diff --git a/docs/release-notes/version-3.5.md b/docs/release-notes/version-3.5.md
index 32f4ded32..6656aa1bb 100644
--- a/docs/release-notes/version-3.5.md
+++ b/docs/release-notes/version-3.5.md
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 * [#12627](https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox/issues/12627) - Restore hover preview for embedded image attachment tables
 * [#12694](https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox/issues/12694) - Strip leading & trailing whitespace from custom link URL & text
 * [#12715](https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox/issues/12715) - Use contact assignments table to display the contacts assigned to an object
+* [#12742](https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox/issues/12742) - Object counts dashboard widget should support URL-compatible query filters
 * [#12745](https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox/issues/12745) - Escape display text in API-backed selection widgets
 
 ---
diff --git a/netbox/extras/dashboard/widgets.py b/netbox/extras/dashboard/widgets.py
index dc68e1388..ed50a8451 100644
--- a/netbox/extras/dashboard/widgets.py
+++ b/netbox/extras/dashboard/widgets.py
@@ -10,8 +10,9 @@ from django.conf import settings
 from django.contrib.contenttypes.models import ContentType
 from django.core.cache import cache
 from django.db.models import Q
+from django.http import QueryDict
 from django.template.loader import render_to_string
-from django.urls import NoReverseMatch, reverse
+from django.urls import NoReverseMatch, resolve, reverse
 from django.utils.translation import gettext as _
 
 from extras.utils import FeatureQuery
@@ -149,7 +150,7 @@ class ObjectCountsWidget(DashboardWidget):
         filters = forms.JSONField(
             required=False,
             label='Object filters',
-            help_text=_("Only objects matching the specified filters will be counted")
+            help_text=_("Filters to apply when counting the number of objects")
         )
 
         def clean_filters(self):
@@ -158,13 +159,6 @@ class ObjectCountsWidget(DashboardWidget):
                     dict(data)
                 except TypeError:
                     raise forms.ValidationError("Invalid format. Object filters must be passed as a dictionary.")
-                for model in get_models_from_content_types(self.cleaned_data.get('models')):
-                    try:
-                        # Validate the filters by creating a QuerySet
-                        model.objects.filter(**data).none()
-                    except Exception:
-                        model_name = model._meta.verbose_name_plural
-                        raise forms.ValidationError(f"Invalid filter specification for {model_name}.")
             return data
 
     def render(self, request):
@@ -172,9 +166,14 @@ class ObjectCountsWidget(DashboardWidget):
         for model in get_models_from_content_types(self.config['models']):
             permission = get_permission_for_model(model, 'view')
             if request.user.has_perm(permission):
+                url = reverse(get_viewname(model, 'list'))
                 qs = model.objects.restrict(request.user, 'view')
+                # Apply any specified filters
                 if filters := self.config.get('filters'):
-                    qs = qs.filter(**filters)
+                    params = QueryDict(mutable=True)
+                    params.update(filters)
+                    filterset = getattr(resolve(url).func.view_class, 'filterset', None)
+                    qs = filterset(params, qs).qs
                 object_count = qs.count
                 counts.append((model, object_count))
             else: