---
title: Circuit breaker trips
description: Describes what AutoOps detects and surfaces with the Circuit breaker trips insight: Circuit breakers on the affected node are tripping often enough to flag a stability risk.
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/autoops-insights/tree/main/elasticsearch/circuit_breaker_trips
products:
  - Elastic Cloud Enterprise
  - Elastic Cloud Hosted
  - Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes
  - Elasticsearch
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Hosted: Generally available
  - Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes: Generally available
  - Elastic Cloud Enterprise: Generally available
  - Self-managed Elastic deployments: Generally available
---

# Circuit breaker trips
Circuit breakers on the affected node are tripping often enough to flag a stability risk. Tripped breakers reject search or indexing requests, so clients see errors instead of slow responses.
<note>
  For a complete list of insights, refer to [AutoOps insights](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/autoops-insights/tree/main/elasticsearch).
</note>


## Insight details


| Field     | Value                          |
|-----------|--------------------------------|
| Component | Elasticsearch                  |
| Severity  | Medium                         |
| Scope     | Node                           |
| Domains   | performance, memory, stability |


## Customization settings

You can customize these settings to adjust when AutoOps detects this event and presents the insight. Refer to [AutoOps event settings](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/tree/main/deploy-manage/monitor/autoops/ec-autoops-event-settings) for details.
The default customization settings are:

| Setting                                      | Type    | Default |
|----------------------------------------------|---------|---------|
| Request tripped circuit breaker threshold    | Integer | `20`    |
| Field data tripped circuit breaker threshold | Integer | `20`    |
| Parent tripped circuit breaker threshold     | Integer | `1`     |


## Example: What you might see in AutoOps

The following is an example of what you might see when this insight is triggered. Real insights use live data and links from your deployment or cluster.

### Circuit breaker trip count is high on es-data-01


#### What was detected

Circuit breaker trip counts are high on es-data-01. Affected node(s): `es-data-01` and `es-data-02`.
fielddata trips: 20

#### Recommendations

<note>
  AutoOps shows different recommendations depending on how their conditions match your deployment or cluster.
</note>

<dropdown title="Tune request circuit breaker">
  **Condition**: Shown when the request circuit breaker tripped.Review why the request circuit breaker is tripping on es-data-01, then adjust `indices.breaker.request.limit` only if heap and workload justify it. The action below sets the limit to 60% (the default).
  ```json

  {
    "persistent": {
      "indices.breaker.request.limit": "60%"
    }
  }
  ```

  <note>
    Requires the `manage cluster` privilege. Requires Elasticsearch 8.0.0 or later. This action changes cluster or index configuration.
  </note>
</dropdown>

<dropdown title="Tune fielddata circuit breaker limit">
  **Condition**: Shown when the field data circuit breaker tripped.The fielddata circuit breaker is tripping often on https://localhost:9200. Prefer keyword fields or doc values over fielddata; only raise `indices.breaker.fielddata.limit` (default 40%) if justified. Use the action below.
  ```json

  {
    "persistent": {
      "indices.breaker.fielddata.limit": "40%"
    }
  }
  ```

  <note>
    Requires the `manage cluster` privilege. Requires Elasticsearch 8.0.0 or later. This action changes cluster or index configuration.
  </note>
</dropdown>

<dropdown title="Tune parent circuit breaker">
  **Condition**: Shown when the parent circuit breaker tripped.Review why the parent circuit breaker is tripping on es-data-01, then adjust `indices.breaker.total.limit` only if capacity and heap usage justify it. The action below sets the limit to 95% (the default when real-memory accounting is enabled).
  ```json

  {
    "persistent": {
      "indices.breaker.total.limit": "95%"
    }
  }
  ```

  <note>
    Requires the `manage cluster` privilege. Requires Elasticsearch 8.0.0 or later. This action changes cluster or index configuration.
  </note>
</dropdown>

<dropdown title="Tune in-flight requests circuit breaker limit">
  **Condition**: Shown when the in-flight requests circuit breaker tripped.The in-flight requests circuit breaker is tripping often on es-data-01. Review heap and request patterns before changing `network.breaker.inflight_requests.limit` (default 100%). Use the action below to update the limit.
  ```json

  {
    "persistent": {
      "network.breaker.inflight_requests.limit": "100%"
    }
  }
  ```

  <note>
    Requires the `manage cluster` privilege. Requires Elasticsearch 8.0.0 or later. This action changes cluster or index configuration.
  </note>
</dropdown>


#### Background and impact

Elasticsearch uses circuit breakers to estimate memory needed for operations and to reject work before the JVM runs out of heap. Common breakers cover request memory, field data, parent (total) limits, and in-flight requests.
When a breaker trips, the related search or indexing request fails with an exception. Frequent trips usually point to high-memory queries, heavy aggregations, costly mappings or field data, large request payloads, or excessive script compilation. If trips continue, applications see recurring failures and the node stays under memory pressure.

## Guide

[Circuit breaker errors in Elasticsearch](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/tree/main/troubleshoot/elasticsearch/circuit-breaker-errors)