diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/esql/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/esql/plugin/DataNodeRequestSender.java b/x-pack/plugin/esql/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/esql/plugin/DataNodeRequestSender.java
index 2efa3433cbb74..310d9906dc4b7 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/esql/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/esql/plugin/DataNodeRequestSender.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/esql/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/esql/plugin/DataNodeRequestSender.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchShardsResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.support.TransportActions;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNode;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.breaker.CircuitBreakingException;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.ConcurrentCollections;
 import org.elasticsearch.compute.operator.DriverProfile;
 import org.elasticsearch.compute.operator.FailureCollector;
@@ -209,8 +210,9 @@ private static Exception unwrapFailure(Exception e) {
     private void trackShardLevelFailure(ShardId shardId, boolean fatal, Exception originalEx) {
         final Exception e = unwrapFailure(originalEx);
         final boolean isTaskCanceledException = ExceptionsHelper.unwrap(e, TaskCancelledException.class) != null;
+        final boolean isCircuitBreakerException = ExceptionsHelper.unwrap(e, CircuitBreakingException.class) != null;
         shardFailures.compute(shardId, (k, current) -> {
-            boolean mergedFatal = fatal || isTaskCanceledException;
+            boolean mergedFatal = fatal || isTaskCanceledException || isCircuitBreakerException;
             return current == null
                 ? new ShardFailure(mergedFatal, e)
                 : new ShardFailure(
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/esql/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/esql/plugin/DataNodeRequestSenderTests.java b/x-pack/plugin/esql/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/esql/plugin/DataNodeRequestSenderTests.java
index 5f30a5257494e..dd02d6fc3b189 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/esql/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/esql/plugin/DataNodeRequestSenderTests.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/esql/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/esql/plugin/DataNodeRequestSenderTests.java
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.action.support.PlainActionFuture;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNode;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNodeUtils;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.breaker.CircuitBreaker.Durability;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.breaker.CircuitBreakingException;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.ConcurrentCollections;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.EsExecutors;
@@ -271,6 +273,17 @@ public void testNonFatalFailedOnAllNodes() {
         assertThat(sent.size(), equalTo(2));
     }
 
+    public void testDoNotRetryCircuitBreakerException() {
+        var targetShards = List.of(targetShard(shard1, node1, node2));
+        var sent = ConcurrentCollections.newQueue();
+        var future = sendRequests(targetShards, false, (node, shardIds, aliasFilters, listener) -> {
+            sent.add(new NodeRequest(node, shardIds, aliasFilters));
+            runWithDelay(() -> listener.onFailure(new CircuitBreakingException("cbe", randomFrom(Durability.values())), false));
+        });
+        expectThrows(CircuitBreakingException.class, equalTo("cbe"), future::actionGet);
+        assertThat(sent.size(), equalTo(1));
+    }
+
     static DataNodeRequestSender.TargetShard targetShard(ShardId shardId, DiscoveryNode... nodes) {
         return new DataNodeRequestSender.TargetShard(shardId, new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList(nodes)), null);
     }