 302
+    assert rv.headers.get('Location').startswith('search?q=')
+
+
 def test_config(client):
     rv = client.post(f'/{Endpoint.config}', data=demo_config)
     assert rv._status_code == 302