diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cache/recycler/PageCacheRecycler.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cache/recycler/PageCacheRecycler.java
index 2da8b93c0ebe6..96f6a098ab8a2 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cache/recycler/PageCacheRecycler.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cache/recycler/PageCacheRecycler.java
@@ -59,8 +59,8 @@ private static int maximumSearchThreadPoolSize(ThreadPool threadPool, Settings s
         assert searchThreadPool != null;
         final int maxSize = searchThreadPool.getMax();
         if (maxSize <= 0) {
-            // happens with cached thread pools, let's assume there are at most 3x ${number of processors} threads
-            return 3 * EsExecutors.boundedNumberOfProcessors(settings);
+            // happens with cached thread pools, let's assume there are at most 2x ${number of processors} threads
+            return 2 * EsExecutors.boundedNumberOfProcessors(settings);
         } else {
             return maxSize;
         }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/threadpool/ThreadPool.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/threadpool/ThreadPool.java
index 0a20692e65825..0a0236a8ca81f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/threadpool/ThreadPool.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/threadpool/ThreadPool.java
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ public ThreadPool(Settings settings, @Nullable NodeSettingsService nodeSettingsS
                 .put(Names.INDEX, settingsBuilder().put("type", "fixed").put("size", availableProcessors).put("queue_size", 200).build())
                 .put(Names.BULK, settingsBuilder().put("type", "fixed").put("size", availableProcessors).put("queue_size", 50).build())
                 .put(Names.GET, settingsBuilder().put("type", "fixed").put("size", availableProcessors).put("queue_size", 1000).build())
-                .put(Names.SEARCH, settingsBuilder().put("type", "fixed").put("size", availableProcessors * 3).put("queue_size", 1000).build())
+                .put(Names.SEARCH, settingsBuilder().put("type", "fixed").put("size", ((availableProcessors * 3) / 2) + 1).put("queue_size", 1000).build())
                 .put(Names.SUGGEST, settingsBuilder().put("type", "fixed").put("size", availableProcessors).put("queue_size", 1000).build())
                 .put(Names.PERCOLATE, settingsBuilder().put("type", "fixed").put("size", availableProcessors).put("queue_size", 1000).build())
                 .put(Names.MANAGEMENT, settingsBuilder().put("type", "scaling").put("keep_alive", "5m").put("size", 5).build())