# ES 7.8.0: query\_string with fields: \["\*"\] vs default\_field: "\*" performance

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-7-8-0-query-string-with-fields-vs-default-field-performance/241990>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [July 21, 2020, 9:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-7-8-0-query-string-with-fields-vs-default-field-performance/241990 "2020-07-21T09:01:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jojo23](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jojo23/32/72498_2.png) [@jojo23](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jojo23)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 9:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-7-8-0-query-string-with-fields-vs-default-field-performance/241990/1 "2020-07-21T09:01:04Z")

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I'm getting very different performance searching a small (\< 200MB) index with a query\_string filter, depending on how I specify the fields to be searched:

- fields: ["\*"] - 1600ms consistently
- default\_field: "\*" - \< 100ms consistently
- neither option: same as setting default\_field

This is on ES 7.8.0, 3-node cluster, index has one shard and one replica. Index has \< 10k documents with ~ 30 fields each. I just want to understand the huge performance difference between the fields and default\_field parameter since I would have thought they do the same thing.

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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:** [August 18, 2020, 9:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-7-8-0-query-string-with-fields-vs-default-field-performance/241990/2 "2020-08-18T09:01:20Z")

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