diff --git a/packages/api/src/elastic/index.ts b/packages/api/src/elastic/index.ts
index b8cabd53a..3e361039b 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/elastic/index.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/elastic/index.ts
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import {
 } from './types'
 import { readFileSync } from 'fs'
 import { join } from 'path'
+import { Label } from '../entity/label'
 
 const INDEX_NAME = 'pages'
 const INDEX_ALIAS = 'pages_alias'
@@ -207,6 +208,38 @@ export const updatePage = async (
   }
 }
 
+export const addLabelInPage = async (
+  id: string,
+  label: Label,
+  ctx: PageContext
+): Promise<boolean> => {
+  try {
+    const { body } = await client.update({
+      index: INDEX_ALIAS,
+      id,
+      body: {
+        script: {
+          source:
+            'if (!ctx._source.labels.contains(params.label)) { ctx._source.labels.add(label) }',
+          lang: 'painless',
+          params: {
+            label: label,
+          },
+        },
+        doc: {
+          updatedAt: new Date(),
+        },
+      },
+      refresh: ctx.refresh,
+    })
+
+    return body.result === 'updated'
+  } catch (e) {
+    console.error('failed to update a page in elastic', e)
+    return false
+  }
+}
+
 export const deletePage = async (
   id: string,
   ctx: PageContext
diff --git a/packages/api/src/services/labels.ts b/packages/api/src/services/labels.ts
index a7f2a54c2..daf2d798a 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/services/labels.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/services/labels.ts
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@ import DataLoader from 'dataloader'
 import { Label } from '../entity/label'
 import { getRepository, ILike, In } from 'typeorm'
 import { Link } from '../entity/link'
-import { updatePage } from '../elastic'
 import { PageContext } from '../elastic/types'
 import { User } from '../entity/user'
+import { addLabelInPage } from '../elastic'
 
 const batchGetLabelsFromLinkIds = async (
   linkIds: readonly string[]
@@ -50,11 +50,5 @@ export const addLabelToPage = async (
 
   console.log('adding label to page', label.name, pageId)
 
-  return updatePage(
-    pageId,
-    {
-      labels: [labelEntity],
-    },
-    ctx
-  )
+  return addLabelInPage(pageId, labelEntity, ctx)
 }