elastic · miguelgrinberg · May 5, 2026 · Apr 24, 2026
diff --git a/docs/reference/bulk.md b/docs/reference/bulk.md
@@ -0,0 +1,180 @@
+# Bulk ingest [bulk-ingest]
+
+The Bulk API can be cumbersome to use directly, due to its payload formatting
+requirements. The PHP client includes a bulk helper function with a simplified
+interface.
+
+With the bulk helper, the application has to provide a generator or iterable
+that yields the individual bulk actions. The helper then formats and submits
+the bulk request, optionally splitting the data into chunks based on maximum
+number of actions or payload size.
+
+The following example submits a bulk request that indexes three documents:
+
+```php
+use Elastic\Elasticsearch\Helper\Bulk;
+
+function get_next_document()
+{
+    yield Bulk::index_action([
+        'title' => 'document 1 title',
+        'body' => 'document 1 body',
+    ]);
+    yield Bulk::index_action([
+        'title' => 'document 2 title',
+        'body' => 'document 2 body',
+    ]);
+    yield Bulk::index_action([
+        'title' => 'document 3 title',
+        'body' => 'document 3 body',
+    ]);
+}
+
+Bulk::bulk($client, 'my_index', get_next_document())
+```
+
+## The bulk helper function
+
+The bulk helper can be called as follows:
+
+```php
+use Elastic\Elasticsearch\Helper\Bulk;
+
+$response = Bulk::bulk($client, $index, $actions, $stats_only = false, $chunk_size = 500, $max_chunk_bytes = 100 * 1024 * 1024);
+```
+
+This function has three required arguments:
+
+- `$client` is the client to use to submit Bulk API requests,
+- `$index` is the default index that actions will be applied to,
+- `$actions` is the iterable that yields the bulk actions, normally implemented
+   as a generator.
+
+The `$stats_only` optional argument controls whether details of each individual
+operation are included in the response. When this argument is set to `true`,
+these details are omitted. The default is `false`.
+
+The two optional arguments `$chunk_size` and`$max_chunk_bytes` determine how
+often Bulk API requests are issued. The helper stores actions in memory and
+only submits a Bulk API request when the action count reaches `$chunk_size` or
+the payload size reaches `$max_chunk_bytes`, whichever happens first. The
+application can also trigger an explicit Bulk API request to be issued by
+yielding a `flush` action from its generator.
+
+The return value of the `bulk()` function is an array with three elements:
+
+- The total number of actions that were processed
+- The count of errors
+- An array with the status of each operation, as returned by the bulk API. This
+  array is omitted when the `$stats_only` argument is set to `true`.
+
+## Bulk actions
+
+A Bulk API request includes a list of operations, called *actions*. The Bulk
+API supports four different actions: `index`, `create`, `update` and`delete`.
+A `flush` action that is specific to this helper is also available.
+
+### Index
+
+The `index` action indexes the specified document. If the document already
+exists, it replaces it and increments the version.
+
+```php
+yield Bulk::index_action($document, $id = null, $other_metadata = null);
+```
+
+The `$document` argument is an array with the document to index. The document's
+unique ID can be passed in the `$id` argument, if desired. When `$id` is not
+provided, the server generates a unique document ID. Any other attributes of
+the index action can be passed in the `$other_metadata` argument.
+
+The following example indexes a document with ID `123`:
+
+```php
+yield Bulk::index_action([
+    'field1' => 'value1',
+], '123');
+```
+
+The next example explicitly names the index that the action applies to:
+
+```php
+yield Bulk::index_action([
+    'field1' => 'value1',
+], '123', ['_index' => 'some-other-index']);
+```
+
+### Create
+
+The `create` action indexes the specified document if it does not already
+exist.
+
+```php
+yield Bulk::create_action($document, $id = null, $other_metadata = null);
+```
+
+The `$document` argument is an array with the document to create. The
+document's unique ID can be passed in the `$id` argument, if desired. When
+`$id` is not provided, the server generates a unique document ID. Any other
+attributes of the index action can be passed in the `$other_metadata` argument.
+
+The following example creates a document:
+
+```php
+yield Bulk::create_action([
+    'field1' => 'value1',
+]);
+```
+
+### Update
+
+The `update` action performs a partial document update.
+
+```php
+yield Bulk::update_action($document_updates, $id, $other_metadata = null);
+```
+
+The `$document_updates` argument is an array with the desired updates to the
+document, formatted as required by the Bulk API
+[update action](https://www.elastic.co/docs/api/doc/elasticsearch/operation/operation-bulk#operation-bulk-body-application-json-updateaction-object).
+The `$id` argument is the ID of the document to update. Any other attributes of
+the index action can be passed in the `$other_metadata` argument.
+
+The following example updates the value of field `field2` in the document with
+ID `123`:
+
+```php
+yield Bulk::update_action([
+    'doc' => [
+        'field2' => 'value2',
+    ],
+], '123');
+```
+
+### Delete
+
+The `delete` action removes the specified document from the index.
+
+```php
+yield Bulk::delete_action($id, $other_metadata = null);
+```
+
+The `$id` argument is the ID of the document delete. Any other attributes of
+the index action can be passed in the `$other_metadata` argument.
+
+The following example deletes the document with ID `123`:
+
+```php
+yield Bulk::delete_action('123');
+```
+
+### Flush
+
+The `flush` action instructs the bulk helper to submit a Bulk API request with
+all the actions accumulated up to that point. This allows the application to
+override the logic that decides when to submit in a Bulk API request based on
+count of actions or payload size.
+
+```php
+yield Bulk::flush_action();
+```
diff --git a/docs/reference/client-helpers.md b/docs/reference/client-helpers.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ The PHP client comes with the following helpers:
 
 * [Iterators](/reference/iterators.md)
 * [ES|QL](/reference/esql.md)
+* [Bulk ingest](/reference/bulk.md)
 
 
 
diff --git a/docs/reference/toc.yml b/docs/reference/toc.yml
@@ -24,4 +24,5 @@ toc:
   - file: client-helpers.md
     children:
       - file: iterators.md
-      - file: esql.md
+      - file: esql.md
+      - file: bulk.md
diff --git a/examples/dense_vector_benchmark.php b/examples/dense_vector_benchmark.php
@@ -0,0 +1,172 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * Elasticsearch PHP Client
+ *
+ * @link      https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-php
+ * @copyright Copyright (c) Elasticsearch B.V (https://www.elastic.co)
+ * @license   https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT MIT License
+ *
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch B.V under one or more agreements.
+ * Elasticsearch B.V licenses this file to you under the MIT License.
+ * See the LICENSE file in the project root for more information.
+ */
+declare(strict_types = 1);
+ini_set('memory_limit', '1024M');
+
+require_once __DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php';
+
+use Elastic\Elasticsearch\Helper\Bulk;
+use Elastic\Elasticsearch\Helper\Vectors;
+
+$ELASTICSEARCH_URL = '';
+$chunk_sizes = array(100, 250, 500, 1000);
+$repetitions = 20;
+$json_output = FALSE;
+$runs = 3;
+$dataset_file = '';
+$rest_index = null;
+$dataset = [];
+$index = 'benchmark';
+
+function get_next_document($dataset, $repetitions, $packed) {
+    $len = sizeof($dataset);
+    for ($i = 1; $i <= $len * $repetitions; $i++) {
+        $doc = $dataset[($i - 1) % $len];
+        yield Bulk::index_action([
+            'docid' => $doc['docid'],
+            'title' => $doc['title'],
+            'text' => $doc['text'],
+            'emb' => $packed ? Vectors::packDenseVector($doc['emb']) : $doc['emb']
+        ]);
+    }
+}
+
+function upload($client, $index, $dataset, $chunk_size, $repetitions, $packed) {
+    // create index
+    if ($client->indices()->exists(['index' => $index])->getStatusCode() != 404) {
+        $client->indices()->delete(['index' => $index]);
+    }
+    $client->indices()->create([
+        'index' => $index,
+        'body' => [
+            'mappings' => [
+                'properties' => [
+                    'docid' => [
+                        'type' => 'keyword',
+                    ],
+                    'title' => [
+                        'type' => 'text',
+                    ],
+                    'text' => [
+                        'type' => 'text',
+                    ],
+                    'emb' => [
+                        'type' => 'dense_vector',
+                        'index_options' => [
+                            'type' => 'flat',
+                        ],
+                    ],
+                ],
+            ],
+        ],
+    ]);
+    $client->indices()->refresh(['index' => $index]);
+
+    // run the bulk upload
+    $len = sizeof($dataset);
+    $body = [];
+    $start = microtime(true);
+    $response = Bulk::bulk($client, $index, get_next_document($dataset, $repetitions, $packed), true, $chunk_size);
+    assert ($response[0] == sizeof($dataset));  // make sure all items were ingested
+    assert ($response[1] == 0);  // make sure there were no errors
+    return microtime(true) - $start;
+}
+
+$opts = getopt('s:r:', array('url:', 'json', 'runs:', 'help'), $rest_index);
+if (array_key_exists('help', $opts)) {
+    echo "Usage: " . $argv[0] . "[-s CHUNK_SIZES] [-r REPETITIONS] [--url URL] [--json] [--runs RUNS] DATASET_FILE\n";
+    echo "  -s CHUNK_SIZES List of chunk sizes to use, separated by commas (default: 100,250,500,1000)\n";
+    echo "  -r REPETITIONS Number of times the dataset is repeated (default: 20)\n";
+    echo "  --url URL      The Elasticsearch connection URL\n";
+    echo "  --json         Output benchmark results in JSON format\n";
+    echo "  --runs         Number of runs that are averaged for each chunk size (default: 3)\n";
+    exit(0);
+}
+if (!array_key_exists('url', $opts)) {
+    echo 'Error: --url argument is required.';
+    exit(1);
+}
+else {
+    $ELASTICSEARCH_URL = $opts['url'];
+}
+if (array_key_exists('s', $opts)) {
+    $chunk_sizes = array_map(fn($v) => intval($v), explode(',', $opts['s']));
+}
+if (array_key_exists('r', $opts)) {
+    $repetitions = intval($opts['r']);
+}
+if (array_key_exists('json', $opts)) {
+    $json_output = TRUE;
+}
+if (array_key_exists('runs', $opts)) {
+    $runs = intval($opts['runs']);
+}
+if (!$argv[$rest_index]) {
+    echo 'Error';
+    exit(1);
+}
+else {
+    $dataset_file = $argv[$rest_index];
+}
+
+// read CSV dataset
+$f = fopen($dataset_file, 'rt');
+while (!feof($f)) {
+    $line = fgets($f);
+    if ($line !== FALSE) {
+        $dataset[] = json_decode($line, true);
+    }
+}
+fclose($f);
+
+// initialize client
+$client = Elastic\Elasticsearch\ClientBuilder::create()
+    ->setHosts([$ELASTICSEARCH_URL])
+    ->build();
+
+// run the benchmark
+$results = [];
+foreach ($chunk_sizes as $chunk_size) {
+    if (!$json_output) {
+        echo 'Uploading ' . $dataset_file . ' with chunk size ' . $chunk_size . "...\n";
+    }
+    $normal_runs = [];
+    $packed_runs = [];
+    for ($run = 0; $run < $runs; $run++) {
+        $normal_runs[] = upload($client, $index, $dataset, $chunk_size, $repetitions, FALSE);
+        $packed_runs[] = upload($client, $index, $dataset, $chunk_size, $repetitions, TRUE);
+    }
+    $t = array_sum($normal_runs) / $runs;
+    $pt = array_sum($packed_runs) / $runs;
+    $result = [
+        'dataset_size' => sizeof($dataset) * $repetitions,
+        'chunk_size' => $chunk_size,
+        'float32' => [
+            'duration' => intval($t * 1000 + 0.5),
+        ],
+        'base64' => [
+            'duration' => intval($pt * 1000 + 0.5),
+        ],
+    ];
+    $results[] = $result;
+    if (!$json_output) {
+        echo 'Size:            ' . $result['dataset_size'] . "\n";
+        echo 'float duration:  ' . number_format($t, 2) . 's (' . number_format($result['dataset_size'] / $t, 2) . " docs/s)\n";
+        echo 'base64 duration: ' . number_format($pt, 2) . 's (' . number_format($result['dataset_size'] / $pt, 2) . " docs/s)\n";
+        echo 'Speed up:        ' . number_format($t / $pt, 2) . "x\n";
+    }
+}
+
+if ($json_output) {
+    echo json_encode($results, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
+}
diff --git a/src/Exception/BulkHelperException.php b/src/Exception/BulkHelperException.php
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * Elasticsearch PHP Client
+ *
+ * @link      https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-php
+ * @copyright Copyright (c) Elasticsearch B.V (https://www.elastic.co)
+ * @license   https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT MIT License
+ *
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch B.V under one or more agreements.
+ * Elasticsearch B.V licenses this file to you under the MIT License.
+ * See the LICENSE file in the project root for more information.
+ */
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace Elastic\Elasticsearch\Exception;
+
+use Elastic\Elasticsearch\Traits\ResponseTrait;
+use Exception;
+
+/**
+ * Bulk Helper error
+ */
+class BulkHelperException extends Exception implements ElasticsearchException
+{
+    use ResponseTrait;
+}
Original file line number	Diff line number	Diff line change
Expand Up		@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ The PHP client comes with the following helpers:

		* [Iterators](/reference/iterators.md)
		* [ES\|QL](/reference/esql.md)
		* [Bulk ingest](/reference/bulk.md)