diff --git a/.changeset/search-pressure-back.md b/.changeset/search-pressure-back.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3dd36456a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/search-pressure-back.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-elasticsearch': patch
+---
+
+Improved index throughput by optimizing when and how many documents were made available to the bulk client.
diff --git a/plugins/search-backend-module-elasticsearch/src/engines/ElasticSearchSearchEngineIndexer.ts b/plugins/search-backend-module-elasticsearch/src/engines/ElasticSearchSearchEngineIndexer.ts
index 3f842976e5..d1534c53a7 100644
--- a/plugins/search-backend-module-elasticsearch/src/engines/ElasticSearchSearchEngineIndexer.ts
+++ b/plugins/search-backend-module-elasticsearch/src/engines/ElasticSearchSearchEngineIndexer.ts
@@ -45,7 +45,6 @@ function duration(startTimestamp: [number, number]): string {
  * @public
  */
 export class ElasticSearchSearchEngineIndexer extends BatchSearchEngineIndexer {
-  private received: number = 0;
   private processed: number = 0;
   private removableIndices: string[] = [];
 
@@ -59,11 +58,13 @@ export class ElasticSearchSearchEngineIndexer extends BatchSearchEngineIndexer {
   private readonly logger: Logger;
   private readonly sourceStream: Readable;
   private readonly elasticSearchClientWrapper: ElasticSearchClientWrapper;
+  private configuredBatchSize: number;
   private bulkResult: Promise<any>;
   private bulkClientError?: Error;
 
   constructor(options: ElasticSearchSearchEngineIndexerOptions) {
     super({ batchSize: options.batchSize });
+    this.configuredBatchSize = options.batchSize;
     this.logger = options.logger.child({ documentType: options.type });
     this.startTimestamp = process.hrtime();
     this.type = options.type;
@@ -121,7 +122,6 @@ export class ElasticSearchSearchEngineIndexer extends BatchSearchEngineIndexer {
   async index(documents: IndexableDocument[]): Promise<void> {
     await this.isReady();
     documents.forEach(document => {
-      this.received++;
       this.sourceStream.push(document);
     });
   }
@@ -208,9 +208,18 @@ export class ElasticSearchSearchEngineIndexer extends BatchSearchEngineIndexer {
       return Promise.reject(this.bulkClientError);
     }
 
+    // Optimization: if the stream that ES reads from has fewer docs queued
+    // than the configured batch size, continue early to allow more docs to be
+    // queued
+    if (this.sourceStream.readableLength < this.configuredBatchSize) {
+      return Promise.resolve();
+    }
+
+    // Otherwise, continue periodically checking the stream queue to see if
+    // ES has consumed the documents and continue when it's ready for more.
     return new Promise(resolve => {
       const interval = setInterval(() => {
-        if (this.received === this.processed) {
+        if (this.sourceStream.readableLength < this.configuredBatchSize) {
           clearInterval(interval);
           resolve();
         }