diff --git a/changelogs/unreleased/34086-es-bulk-incremental-index-updates.yml b/changelogs/unreleased/34086-es-bulk-incremental-index-updates.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..67cceb21af0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/unreleased/34086-es-bulk-incremental-index-updates.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+title: 'Add a bulk processor for elasticsearch incremental updates'
+merge_request: 24298
+author:
+type: added
diff --git a/config/gitlab.yml.example b/config/gitlab.yml.example
index 20c75a6e255..330e5109ed4 100644
--- a/config/gitlab.yml.example
+++ b/config/gitlab.yml.example
@@ -454,6 +454,11 @@ production: &base
     pseudonymizer_worker:
       cron: "0 * * * *"
 
+    # Elasticsearch bulk updater for incremental updates.
+    # NOTE: This will only take effect if elasticsearch is enabled.
+    elastic_index_bulk_cron_worker:
+      cron: "*/1 * * * *"
+
   registry:
     # enabled: true
     # host: registry.example.com
diff --git a/config/initializers/1_settings.rb b/config/initializers/1_settings.rb
index 156cf78dfc4..684ccb73603 100644
--- a/config/initializers/1_settings.rb
+++ b/config/initializers/1_settings.rb
@@ -537,6 +537,9 @@ Gitlab.ee do
   Settings.cron_jobs['update_max_seats_used_for_gitlab_com_subscriptions_worker'] ||= Settingslogic.new({})
   Settings.cron_jobs['update_max_seats_used_for_gitlab_com_subscriptions_worker']['cron'] ||= '0 12 * * *'
   Settings.cron_jobs['update_max_seats_used_for_gitlab_com_subscriptions_worker']['job_class'] = 'UpdateMaxSeatsUsedForGitlabComSubscriptionsWorker'
+  Settings.cron_jobs['elastic_index_bulk_cron_worker'] ||= Settingslogic.new({})
+  Settings.cron_jobs['elastic_index_bulk_cron_worker']['cron'] ||= '*/1 * * * *'
+  Settings.cron_jobs['elastic_index_bulk_cron_worker']['job_class'] ||= 'ElasticIndexBulkCronWorker'
 end
 
 #
diff --git a/doc/development/elasticsearch.md b/doc/development/elasticsearch.md
index b8d2a873d8b..69113fe8030 100644
--- a/doc/development/elasticsearch.md
+++ b/doc/development/elasticsearch.md
@@ -36,7 +36,11 @@ Additionally, if you need large repos or multiple forks for testing, please cons
 
 The Elasticsearch integration depends on an external indexer. We ship an [indexer written in Go](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-elasticsearch-indexer). The user must trigger the initial indexing via a rake task but, after this is done, GitLab itself will trigger reindexing when required via `after_` callbacks on create, update, and destroy that are inherited from [/ee/app/models/concerns/elastic/application_versioned_search.rb](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/blob/master/ee/app/models/concerns/elastic/application_versioned_search.rb).
 
-All indexing after the initial one is done via `ElasticIndexerWorker` (Sidekiq jobs).
+After initial indexing is complete, updates proceed in one of two ways, depending on the `:elastic_bulk_incremental_updates` feature flag.
+
+If disabled, every create, update, or delete operation on an Elasticsearch-tracked model enqueues a new `ElasticIndexerWorker` Sidekiq job which takes care of updating just that document. This is quite inefficient.
+
+If the feature flag is enabled, create, update, and delete operations for all models except projects (see [#207494](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/issues/207494)) are tracked in a Redis [`ZSET`](https://redis.io/topics/data-types#sorted-sets) instead. A regular `sidekiq-cron` `ElasticIndexBulkCronWorker` processes this queue, updating many Elasticsearch documents at a time with the [Bulk Request API](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/docs-bulk.html).
 
 Search queries are generated by the concerns found in [ee/app/models/concerns/elastic](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/tree/master/ee/app/models/concerns/elastic). These concerns are also in charge of access control, and have been a historic source of security bugs so please pay close attention to them!