# Are there size limits for indexing and bulk indexing?

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/are-there-size-limits-for-indexing-and-bulk-indexing/156278
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [November 12, 2018, 11:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/are-there-size-limits-for-indexing-and-bulk-indexing/156278 "2018-11-12T11:10:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Ong](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ong/32/40766_2.png) [@Ong](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ong)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2018, 11:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/are-there-size-limits-for-indexing-and-bulk-indexing/156278/1 "2018-11-12T11:10:48Z")

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Hello, is there a hard limit or recommended size ceiling when it comes to bulk indexing?

For indexing one document at a time, is there also a limit to how large file each document can be?

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### Author: ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2018, 11:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/are-there-size-limits-for-indexing-and-bulk-indexing/156278/2 "2018-11-12T11:22:09Z")

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The default maximum HTTP payload that can be handled is 100MB. It is however generally recommended to keep bulk requests a lot smaller than that.

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### Author: ![Ong](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ong/32/40766_2.png) [@Ong](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ong)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2018, 5:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/are-there-size-limits-for-indexing-and-bulk-indexing/156278/4 "2018-11-13T05:39:00Z")

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Thanks for the explanation. Does this 100MB apply for non bulk indexing too?

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### Author: ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2018, 6:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/are-there-size-limits-for-indexing-and-bulk-indexing/156278/5 "2018-11-13T06:04:50Z")

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Yes.

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### Author: ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2018, 6:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/are-there-size-limits-for-indexing-and-bulk-indexing/156278/6 "2018-12-11T06:04:51Z")

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