diff --git a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/pom.xml b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/pom.xml
index ac1356c457a..eb88cd8f220 100644
--- a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/pom.xml
+++ b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/pom.xml
@@ -495,7 +495,7 @@
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>org.elasticsearch.client</groupId>
 			<artifactId>elasticsearch-rest-high-level-client</artifactId>
-			<version>${elasticsearch.version}</version>
+			<optional>true</optional>
 		</dependency>
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>org.flywaydb</groupId>