diff --git a/rest-api-spec/api/exists.json b/rest-api-spec/api/exists.json
index 16e51d7bc3b..354adef1abb 100644
--- a/rest-api-spec/api/exists.json
+++ b/rest-api-spec/api/exists.json
@@ -18,7 +18,8 @@
         },
         "type": {
           "type" : "string",
-          "required" : true,
+          "required" : false,
+          "default" : "_all",
           "description" : "The type of the document (use `_all` to fetch the first document matching the ID across all types)"
         }
       },