diff --git a/src/aggregation/bucket/histogram/histogram.rs b/src/aggregation/bucket/histogram/histogram.rs
index fb59693b9c..8472628069 100644
--- a/src/aggregation/bucket/histogram/histogram.rs
+++ b/src/aggregation/bucket/histogram/histogram.rs
@@ -206,6 +206,7 @@ pub struct SegmentHistogramCollector {
     field_type: Type,
     interval: f64,
     offset: f64,
+    min_doc_count: u64,
     first_bucket_num: i64,
     bounds: HistogramBounds,
 }
@@ -215,6 +216,30 @@ impl SegmentHistogramCollector {
         self,
         agg_with_accessor: &BucketAggregationWithAccessor,
     ) -> crate::Result<IntermediateBucketResult> {
+        // Compute the number of buckets to validate against max num buckets
+        // Note: We use min_doc_count here, but it's only an lowerbound here, since were are on the
+        // intermediate level and after merging the number of documents of a bucket could exceed
+        // `min_doc_count`.
+        {
+            let cut_off_buckets_front = self
+                .buckets
+                .iter()
+                .take_while(|bucket| bucket.doc_count <= self.min_doc_count)
+                .count();
+            let cut_off_buckets_back = self.buckets[cut_off_buckets_front..]
+                .iter()
+                .rev()
+                .take_while(|bucket| bucket.doc_count <= self.min_doc_count)
+                .count();
+            let estimate_num_buckets =
+                self.buckets.len() - cut_off_buckets_front - cut_off_buckets_back;
+
+            agg_with_accessor
+                .bucket_count
+                .add_count(estimate_num_buckets as u32);
+            agg_with_accessor.bucket_count.validate_bucket_count()?;
+        }
+
         let mut buckets = Vec::with_capacity(
             self.buckets
                 .iter()
@@ -251,11 +276,6 @@ impl SegmentHistogramCollector {
             );
         };
 
-        agg_with_accessor
-            .bucket_count
-            .add_count(buckets.len() as u32);
-        agg_with_accessor.bucket_count.validate_bucket_count()?;
-
         Ok(IntermediateBucketResult::Histogram { buckets })
     }
 
@@ -308,6 +328,7 @@ impl SegmentHistogramCollector {
             first_bucket_num,
             bounds,
             sub_aggregations,
+            min_doc_count: req.min_doc_count(),
         })
     }
 
@@ -1521,4 +1542,36 @@ mod tests {
 
         Ok(())
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn histogram_test_max_buckets_segments() -> crate::Result<()> {
+        let values = vec![0.0, 70000.0];
+
+        let index = get_test_index_from_values(true, &values)?;
+
+        let agg_req: Aggregations = vec![(
+            "my_interval".to_string(),
+            Aggregation::Bucket(BucketAggregation {
+                bucket_agg: BucketAggregationType::Histogram(HistogramAggregation {
+                    field: "score_f64".to_string(),
+                    interval: 1.0,
+                    ..Default::default()
+                }),
+                sub_aggregation: Default::default(),
+            }),
+        )]
+        .into_iter()
+        .collect();
+
+        let res = exec_request(agg_req, &index);
+
+        assert_eq!(
+            res.unwrap_err().to_string(),
+            "An invalid argument was passed: 'Aborting aggregation because too many buckets were \
+             created'"
+                .to_string()
+        );
+
+        Ok(())
+    }
 }