diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/indices/memory/IndexingMemoryBufferController.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/indices/memory/IndexingMemoryBufferController.java
index 8729042d38e..322945d7265 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/indices/memory/IndexingMemoryBufferController.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/indices/memory/IndexingMemoryBufferController.java
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ public class IndexingMemoryBufferController extends AbstractComponent {
     private final ByteSizeValue indexingBuffer;
 
     private final ByteSizeValue minShardIndexBufferSize;
+    private final ByteSizeValue maxShardIndexBufferSize;
 
     private final IndicesService indicesService;
 
@@ -69,8 +70,9 @@ public class IndexingMemoryBufferController extends AbstractComponent {
 
         this.indexingBuffer = indexingBuffer;
         this.minShardIndexBufferSize = componentSettings.getAsBytesSize("min_shard_index_buffer_size", new ByteSizeValue(4, ByteSizeUnit.MB));
+        this.maxShardIndexBufferSize = componentSettings.getAsBytesSize("max_shard_index_buffer_size", new ByteSizeValue(512, ByteSizeUnit.MB));
 
-        logger.debug("using index_buffer_size [{}], with min_shard_index_buffer_size [{}]", this.indexingBuffer, this.minShardIndexBufferSize);
+        logger.debug("using index_buffer_size [{}], with min_shard_index_buffer_size [{}], max_shard_index_buffer_size [{}]", this.indexingBuffer, this.minShardIndexBufferSize, this.maxShardIndexBufferSize);
 
         indicesService.indicesLifecycle().addListener(listener);
     }
@@ -97,6 +99,9 @@ public class IndexingMemoryBufferController extends AbstractComponent {
             if (shardIndexingBufferSize.bytes() < minShardIndexBufferSize.bytes()) {
                 shardIndexingBufferSize = minShardIndexBufferSize;
             }
+            if (shardIndexingBufferSize.bytes() > maxShardIndexBufferSize.bytes()) {
+                shardIndexingBufferSize = maxShardIndexBufferSize;
+            }
             logger.debug("recalculating shard indexing buffer (reason={}), total is [{}] with [{}] shards, each shard set to [{}]", reason, indexingBuffer, shardsCount, shardIndexingBufferSize);
             for (IndexService indexService : indicesService) {
                 for (IndexShard indexShard : indexService) {