The story of the OpenSearch Project in 2025 is a story of its community. Over the course of a single year, the global network of OpenSearch User Groups experienced explosive growth, growing from a collection of 14 user groups in 2024 into a vibrant, worldwide community of 31 user groups by the end of 2025. To add to the growth story, we went from 440 RSVPs into well over 2,500! This isn’t just a statistic; it’s a testament to the shared passion for open-source search and analytics that now connects our community around the globe.
OpenSearch User Groups are the grassroots engine of the community. They are community-driven meetups where enthusiasts, developers, and experts gather to discuss everything from search engineering and relevance to observability and log analytics to GenAI and machine learning. These groups facilitate the invaluable, in-person exchange of knowledge, success stories, and best practices that are centered on our community’s experiences with OpenSearch and related technologies.
Building the community, together
So how did this happen? The growth wasn’t accidental; it was driven by a powerful combination of factors:
- A welcoming, community-led spirit: The core principle that “anyone interested is welcome to join” created an inclusive environment. This encouraged experienced users to step up as organizers in their own cities.
- Diverse and relevant topics: Discussions go beyond basic setup. Groups dive deep into real-world solutions, open-source search technology, and specialized use cases, attracting a broad audience of builders, developers, data architects, and community-minded individuals.
- The power of local connection: While OpenSearch is a global project, learning and problem-solving often happen best locally. New groups in key tech hubs provided a dedicated forum for peers to network and collaborate in person.
- You, the OpenSearch community: The global success of our community is driven by you. OpenSearch only moves forward and grows because of our active network of contributors, maintainers, writers, developers, builders, solution-providers, and foundation members.
What’s next for the user group community?
Reaching 31 groups and 2,500 participants is a milestone, but it’s also just the beginning. Seeing this growth signifies a mature and self-sustaining ecosystem where users are not just adopters but active contributors and evangelists. Seeing this effort continue to grow has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve witnessed as the community manager for OpenSearch. Thank you.
The successes of 2025 set the stage for an even more connected and innovative 2026. With a robust network now in place, the focus can deepen on cross-group collaboration, sharing of advanced techniques, and fostering the next wave of open-source innovation in search and analytics. We can continue to build new groups around the world and work together on the long-term sustainability of this User Group program and the OpenSearch Project. Are you interested in learning more? Check out the following resources:
- User Group landing page
- OpenSearch Project Meetup network page
- Charter & Guidelines
- New User Group Request
Be sure to RSVP to an event near you. We’ll see you there!
