diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/admin/indices/RestForceMergeAction.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/admin/indices/RestForceMergeAction.java
index dcc397be142..6ec4cec7719 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/admin/indices/RestForceMergeAction.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/admin/indices/RestForceMergeAction.java
@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ public class RestForceMergeAction extends BaseRestHandler {
 
     @Override
     public RestChannelConsumer prepareRequest(final RestRequest request, final NodeClient client) throws IOException {
+        if (request.hasContent()) {
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("forcemerge takes arguments in query parameters, not in the request body");
+        }
         ForceMergeRequest mergeRequest = new ForceMergeRequest(Strings.splitStringByCommaToArray(request.param("index")));
         mergeRequest.indicesOptions(IndicesOptions.fromRequest(request, mergeRequest.indicesOptions()));
         mergeRequest.maxNumSegments(request.paramAsInt("max_num_segments", mergeRequest.maxNumSegments()));
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/admin/indices/forcemerge/RestForceMergeActionTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/admin/indices/forcemerge/RestForceMergeActionTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..aeb5beb09e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/admin/indices/forcemerge/RestForceMergeActionTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.action.admin.indices.forcemerge;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.client.node.NodeClient;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesArray;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.NamedXContentRegistry;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentType;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.json.JsonXContent;
+import org.elasticsearch.rest.RestController;
+import org.elasticsearch.rest.action.admin.indices.RestForceMergeAction;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.FakeRestRequest;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
+
+public class RestForceMergeActionTests extends ESTestCase {
+
+    public void testBodyRejection() throws Exception {
+        final RestForceMergeAction handler = new RestForceMergeAction(Settings.EMPTY, mock(RestController.class));
+        String json = JsonXContent.contentBuilder().startObject().field("max_num_segments", 1).endObject().toString();
+        final FakeRestRequest request = new FakeRestRequest.Builder(NamedXContentRegistry.EMPTY)
+            .withContent(new BytesArray(json), XContentType.JSON).build();
+        IllegalArgumentException e = expectThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class,
+            () -> handler.prepareRequest(request, mock(NodeClient.class)));
+        assertThat(e.getMessage(), equalTo("forcemerge takes arguments in query parameters, not in the request body"));
+    }
+}