diff --git a/umap/autocomplete.py b/umap/autocomplete.py
index 537fa634..6a6fde14 100644
--- a/umap/autocomplete.py
+++ b/umap/autocomplete.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ from agnocomplete.core import AgnocompleteModel
 from agnocomplete.register import register
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
-from django.db.models import Q
+from django.db.models.functions import Length
 
 
 @register
@@ -15,23 +15,10 @@ class AutocompleteUser(AgnocompleteModel):
         data["url"] = current_item.get_url()
         return data
 
-    def get_queryset_filters(self, query):
-        if len(query) <= 3 and self._force_exact:
-            conditions = Q()
-            for field_name in self.fields:
-                if not field_name[0].isalnum():
-                    field_name = field_name[1:]
-                # Force exact match
-                conditions |= Q(**{self._construct_qs_filter(f"={field_name}"): query})
-            return conditions
-
-        return super().get_queryset_filters(query)
-
-    def build_filtered_queryset(self, query, **kwargs):
-        self._force_exact = len(query) <= 3
-        qs = super().build_filtered_queryset(query, **kwargs)
-        if len(query) <= 3 and not len(qs):
-            # Not exact match, let's fallback to normal "startswith" query
-            self._force_exact = False
-            qs = super().build_filtered_queryset(query, **kwargs)
-        return qs
+    def build_extra_filtered_queryset(self, queryset, **kwargs):
+        order_by = []
+        for field_name in self.fields:
+            if not field_name[0].isalnum():
+                field_name = field_name[1:]
+            order_by.append(Length(field_name).asc())
+        return queryset.order_by(*order_by)
diff --git a/umap/tests/test_views.py b/umap/tests/test_views.py
index 9a963c61..9ecea639 100644
--- a/umap/tests/test_views.py
+++ b/umap/tests/test_views.py
@@ -516,10 +516,13 @@ def test_can_combine_search_and_filter(client, map):
 def test_can_find_small_usernames(client):
     UserFactory(username="Joe")
     UserFactory(username="JoeJoe")
+    UserFactory(username="Joe3")
+    UserFactory(username="Joe57")
+    UserFactory(username="JoeBar")
     url = "/agnocomplete/AutocompleteUser/"
     response = client.get(url + "?q=joe")
     data = json.loads(response.content)["data"]
-    assert len(data) == 1
+    assert len(data) == 5
     assert data[0]["label"] == "Joe"
     response = client.get(url + "?q=joej")
     data = json.loads(response.content)["data"]