# Better to have more indices or more shards per index?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/better-to-have-more-indices-or-more-shards-per-index/309937
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [July 18, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/better-to-have-more-indices-or-more-shards-per-index/309937 "2022-07-18T18:19:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jeremy\_Andrews](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Jeremy_Andrews)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/better-to-have-more-indices-or-more-shards-per-index/309937/1 "2022-07-18T18:19:03Z")
Let's say I have 200 GB of data and I'll split it between 4 shards of 50 GB each. Is there a difference in terms of performance whether I have 4 indices with 1 shard each, versus having one index with 4 primary shards?
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### Author:  [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2022, 6:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/better-to-have-more-indices-or-more-shards-per-index/309937/2 "2022-07-18T18:30:19Z")
No, that should roughly be the same.
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### Author:  [@Jeremy\_Andrews](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Jeremy_Andrews)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2022, 6:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/better-to-have-more-indices-or-more-shards-per-index/309937/3 "2022-07-18T18:58:35Z")
Thanks. Is there any other reason why someone would choose one arrangement over the other?
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2022, 6:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/better-to-have-more-indices-or-more-shards-per-index/309937/4 "2022-08-15T18:58:41Z")
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