diff --git a/docs/changelog/137111.yaml b/docs/changelog/137111.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..3122a54e673ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changelog/137111.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+pr: 137111
+summary: Remove `auto_expand_replicas` setting during index clone in `searchable_snapshot`
+area: ILM+SLM
+type: bug
+issues: []
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ilm/SearchableSnapshotAction.java b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ilm/SearchableSnapshotAction.java
index ca33370ef09db..ae699a91e5ab5 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ilm/SearchableSnapshotAction.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ilm/SearchableSnapshotAction.java
@@ -78,7 +78,11 @@ public class SearchableSnapshotAction implements LifecycleAction {
         indexName,
         state) -> state.forceMergeCloneIndexName() != null ? state.forceMergeCloneIndexName() : indexName;
 
-    private static final Settings CLONE_SETTINGS = Settings.builder().put(IndexMetadata.SETTING_NUMBER_OF_REPLICAS, 0).build();
+    /** The cloned index should have 0 replicas, so we also need to remove the auto_expand_replicas setting if present. */
+    private static final Settings CLONE_SETTINGS = Settings.builder()
+        .put(IndexMetadata.SETTING_NUMBER_OF_REPLICAS, 0)
+        .put(IndexMetadata.SETTING_AUTO_EXPAND_REPLICAS, (String) null)
+        .build();
     private static final Function<IndexMetadata, Settings> CLONE_SETTINGS_SUPPLIER = indexMetadata -> CLONE_SETTINGS;
 
     private static final ConstructingObjectParser<SearchableSnapshotAction, Void> PARSER = new ConstructingObjectParser<>(
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ilm/qa/multi-node/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ilm/actions/SearchableSnapshotActionIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/ilm/qa/multi-node/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ilm/actions/SearchableSnapshotActionIT.java
index 63108dd3cbcf6..df04dbc6a8a6c 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ilm/qa/multi-node/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ilm/actions/SearchableSnapshotActionIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ilm/qa/multi-node/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ilm/actions/SearchableSnapshotActionIT.java
@@ -1033,11 +1033,17 @@ private String prepareDataStreamWithDocs(String phase, int numberOfPrimaries, in
         createSnapshotRepo(client(), snapshotRepo, randomBoolean());
         createNewSingletonPolicy(client(), policy, phase, new SearchableSnapshotAction(snapshotRepo, true));
 
+        final var indexSettings = indexSettings(numberOfPrimaries, numberOfReplicas);
+        // Randomly enable auto-expand replicas to test that we remove the setting for the clone with 0 replicas.
+        if (numberOfReplicas > 0 && randomBoolean()) {
+            logger.info("--> enabling auto-expand replicas on backing index");
+            indexSettings.put(IndexMetadata.SETTING_AUTO_EXPAND_REPLICAS, "1-all");
+        }
         createComposableTemplate(
             client(),
             randomAlphaOfLengthBetween(5, 10).toLowerCase(Locale.ROOT),
             dataStream,
-            new Template(indexSettings(numberOfPrimaries, numberOfReplicas).build(), null, null)
+            new Template(indexSettings.build(), null, null)
         );
         for (int i = 0; i < randomIntBetween(5, 10); i++) {
             indexDocument(client(), dataStream, true);