Elasticsearch circuit_breaking_exception: Data Too Large

How to fix it

Try these in order — the most common fix is first.

1. 1. Check heap per node

   Copy steps
   1. GET _cat/nodes?v&h=name,heap.percent
   2. GET _nodes/stats/breaker to see estimated usage, limits and trip counts
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Stop fielddata on text fields

   Copy steps
   1. Fielddata is off for text by default; if you enabled it, switch to a keyword field or multi-field
   2. If you cannot, clear the fielddata cache (this may disrupt in-flight searches)
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Reduce expensive requests

   Copy steps
   1. Cut aggregation size and bucket counts
   2. Send smaller bulk and multi-search batches with pauses between them
   Did this fix it? Yes No

4. 4. Reduce overall memory pressure

   1. Follow Elastic's high JVM memory pressure guide: fewer shards, add node memory, avoid oversized heaps
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

Requests fail with circuit_breaking_exception (Data too large) and HTTP 429 or 503; sometimes allocation errors show in elasticsearch.log.

Why it happens

• High JVM memory pressure (consistently above 85%)
• Fielddata on high-cardinality text fields
• Large aggregations or complex queries
• Too many parallel requests or oversized bulk requests

This guide also covers

• elasticsearch circuit_breaking_exception
• elasticsearch data too large
• elasticsearch 429 too many requests circuit breaker

Other Elasticsearch errors

• Elasticsearch Cluster Health Yellow: Causes and Fixes
• Elasticsearch Cluster Health Red: How to Fix It
• Elasticsearch Unassigned Shards: Why and How to Fix
• Elasticsearch High JVM Memory Pressure and Out of Memory
• Elasticsearch Disk Watermark: Index Read-Only (FORBIDDEN/12)
• Elasticsearch Limit of Total Fields [1000] Exceeded
• Why Is Elasticsearch So Slow? Fixing Slow Searches
• Elasticsearch Cannot Change Field Mapping: Reindex Guide