diff --git a/quickwit/Cargo.lock b/quickwit/Cargo.lock
index f9ee3b2324b..b79a0838f81 100644
--- a/quickwit/Cargo.lock
+++ b/quickwit/Cargo.lock
@@ -5965,6 +5965,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "num_cpus",
  "once_cell",
  "opentelemetry",
+ "percent-encoding",
  "quickwit-actors",
  "quickwit-cluster",
  "quickwit-common",
diff --git a/quickwit/Cargo.toml b/quickwit/Cargo.toml
index 5e0190d5a7e..95dab9e19c2 100644
--- a/quickwit/Cargo.toml
+++ b/quickwit/Cargo.toml
@@ -123,6 +123,7 @@ openssl-probe = "0.1.5"
 opentelemetry = { version = "0.19", features = ["rt-tokio"] }
 opentelemetry-otlp = "0.12.0"
 ouroboros = "0.18.0"
+percent-encoding = "2.3.1"
 pin-project = "1.1.0"
 pnet = { version = "0.33.0", features = ["std"] }
 postcard = { version = "1.0.4", features = [
diff --git a/quickwit/quickwit-serve/Cargo.toml b/quickwit/quickwit-serve/Cargo.toml
index a6c53953d1a..4fe411e96de 100644
--- a/quickwit/quickwit-serve/Cargo.toml
+++ b/quickwit/quickwit-serve/Cargo.toml
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ itertools = { workspace = true }
 mime_guess = { workspace = true }
 num_cpus = { workspace = true }
 once_cell = { workspace = true }
+percent-encoding = { workspace = true }
 regex = { workspace = true }
 rust-embed = { workspace = true }
 serde = { workspace = true }
diff --git a/quickwit/quickwit-serve/src/search_api/rest_handler.rs b/quickwit/quickwit-serve/src/search_api/rest_handler.rs
index 92d9df1a91d..b073e30b21e 100644
--- a/quickwit/quickwit-serve/src/search_api/rest_handler.rs
+++ b/quickwit/quickwit-serve/src/search_api/rest_handler.rs
@@ -20,16 +20,16 @@
 use std::convert::TryFrom;
 use std::sync::Arc;
 
+use anyhow::Context;
 use futures::stream::StreamExt;
 use hyper::header::HeaderValue;
 use hyper::HeaderMap;
-use once_cell::sync::Lazy;
+use percent_encoding::percent_decode_str;
 use quickwit_config::validate_index_id_pattern;
 use quickwit_proto::search::{CountHits, OutputFormat, SortField, SortOrder};
 use quickwit_proto::ServiceError;
 use quickwit_query::query_ast::query_ast_from_user_text;
 use quickwit_search::{SearchError, SearchResponseRest, SearchService};
-use regex::Regex;
 use serde::{de, Deserialize, Deserializer, Serialize, Serializer};
 use serde_json::Value as JsonValue;
 use tracing::info;
@@ -56,20 +56,18 @@ use crate::{with_arg, BodyFormat};
 )]
 pub struct SearchApi;
 
-// Matches index patterns separated by commas or its URL encoded version '%2C'.
-static COMMA_SEPARATED_INDEX_PATTERNS_REGEX: Lazy<Regex> =
-    Lazy::new(|| Regex::new(r",|%2C").expect("the regular expression should compile"));
-
 pub(crate) async fn extract_index_id_patterns(
     comma_separated_index_patterns: String,
 ) -> Result<Vec<String>, Rejection> {
+    let index_pattern = percent_decode_str(&comma_separated_index_patterns)
+        .decode_utf8()
+        .context("index pattern does not contain valid utf8 characters")
+        .map_err(|error| crate::rest::InvalidArgument(error.to_string()))?;
+
     let mut index_ids_patterns = Vec::new();
-    for index_id_pattern in
-        COMMA_SEPARATED_INDEX_PATTERNS_REGEX.split(&comma_separated_index_patterns)
-    {
-        validate_index_id_pattern(index_id_pattern).map_err(|error| {
-            warp::reject::custom(crate::rest::InvalidArgument(error.to_string()))
-        })?;
+    for index_id_pattern in index_pattern.split(',').collect::<Vec<_>>() {
+        validate_index_id_pattern(index_id_pattern)
+            .map_err(|error| crate::rest::InvalidArgument(error.to_string()))?;
         index_ids_patterns.push(index_id_pattern.to_string());
     }
     assert!(!index_ids_patterns.is_empty());
@@ -538,16 +536,16 @@ mod tests {
             .await
             .unwrap();
         assert_eq!(
-            extract_index_id_patterns("my-index-1,my-index-2".to_string())
+            extract_index_id_patterns("my-index-1,my-index-2%2A".to_string())
                 .await
                 .unwrap(),
-            vec!["my-index-1".to_string(), "my-index-2".to_string()]
+            vec!["my-index-1".to_string(), "my-index-2*".to_string()]
         );
         assert_eq!(
-            extract_index_id_patterns("my-index-1%2Cmy-index-2".to_string())
+            extract_index_id_patterns("my-index-1%2Cmy-index-%2A".to_string())
                 .await
                 .unwrap(),
-            vec!["my-index-1".to_string(), "my-index-2".to_string()]
+            vec!["my-index-1".to_string(), "my-index-*".to_string()]
         );
         extract_index_id_patterns("".to_string()).await.unwrap_err();
         extract_index_id_patterns(" ".to_string())