Get a document count

POST also GET /_cat/count/{index}
POST also GET /_cat/count

Get quick access to a document count for a data stream, an index, or an entire cluster. The document count only includes live documents, not deleted documents which have not yet been removed by the merge process.

IMPORTANT: CAT APIs are only intended for human consumption using the command line or Kibana console. They are not intended for use by applications. For application consumption, use the count API.

NOTE: Starting in Elasticsearch 9.3.0, this endpoint also supports the POST method. This is primarily intended for project routing in serverless environments.

Required authorization

Index privileges: read

Path Parameters

index union IndexName | [] IndexName optional

A comma-separated list of data streams, indices, and aliases used to limit the request. It supports wildcards (*). To target all data streams and indices, omit this parameter or use * or _all.

Leave it out to use /_cat/count.

A successful response from GET /_cat/count/my-index-000001?v=true&format=json. It retrieves the document count for the my-index-000001 data stream or index.

Request Console 1 / 7 languages

Console Kibana Dev Tools

POST /_cat/count/my-index-000001?v=true&format=json

JavaScript Elasticsearch JavaScript Client

const response = await client.cat.count({
  index: "my-index-000001",
  v: "true",
  format: "json",
});

Python Elasticsearch Python Client

resp = client.cat.count(
    index="my-index-000001",
    v=True,
    format="json",
)

curl Shell

curl -X POST "$ELASTICSEARCH_URL/_cat/count/my-index-000001?v=true&format=json" \
  -H "Authorization: ApiKey $ELASTIC_API_KEY"

Java Elasticsearch Java Client

client.cat().count(c -> c
    .index("my-index-000001")
);

PHP Elasticsearch PHP Client

$resp = $client->cat()->count([
    "index" => "my-index-000001",
    "v" => "true",
    "format" => "json",
]);

Ruby Elasticsearch Ruby Client

response = client.cat.count(
  index: "my-index-000001",
  v: "true",
  format: "json"
)

Response

[
  {
    "epoch": "1475868259",
    "timestamp": "15:24:20",
    "count": "120"
  }
]

Required authorization

Path Parameters

Query Parameters { h , s , }

Request

Response

Query Parameters