POST /_refresh

A refresh makes recent operations performed on one or more indices available for search. For data streams, the API runs the refresh operation on the stream’s backing indices.

By default, Elasticsearch periodically refreshes indices every second, but only on indices that have received one search request or more in the last 30 seconds. You can change this default interval with the index.refresh_interval setting.

In Elastic Cloud Serverless, the default refresh interval is 5 seconds across all indices.

Refresh requests are synchronous and do not return a response until the refresh operation completes.

Refreshes are resource-intensive. To ensure good cluster performance, it's recommended to wait for Elasticsearch's periodic refresh rather than performing an explicit refresh when possible.

If your application workflow indexes documents and then runs a search to retrieve the indexed document, it's recommended to use the index API's refresh=wait_for query parameter option. This option ensures the indexing operation waits for a periodic refresh before running the search.

Required authorization

  • Index privileges: maintenance
More about the refresh parameter

Query parameters

  • allow_no_indices boolean

    A setting that does two separate checks on the index expression. If false, the request returns an error (1) if any wildcard expression (including _all and *) resolves to zero matching indices or (2) if the complete set of resolved indices, aliases or data streams is empty after all expressions are evaluated. If true, index expressions that resolve to no indices are allowed and the request returns an empty result.

  • expand_wildcards string | array[string]

    Type of index that wildcard patterns can match. If the request can target data streams, this argument determines whether wildcard expressions match hidden data streams. Supports comma-separated values, such as open,hidden.

    Values are all, open, closed, hidden, or none.

  • ignore_unavailable boolean

    If false, the request returns an error if it targets a concrete (non-wildcarded) index, alias, or data stream that is missing, closed, or otherwise unavailable. If true, unavailable concrete targets are silently ignored.

Responses

  • 200 application/json
    Hide response attribute Show response attribute object
    • _shards object
      Hide _shards attributes Show _shards attributes object
      • failed number Required

        The number of shards the operation or search attempted to run on but failed.

      • successful number Required

        The number of shards the operation or search succeeded on.

      • total number Required

        The number of shards the operation or search will run on overall.

      • failures array[object]
        Hide failures attributes Show failures attributes object
        • index string
        • node string
        • reason object Required

          Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

        • shard number
        • status string
        • primary boolean
      • skipped number
POST /_refresh 
curl \
 --request POST 'http://api.example.com/_refresh'