diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/geogrid/GeoGridAggregationBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/geogrid/GeoGridAggregationBuilder.java
index 9ba4b2210fa..4f00a49a1d9 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/geogrid/GeoGridAggregationBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/geogrid/GeoGridAggregationBuilder.java
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ public class GeoGridAggregationBuilder extends ValuesSourceAggregationBuilder<Va
     }
 
     public GeoGridAggregationBuilder shardSize(int shardSize) {
-        if (shardSize < -1 || shardSize == 0) {
+        if (shardSize <= 0) {
             throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                     "[shardSize] must be greater than 0. Found [" + shardSize + "] in [" + name + "]");
             }
@@ -140,7 +140,9 @@ public class GeoGridAggregationBuilder extends ValuesSourceAggregationBuilder<Va
     protected XContentBuilder doXContentBody(XContentBuilder builder, Params params) throws IOException {
         builder.field(GeoHashGridParams.FIELD_PRECISION.getPreferredName(), precision);
         builder.field(GeoHashGridParams.FIELD_SIZE.getPreferredName(), requiredSize);
-        builder.field(GeoHashGridParams.FIELD_SHARD_SIZE.getPreferredName(), shardSize);
+        if (shardSize > -1) {
+            builder.field(GeoHashGridParams.FIELD_SHARD_SIZE.getPreferredName(), shardSize);
+        }
         return builder;
     }
 
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/significant/SignificantTermsAggregationBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/significant/SignificantTermsAggregationBuilder.java
index 64a9c607729..e3886bee563 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/significant/SignificantTermsAggregationBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/significant/SignificantTermsAggregationBuilder.java
@@ -113,8 +113,8 @@ public class SignificantTermsAggregationBuilder extends ValuesSourceAggregationB
      * (defaults to 10)
      */
     public SignificantTermsAggregationBuilder size(int size) {
-        if (size < 0) {
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException("[size] must be greater than or equal to 0. Found [" + size + "] in [" + name + "]");
+        if (size <= 0) {
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("[size] must be greater than 0. Found [" + size + "] in [" + name + "]");
         }
         bucketCountThresholds.setRequiredSize(size);
         return this;
@@ -127,9 +127,9 @@ public class SignificantTermsAggregationBuilder extends ValuesSourceAggregationB
      * results are.
      */
     public SignificantTermsAggregationBuilder shardSize(int shardSize) {
-        if (shardSize < 0) {
+        if (shardSize <= 0) {
             throw new IllegalArgumentException(
-                    "[shardSize] must be greater than or equal to 0. Found [" + shardSize + "] in [" + name + "]");
+                    "[shardSize] must be greater than  0. Found [" + shardSize + "] in [" + name + "]");
         }
         bucketCountThresholds.setShardSize(shardSize);
         return this;
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/TermsAggregationBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/TermsAggregationBuilder.java
index f4cb133c499..1dd59edf6d9 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/TermsAggregationBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/TermsAggregationBuilder.java
@@ -110,8 +110,8 @@ public class TermsAggregationBuilder extends ValuesSourceAggregationBuilder<Valu
      * (defaults to 10)
      */
     public TermsAggregationBuilder size(int size) {
-        if (size < 0) {
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException("[size] must be greater than or equal to 0. Found [" + size + "] in [" + name + "]");
+        if (size <= 0) {
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("[size] must be greater than 0. Found [" + size + "] in [" + name + "]");
         }
         bucketCountThresholds.setRequiredSize(size);
         return this;
@@ -124,9 +124,9 @@ public class TermsAggregationBuilder extends ValuesSourceAggregationBuilder<Valu
      * results are.
      */
     public TermsAggregationBuilder shardSize(int shardSize) {
-        if (shardSize < 0) {
+        if (shardSize <= 0) {
             throw new IllegalArgumentException(
-                    "[shardSize] must be greater than or equal to 0. Found [" + shardSize + "] in [" + name + "]");
+                    "[shardSize] must be greater than 0. Found [" + shardSize + "] in [" + name + "]");
         }
         bucketCountThresholds.setShardSize(shardSize);
         return this;
diff --git a/modules/lang-groovy/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/messy/tests/DoubleTermsTests.java b/modules/lang-groovy/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/messy/tests/DoubleTermsTests.java
index 2012a232b2b..6ed77fffcc8 100644
--- a/modules/lang-groovy/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/messy/tests/DoubleTermsTests.java
+++ b/modules/lang-groovy/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/messy/tests/DoubleTermsTests.java
@@ -236,13 +236,12 @@ public class DoubleTermsTests extends AbstractTermsTestCase {
 
     // the main purpose of this test is to make sure we're not allocating 2GB of memory per shard
     public void testSizeIsZero() {
-        ElasticsearchException exception = expectThrows(ElasticsearchException.class,
+        IllegalArgumentException exception = expectThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class,
                 () -> client()
                         .prepareSearch("idx").setTypes("high_card_type").addAggregation(terms("terms").field(SINGLE_VALUED_FIELD_NAME)
                                 .minDocCount(randomInt(1)).size(0).collectMode(randomFrom(SubAggCollectionMode.values())))
                         .execute().actionGet());
-        assertThat(exception.getDetailedMessage(),
-                containsString("parameters [required_size] and [shard_size] must be >0 in terms aggregation."));
+        assertThat(exception.getMessage(), containsString("[size] must be greater than 0. Found [0] in [terms]"));
     }
 
     public void testSingleValueField() throws Exception {
@@ -588,7 +587,7 @@ public class DoubleTermsTests extends AbstractTermsTestCase {
         SearchResponse response = client().prepareSearch("idx_unmapped").setTypes("type")
                 .addAggregation(terms("terms")
                         .field(SINGLE_VALUED_FIELD_NAME)
-                        .size(randomInt(5))
+                        .size(randomIntBetween(1, 5))
                         .collectMode(randomFrom(SubAggCollectionMode.values())))
                 .execute().actionGet();
 
diff --git a/modules/lang-groovy/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/messy/tests/LongTermsTests.java b/modules/lang-groovy/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/messy/tests/LongTermsTests.java
index dc3fea592a2..fa049429a3a 100644
--- a/modules/lang-groovy/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/messy/tests/LongTermsTests.java
+++ b/modules/lang-groovy/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/messy/tests/LongTermsTests.java
@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ public class LongTermsTests extends AbstractTermsTestCase {
 
     // the main purpose of this test is to make sure we're not allocating 2GB of memory per shard
     public void testSizeIsZero() {
-        ElasticsearchException exception = expectThrows(ElasticsearchException.class,
+        IllegalArgumentException exception = expectThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class,
                 () -> client().prepareSearch("idx").setTypes("high_card_type")
                 .addAggregation(terms("terms")
                         .field(SINGLE_VALUED_FIELD_NAME)
@@ -246,8 +246,7 @@ public class LongTermsTests extends AbstractTermsTestCase {
                         .minDocCount(randomInt(1))
                         .size(0))
                         .execute().actionGet());
-        assertThat(exception.getDetailedMessage(),
-                containsString("parameters [required_size] and [shard_size] must be >0 in terms aggregation."));
+        assertThat(exception.getMessage(), containsString("[size] must be greater than 0. Found [0] in [terms]"));
     }
 
     public void testSingleValueField() throws Exception {
@@ -593,7 +592,7 @@ public class LongTermsTests extends AbstractTermsTestCase {
         SearchResponse response = client().prepareSearch("idx_unmapped").setTypes("type")
                 .addAggregation(terms("terms")
                         .field(SINGLE_VALUED_FIELD_NAME)
-                        .size(randomInt(5))
+                        .size(randomIntBetween(1, 5))
                         .collectMode(randomFrom(SubAggCollectionMode.values())))
                 .execute().actionGet();
 
diff --git a/modules/lang-groovy/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/messy/tests/StringTermsTests.java b/modules/lang-groovy/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/messy/tests/StringTermsTests.java
index aa31ae2a118..b098db154da 100644
--- a/modules/lang-groovy/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/messy/tests/StringTermsTests.java
+++ b/modules/lang-groovy/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/messy/tests/StringTermsTests.java
@@ -203,15 +203,14 @@ public class StringTermsTests extends AbstractTermsTestCase {
     // the main purpose of this test is to make sure we're not allocating 2GB of memory per shard
     public void testSizeIsZero() {
         final int minDocCount = randomInt(1);
-        ElasticsearchException exception = expectThrows(ElasticsearchException.class, () -> client()
+        IllegalArgumentException exception = expectThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> client()
                 .prepareSearch("idx")
                 .setTypes("high_card_type")
                 .addAggregation(
                         terms("terms").executionHint(randomExecutionHint()).field(SINGLE_VALUED_FIELD_NAME)
                                 .collectMode(randomFrom(SubAggCollectionMode.values())).minDocCount(minDocCount).size(0)).execute()
                 .actionGet());
-        assertThat(exception.getDetailedMessage(),
-                containsString("parameters [required_size] and [shard_size] must be >0 in terms aggregation."));
+        assertThat(exception.getMessage(), containsString("[size] must be greater than 0. Found [0] in [terms]"));
     }
 
     public void testSingleValueField() throws Exception {
@@ -756,7 +755,7 @@ public class StringTermsTests extends AbstractTermsTestCase {
                 .prepareSearch("idx_unmapped")
                 .setTypes("type")
                 .addAggregation(
-                        terms("terms").executionHint(randomExecutionHint()).size(randomInt(5)).field(SINGLE_VALUED_FIELD_NAME)
+                        terms("terms").executionHint(randomExecutionHint()).size(randomIntBetween(1, 5)).field(SINGLE_VALUED_FIELD_NAME)
                                 .collectMode(randomFrom(SubAggCollectionMode.values()))).execute().actionGet();
 
         assertSearchResponse(response);