diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryParseContext.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryParseContext.java
index 510a8049630..33382a7ab73 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryParseContext.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryParseContext.java
@@ -73,9 +73,6 @@ public class QueryParseContext implements ParseFieldMatcherSupplier {
                     }
                 }
             }
-            if (queryBuilder == null) {
-                throw new ParsingException(parser.getTokenLocation(), "Required query is missing");
-            }
             return queryBuilder;
         } catch (ParsingException e) {
             throw e;
diff --git a/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/count/10_basic.yaml b/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/count/10_basic.yaml
index f3eb0a5fae6..f38d2c315eb 100644
--- a/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/count/10_basic.yaml
+++ b/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/count/10_basic.yaml
@@ -37,6 +37,24 @@ setup:
 
   - match: {count : 0}
 
+---
+"count with empty body":
+# empty body should default to match_all query
+  - do:
+      count:
+        index: test
+        type: test
+        body: { }
+
+  - match: {count : 1}
+
+  - do:
+      count:
+        index: test
+        type: test
+
+  - match: {count : 1}
+
 ---
 "count body without query element":
   - do: