# Field Mapping index false vs true

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-mapping-index-false-vs-true/143991>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [August 11, 2018, 6:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-mapping-index-false-vs-true/143991 "2018-08-11T18:03:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![west415](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@west415](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/west415)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 6:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-mapping-index-false-vs-true/143991/1 "2018-08-11T18:03:30Z")

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I am using Elastic 6.x...

Is there any reason to not just go with the default of "index" : true for field mappings? There are some fields that I don't believe I will need to perform a search on so my thought is set index to false, but is there any benefit other than just being explicit about what I want searchable vs. not?

Thanks in advance

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**Author:** ![abdon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/abdon/32/9195_2.png) [@abdon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/abdon)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 9:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-mapping-index-false-vs-true/143991/2 "2018-08-12T09:43:55Z")

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The benefit of setting `index` to `false` is that Elasticsearch will not have to build an inverted index for that field when you index documents. As a result, indexing documents is going to be slightly faster. Also, because there will be no inverted index for that field persisted on disk, you will use less disk space.

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**Author:** ![west415](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@west415](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/west415)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-mapping-index-false-vs-true/143991/3 "2018-08-12T21:12:48Z")

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Thanks, very helpful response.

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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:** [September 9, 2018, 9:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-mapping-index-false-vs-true/143991/4 "2018-09-09T21:27:50Z")

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