When you make a query to Algolia and the server that receives it lacks the processing power to handle it, that query is marked as degraded.
We use degraded queries to increase the search capacity of servers during a request spike. This has little impact on the relevance of the first results, but it does effect exhaustiveness. What it means for your end users is that they still get relevant results, but not as many as they would if the query was not degraded.
Algolia directly handles query degradation; you cannot change the way it works or disable it.
Accessing data about degraded queries
You can get basic information on your degraded queries through the dashboard. Go to the API Monitoring section and click on the Performance tab. You'll find a graph of degraded queries. Note that you will only be able to access these graphs if you’re not on a plan with shared clusters.
If you need more detailed information, you can use the Usage REST API.