# Use of retrievers in the search api

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-of-retrievers-in-the-search-api/379145
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Tags:** license
**Created:** [June 12, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-of-retrievers-in-the-search-api/379145 "2025-06-12T16:23:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![aperez900907](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/aperez900907/32/131701_2.png) [@aperez900907](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aperez900907)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-of-retrievers-in-the-search-api/379145/1 "2025-06-12T16:23:15Z")

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Hi, I'm getting this error below:

```auto
{
  "error": {
    "root_cause": [
      {
        "type": "security_exception",
        "reason": "current license is non-compliant for [linear retriever]",
        "license.expired.feature": "linear retriever"
      }
    ],
    "type": "security_exception",
    "reason": "current license is non-compliant for [linear retriever]",
    "license.expired.feature": "linear retriever"
  },
  "status": 403
}

```

es stack version: 9.0.1 with basic licensing .

If I activate the trial, the error disappears.

In the basic licence for self-hosted instances, the retriever feature is marked as free.  
However, when I tried to use the linear retriever, I encountered an error related to a licensing issue.

Please clarify this in the documentation or provide any details on how to proceed.

Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Carlos\_D](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/carlos_d/32/126245_2.png) [@Carlos\_D](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Carlos_D)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 8:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-of-retrievers-in-the-search-api/379145/2 "2025-06-13T08:32:51Z")

</div>

Thanks @aperez900907 for reaching out!

Yes, RRF and linear retrievers are under Enterprise license. We're updating the docs with that information.

Sorry for the confusion this has caused!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![aperez900907](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/aperez900907/32/131701_2.png) [@aperez900907](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aperez900907)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 3:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-of-retrievers-in-the-search-api/379145/3 "2025-06-13T15:00:14Z")

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Thanks for the clarification. I will use both retrievers separately and merge the responses into a single object to deduplicate and rerank outside Elasticsearch.

Thanks, I hope that the roadmap includes more features in the basic offering without harming your business model.

Best regards.