diff --git a/libs/x-content/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xcontent/XContentType.java b/libs/x-content/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xcontent/XContentType.java
index 56fff226114f8..242da6fd705dd 100644
--- a/libs/x-content/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xcontent/XContentType.java
+++ b/libs/x-content/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xcontent/XContentType.java
@@ -273,7 +273,7 @@ public static XContentType fromMediaType(String mediaTypeHeaderValue) throws Ill
         return null;
     }
 
-    private int index;
+    private final int index;
 
     XContentType(int index) {
         this.index = index;
@@ -315,4 +315,10 @@ public ParsedMediaType toParsedMediaType() {
     public XContentType canonical() {
         return this;
     }
+
+    private static final XContentType[] values = values();
+
+    public static XContentType ofOrdinal(int ordinal) {
+        return values[ordinal];
+    }
 }
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/index/IndexRequest.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/index/IndexRequest.java
index eda28eb4e139e..b1ad328abda92 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/index/IndexRequest.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/index/IndexRequest.java
@@ -165,7 +165,8 @@ public IndexRequest(@Nullable ShardId shardId, StreamInput in) throws IOExceptio
         isRetry = in.readBoolean();
         autoGeneratedTimestamp = in.readLong();
         if (in.readBoolean()) {
-            contentType = in.readEnum(XContentType.class);
+            // faster than StreamInput::readEnum, do not replace we read a lot of these instances at times
+            contentType = XContentType.ofOrdinal(in.readByte());
         } else {
             contentType = null;
         }
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/support/WriteRequest.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/support/WriteRequest.java
index 0df640e3a50a1..64355a32c3a63 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/support/WriteRequest.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/support/WriteRequest.java
@@ -92,8 +92,10 @@ public static RefreshPolicy parse(String value) {
             throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown value for refresh: [" + value + "].");
         }
 
+        private static final RefreshPolicy[] values = values();
+
         public static RefreshPolicy readFrom(StreamInput in) throws IOException {
-            return RefreshPolicy.values()[in.readByte()];
+            return values[in.readByte()];
         }
 
         @Override