# Differences between LOOKUP Index and Enrich Index

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/differences-between-lookup-index-and-enrich-index/377286>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [April 18, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/differences-between-lookup-index-and-enrich-index/377286 "2025-04-18T14:12:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![erikg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/91b2a8/32.png) [@erikg](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/erikg)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/differences-between-lookup-index-and-enrich-index/377286/1 "2025-04-18T14:12:14Z")

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Hello,

Elastic recently announced LOOKUP JOINS.  
They specified that the lookup function in ES|QL only works if the index is a lookup index.  
I am bit confused on this implementation? It seems like both ENRICH and LOOKUP JOIN are the same thing?

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<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:** [April 18, 2025, 3:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/differences-between-lookup-index-and-enrich-index/377286/2 "2025-04-18T15:12:39Z")

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It's super close. But you don't have anymore to run the enrich policy. It's automatically up to date.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![erikg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/91b2a8/32.png) [@erikg](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/erikg)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2025, 4:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/differences-between-lookup-index-and-enrich-index/377286/3 "2025-04-18T16:53:39Z")

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Oh I see, I found this as well in the documentation just now:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/2/2/22f71c47d406dfa875b200d8053399d3afee01b2.png)

Getting a bit complex but I think there's definitely benefits to introducing lookup index.