# Limit the query size in elasticsearch

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/limit-the-query-size-in-elasticsearch/39225
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [January 14, 2016, 11:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/limit-the-query-size-in-elasticsearch/39225 "2016-01-14T11:24:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![justnj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@justnj](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/justnj)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2016, 11:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/limit-the-query-size-in-elasticsearch/39225/1 "2016-01-14T11:24:56Z")

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How can I limit the query to be executed (I mean the size) If the size is ,more size for example 10M than automatically the query has to be withdrawn/throw message

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### Author: ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2016, 11:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/limit-the-query-size-in-elasticsearch/39225/2 "2016-01-14T11:29:53Z")

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Not clear on the requirement  
"Size" could mean:

1. The number of documents in the index
2. The number of documents that match the query
3. The number of documents returned in the top-matching `hits`
4. The number of documents analyzed in `aggregations`
5. The number of terms in an aggregation e.g. top N authors.

What problem are you trying to avoid? Long-running queries? Irrelevant results? Memory issues?

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### Author: ![justnj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@justnj](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/justnj)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2016, 5:11am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/limit-the-query-size-in-elasticsearch/39225/3 "2016-01-16T05:11:06Z")

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Hi

To avoid Memory issues

Regards

Justin

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### 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: [January 16, 2016, 7:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/limit-the-query-size-in-elasticsearch/39225/4 "2016-01-16T07:54:16Z")

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Look at [From / Size | Elasticsearch Guide [2.1] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/2.1/search-request-from-size.html)

> Note that from + size can not be more than the index.max\_result\_window index setting which defaults to 10,000.

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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: [July 5, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/limit-the-query-size-in-elasticsearch/39225/5 "2017-07-05T23:23:50Z")

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