diff --git a/rabitqlib/index/ivf/ivf.hpp b/rabitqlib/index/ivf/ivf.hpp
index 895490f..9739b38 100644
--- a/rabitqlib/index/ivf/ivf.hpp
+++ b/rabitqlib/index/ivf/ivf.hpp
@@ -101,6 +101,8 @@ class IVF {
     void search(const float*, size_t, size_t, PID*, bool) const;
 
     [[nodiscard]] size_t padded_dim() const { return this->padded_dim_; }
+
+    [[nodiscard]] size_t num_clusters() const { return this->num_cluster_; }
 };
 
 inline IVF::IVF(size_t n, size_t dim, size_t cluster_num, size_t bits, RotatorType type)
@@ -374,6 +376,9 @@ inline void IVF::search(
     PID* __restrict__ results,
     bool use_hacc = true
 ) const {
+    if (nprobe > num_cluster_) {
+        nprobe = num_cluster_;
+    }
     std::vector<float> rotated_query(padded_dim_);
     this->rotator_->rotate(query, rotated_query.data());
 
diff --git a/sample/ivf_rabitq_querying.cpp b/sample/ivf_rabitq_querying.cpp
index 8a4149f..8e89603 100644
--- a/sample/ivf_rabitq_querying.cpp
+++ b/sample/ivf_rabitq_querying.cpp
@@ -86,6 +86,10 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv) {
     for (size_t r = 0; r < test_round; r++) {
         for (size_t l = 0; l < length; ++l) {
             size_t nprobe = nprobes[l];
+            if (nprobe > ivf.num_clusters()) {
+                std::cout << "nprobe " << nprobe << " is larger than number of clusters, ";
+                std::cout << "will use nprobe = num_cluster (" << ivf.num_clusters() << ").\n";
+            }
             size_t total_correct = 0;
             float total_time = 0;
             std::vector<PID> results(topk);