OpenSearch 429 Too Many Requests

How to fix it

// try these in order, the most common fix is first

1. FIX 1Retry correctly

   Copy steps
   1. 01Use client-side exponential backoff with jitter
   2. 02Reduce bulk size or concurrency
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. FIX 2Check for skew

   Copy steps
   1. 01GET _cat/allocation?v and compare shards and disk.indices across nodes
   2. 02Use shard counts that are multiples of the data node count
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. FIX 3Find heavy searches

   1. 01Review slow logs and search backpressure reasons
   Did this fix it? Yes No

4. FIX 4Scale

   1. 01Add nodes or move to larger instances
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

Bulk or search requests return 429 (or 403 throttled on the Amazon service); es_rejected_execution-style errors in logs.

Why it happens

• C-01Thread pool queue full under bulk spikes
• C-02Payloads exceeding available heap
• C-03Shard or storage skew sending load to a few nodes
• C-04CPU-based admission control (search backpressure)

// this guide also covers

• opensearch 429 too many requests
• opensearch request throttled
• opensearch bulk rejected

The same problem in other apps

All not loading, error messages & connection guides →

• Typesense 503 Not Ready or Lagging Error (Typesense)
• Meilisearch Primary Key Error (Meilisearch)
• Algolia 429 Too Many Requests Error (Algolia)

Other OpenSearch errors

• OpenSearch Cluster Status Red
• OpenSearch Cluster Status Yellow
• OpenSearch Unassigned Shards
• OpenSearch High JVM Memory Pressure
• OpenSearch OutOfMemoryError and Circuit Breaker
• OpenSearch Exceeded Maximum Shard Limit
• OpenSearch Index Read-Only: Disk Watermark and ClusterBlockException
• OpenSearch Docker Container Won't Start