I’m receiving this error message: ClauseLimitExceeded - Failed to execute query because it exceeded the maximum clause limit of 3000. The error indicates that the number of query terms multiplied by the number of fields specified cannot exceed 3000 clauses.
Is there a way to calculate the clause count before sending the request to the API so that I can shorten my query text in advance? I want to ensure I avoid this error by checking the clause count beforehand.
Calculating clause limits can be tricky due to the way Azure tokenizes the query text. A general rule of thumb is that the number of search terms will be multiplied by the number of search fields. Therefore, with four fields, you can expect the clause count to be approximately four times the number of terms you’re using. In my experience, keeping the total query length between 200 to 300 characters tends to avoid this error. Additionally, implementing a preprocessing step to exclude stop words and duplicates can significantly help. If you switch to using searchMode=‘any’, it can help reduce clause complexity. When I faced this issue, I also created a fallback mechanism that reduces the number of search fields when a query fails, which maintained acceptable search quality without triggering errors.
Been dealing with this mess for years. The 3000 clause limit hits when you’ve got complex queries across multiple fields.
I split searches into two phases. First - broad search with fewer fields to get candidates. Then refine with a second query on those filtered results.
For your case, search just customer_id and primary_email first. Use those results to search phone and secondary_email if you need them.
That highlight_fields parameter eats up clause count too. Drop highlighting when you’re close to limits.
I built a simple word counter that estimates clauses - splits on spaces and multiplies by field count. Not perfect but catches problems before they hit the API:
rough_clauses = len(user_query.split()) * len(search_fields)
if rough_clauses > 2500: # safety buffer
# reduce fields or truncate query
When queries get too complex, I switch to the autocomplete endpoint instead. Different behavior but no clause limits.
Azure’s clause limit calculation is tricky - the analyzer breaks down text way differently than you’d expect. Terms get expanded across search fields, so compound words and hyphenated stuff create way more clauses than you think. I’ve had good luck with query truncation based on character length instead of trying to guess clause counts. With four search fields, keeping queries under 150-200 characters usually works. You can also shrink the search_fields array when queries get long. Here’s what worked for me: prioritize your fields. Start with just the crucial ones like customer_id, then add more fields only if you need better results. Keeps clause counts down but still gives you good search results. BTW - you’re missing a closing quote in your filter syntax, which could cause other parsing problems on top of the clause limit issue.
wrap your query in a try-catch block and keep trimming the user_query until it works. your filter syntax is missing a closing quote - that’ll definitely cause problems. also try using $top instead of count, it sometimes handles clause calculations better.
Had the exact same problem in production. You can’t really calculate clauses ahead of time because Azure Search’s tokenization is all over the place. Here’s what actually worked for me: set up a retry that cuts the query_text by 20% when it hits the limit, then try again. For your setup, I’d start by reducing those search_fields - you’ve got 4 fields which multiplies your clause count like crazy. You could also batch queries by organization to simplify the filters. If that doesn’t work, fall back to the suggest API for shorter queries when full search fails (though it’ll behave a bit differently).