diff --git a/x-pack/plugins/ml/server/models/data_visualizer/data_visualizer.js b/x-pack/plugins/ml/server/models/data_visualizer/data_visualizer.js
index d98eb1ab21a8..3d0968bdcb35 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugins/ml/server/models/data_visualizer/data_visualizer.js
+++ b/x-pack/plugins/ml/server/models/data_visualizer/data_visualizer.js
@@ -262,7 +262,12 @@ export class DataVisualizer {
       aggs: buildSamplerAggregation(aggs, samplerShardSize)
     };
 
-    const resp = await this.callWithRequest('search', { index, size, body });
+    const resp = await this.callWithRequest('search', {
+      index,
+      rest_total_hits_as_int: true,
+      size,
+      body
+    });
     const aggregations = resp.aggregations;
     const totalCount = _.get(resp, ['hits', 'total'], 0);
     const stats =  {