Improving Elasticsearch Performance with Compression in Node.js

📅 Published: Mar 23, 2025 • Thomas Queste

When using Elasticsearch in Node.js apps, there’s a simple performance optimization many developers miss: compression is not enabled by default.

TL;DR

Enable compression in Elasticsearch Node.js client: compression: true
Not enabled by default (except with cloud option)
Reduces bandwidth usage and improves response times

Why Compression Matters

Elasticsearch responses can be large, especially with multiple documents or complex aggregations:

Reduces data size: Often by 30-70% over plain json (from what I found)
Speeds up requests & responses: Less data transfer = faster results

Implementation

import { Client, ClientOptions } from "@elastic/elasticsearch";

const client = new Client({
  node: 'your-host',
  
  // Enable GZIP compression (default: false)
  compression: true,
});

The Basic Configuration page of Elastic.js lists all available options.

Conclusion

A quick-win for some performance gain. Always enable compression when working with Elasticsearch in Node.js.

And by the way, I don’t know why it’s not the default in 2025 🤷‍♂️ (broader compatibility certainly?).

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