# Advantages of using shrink API

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/advantages-of-using-shrink-api/141315>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [July 24, 2018, 7:13am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/advantages-of-using-shrink-api/141315 "2018-07-24T07:13:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Miho](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/miho/32/33669_2.png) [@Miho](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Miho)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 7:13am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/advantages-of-using-shrink-api/141315/1 "2018-07-24T07:13:43Z")

</div>

Hello. I was looking into Shrink API and in what cases it can be used, and I found three main reasons to use shrinking:

1. Resource economy
2. Faster search
3. Big shards are more suited for long-term data storage

However, I don't really understand how having a small number of shards relates to those. Also, are there more reasons to use shrink API other than those?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 7:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/advantages-of-using-shrink-api/141315/2 "2018-07-24T07:39:53Z")

</div>

If you have only one shard to search on, it will make your search faster as you don't have to hit multiple shards and merge the results.  
If you have then one single segment in this shard, that could be even better.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 7:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/advantages-of-using-shrink-api/141315/3 "2018-08-21T07:40:04Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.