jats:titleSummary</jats:title>jats:pWe present a density‐based topology optimization approach for the design of metallic microwave insert filters. A two‐phase optimization procedure is proposed in which we, starting from a uniform design, first optimize to obtain a set of spectral varying resonators followed by a band gap optimization for the desired filter characteristics. This is illustrated through numerical experiments and comparison to a standard band pass filter design. It is seen that the carefully optimized topologies can sharpen the filter characteristics and improve performance. Furthermore, the obtained designs share little resemblance to standard filter layouts, and hence, the proposed design method offers a new design tool in microwave engineering. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.</jats:p>