diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/es818/ES818BinaryQuantizedVectorsReader.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/es818/ES818BinaryQuantizedVectorsReader.java
index e59b9ba7e6535..1feee9f642b32 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/es818/ES818BinaryQuantizedVectorsReader.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/es818/ES818BinaryQuantizedVectorsReader.java
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ private ES818BinaryQuantizedVectorsReader(ES818BinaryQuantizedVectorsReader clon
     }
 
     @Override
-    public FlatVectorsReader getMergeInstance() {
+    public FlatVectorsReader getMergeInstance() throws IOException {
         return new ES818BinaryQuantizedVectorsReader(this, rawVectorsReader.getMergeInstance());
     }