How to bulk index documents into Elasticsearch

Bulk indexing reduces HTTP overhead when a large batch of events, application records, or one-time imports must be written into Elasticsearch quickly. Grouping documents into one request keeps ingestion faster and more predictable than sending each document with a separate indexing call.

The Bulk API accepts NDJSON where each action line (such as index) is followed by the source document line for that action. A single request can write many documents, and the response returns item-level statuses so successful and failed writes can be checked separately instead of assuming the whole batch behaved the same way.

Current self-managed clusters typically use an authenticated HTTPS endpoint for these API calls. When the next action is a search, refresh=wait_for is preferred over forcing an immediate refresh, and stock 9.x nodes can reserve patterns such as logs-* for built-in data stream templates, so use an application-specific index name unless the target is intentionally a data stream.

1. Create a target index with mappings that match the bulk payload.

   $ curl -sS -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X PUT "http://localhost:9200/app-events-bulk-2026.01?pretty" -d '{
     "settings": {
       "number_of_shards": 1,
       "number_of_replicas": 0
     },
     "mappings": {
       "properties": {
         "timestamp": { "type": "date" },
         "level": { "type": "keyword" },
         "message": { "type": "text" }
       }
     }
   }'
   {
     "acknowledged" : true,
     "shards_acknowledged" : true,
     "index" : "app-events-bulk-2026.01"
   }

   Stock Elasticsearch nodes can reject plain indices named logs-* because built-in templates reserve those patterns for data streams. Use an application-specific index name unless the target is intentionally a data stream.

   Related: How to create an index in Elasticsearch
   Related: How to create a data stream in Elasticsearch

2. Create a bulk request file in NDJSON format.

   $ cat > bulk.ndjson <<'BULK'
   { "index": { "_id": "evt-1001" } }
   { "timestamp": "2026-04-02T06:15:00Z", "level": "INFO", "message": "service started" }
   { "index": { "_id": "evt-1002" } }
   { "timestamp": "2026-04-02T06:16:12Z", "level": "ERROR", "message": "connection timeout" }
   BULK

   Because the target index is already in the request path, each action line only needs the operation and optional document ID. Each JSON object must be a single line, and the file must end with a trailing newline for the bulk parser to accept the final action.

3. Submit the bulk request to Elasticsearch.

   $ curl -sS -H "Content-Type: application/x-ndjson" -X POST "http://localhost:9200/app-events-bulk-2026.01/_bulk?refresh=wait_for&filter_path=took,errors,items.*.status,items.*.result&pretty" --data-binary @bulk.ndjson
   {
     "errors" : false,
     "took" : 1022,
     "items" : [
       {
         "index" : {
           "result" : "created",
           "status" : 201
         }
       },
       {
         "index" : {
           "result" : "created",
           "status" : 201
         }
       }
     ]
   }

   Use --data-binary so curl preserves newlines exactly. Current Elasticsearch accepts either application/json or application/x-ndjson for Bulk API requests, and an HTTP 200 response can still contain failed items, so inspect errors and each item status before assuming the batch succeeded.

4. Check the document count for the target index.

   $ curl -sS "http://localhost:9200/app-events-bulk-2026.01/_count?pretty"
   {
     "count" : 2,
     "_shards" : {
       "total" : 1,
       "successful" : 1,
       "skipped" : 0,
       "failed" : 0
     }
   }

5. Run a simple search to confirm the indexed documents are queryable with the expected IDs and fields.

   $ curl -sS -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST "http://localhost:9200/app-events-bulk-2026.01/_search?filter_path=hits.total,hits.hits._id,hits.hits._source&pretty" -d '
   {
     "size": 2,
     "sort": [
       { "timestamp": "asc" }
     ],
     "query": {
       "match_all": {}
     }
   }'
   {
     "hits" : {
       "total" : {
         "value" : 2,
         "relation" : "eq"
       },
       "hits" : [
         {
           "_id" : "evt-1001",
           "_source" : {
             "timestamp" : "2026-04-02T06:15:00Z",
             "level" : "INFO",
             "message" : "service started"
           }
         },
         {
           "_id" : "evt-1002",
           "_source" : {
             "timestamp" : "2026-04-02T06:16:12Z",
             "level" : "ERROR",
             "message" : "connection timeout"
           }
         }
       ]
     }
   }

   Related: How to perform a search query in Elasticsearch