diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/inference/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/inference/registry/ModelRegistry.java b/x-pack/plugin/inference/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/inference/registry/ModelRegistry.java
index 837a66b3ad24c..5c99135e1dd22 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/inference/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/inference/registry/ModelRegistry.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/inference/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/inference/registry/ModelRegistry.java
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentHelper;
 import org.elasticsearch.core.TimeValue;
 import org.elasticsearch.core.Tuple;
+import org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayService;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.engine.VersionConflictEngineException;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilders;
@@ -625,8 +626,8 @@ public void storeModel(Model model, ActionListener<Boolean> listener, TimeValue
         storeModel(model, true, listener, timeout);
     }
 
-    private void storeModel(Model model, boolean addToClusterState, ActionListener<Boolean> listener, TimeValue timeout) {
-        ActionListener<BulkResponse> bulkResponseActionListener = getStoreIndexListener(model, addToClusterState, listener, timeout);
+    private void storeModel(Model model, boolean updateClusterState, ActionListener<Boolean> listener, TimeValue timeout) {
+        ActionListener<BulkResponse> bulkResponseActionListener = getStoreIndexListener(model, updateClusterState, listener, timeout);
 
         IndexRequest configRequest = createIndexRequest(
             Model.documentId(model.getConfigurations().getInferenceEntityId()),
@@ -651,7 +652,7 @@ private void storeModel(Model model, boolean addToClusterState, ActionListener<B
 
     private ActionListener<BulkResponse> getStoreIndexListener(
         Model model,
-        boolean addToClusterState,
+        boolean updateClusterState,
         ActionListener<Boolean> listener,
         TimeValue timeout
     ) {
@@ -678,7 +679,7 @@ private ActionListener<BulkResponse> getStoreIndexListener(
             BulkItemResponse.Failure failure = getFirstBulkFailure(bulkItemResponses);
 
             if (failure == null) {
-                if (addToClusterState) {
+                if (updateClusterState) {
                     var storeListener = getStoreMetadataListener(inferenceEntityId, listener);
                     try {
                         metadataTaskQueue.submitTask(
@@ -778,7 +779,8 @@ public synchronized void removeDefaultConfigs(Set<String> inferenceEntityIds, Ac
         }
 
         defaultConfigIds.keySet().removeAll(inferenceEntityIds);
-        deleteModels(inferenceEntityIds, listener);
+        // default models are not stored in the cluster state.
+        deleteModels(inferenceEntityIds, false, listener);
     }
 
     public void deleteModel(String inferenceEntityId, ActionListener<Boolean> listener) {
@@ -786,6 +788,10 @@ public void deleteModel(String inferenceEntityId, ActionListener<Boolean> listen
     }
 
     public void deleteModels(Set<String> inferenceEntityIds, ActionListener<Boolean> listener) {
+        deleteModels(inferenceEntityIds, true, listener);
+    }
+
+    private void deleteModels(Set<String> inferenceEntityIds, boolean updateClusterState, ActionListener<Boolean> listener) {
         var lockedInferenceIds = new HashSet<>(inferenceEntityIds);
         lockedInferenceIds.retainAll(preventDeletionLock);
 
@@ -804,16 +810,25 @@ public void deleteModels(Set<String> inferenceEntityIds, ActionListener<Boolean>
         }
 
         var request = createDeleteRequest(inferenceEntityIds);
-        client.execute(DeleteByQueryAction.INSTANCE, request, getDeleteModelClusterStateListener(inferenceEntityIds, listener));
+        client.execute(
+            DeleteByQueryAction.INSTANCE,
+            request,
+            getDeleteModelClusterStateListener(inferenceEntityIds, updateClusterState, listener)
+        );
     }
 
     private ActionListener<BulkByScrollResponse> getDeleteModelClusterStateListener(
         Set<String> inferenceEntityIds,
+        boolean updateClusterState,
         ActionListener<Boolean> listener
     ) {
         return new ActionListener<>() {
             @Override
             public void onResponse(BulkByScrollResponse bulkByScrollResponse) {
+                if (updateClusterState == false) {
+                    listener.onResponse(Boolean.TRUE);
+                    return;
+                }
                 var clusterStateListener = new ActionListener<AcknowledgedResponse>() {
                     @Override
                     public void onResponse(AcknowledgedResponse acknowledgedResponse) {
@@ -921,6 +936,12 @@ public void clusterChanged(ClusterChangedEvent event) {
         }
 
         var state = ModelRegistryMetadata.fromState(event.state().metadata());
+
+        // wait for the cluster state to be recovered
+        if (event.state().blocks().hasGlobalBlock(GatewayService.STATE_NOT_RECOVERED_BLOCK)) {
+            return;
+        }
+
         if (state.isUpgraded()) {
             return;
         }