diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7f9226fa..d50d6ff9 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- Exclude unset fields in search response [#166](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi-elasticsearch/issues/166)
 
 ## [v1.0.0]
 
diff --git a/stac_fastapi/elasticsearch/stac_fastapi/elasticsearch/core.py b/stac_fastapi/elasticsearch/stac_fastapi/elasticsearch/core.py
index 65e9a458..76bb04cd 100644
--- a/stac_fastapi/elasticsearch/stac_fastapi/elasticsearch/core.py
+++ b/stac_fastapi/elasticsearch/stac_fastapi/elasticsearch/core.py
@@ -509,7 +509,9 @@ async def post_search(
             filter_kwargs = search_request.fields.filter_fields
 
             items = [
-                orjson.loads(stac_pydantic.Item(**feat).json(**filter_kwargs))
+                orjson.loads(
+                    stac_pydantic.Item(**feat).json(**filter_kwargs, exclude_unset=True)
+                )
                 for feat in items
             ]
 
diff --git a/stac_fastapi/elasticsearch/tests/api/test_api.py b/stac_fastapi/elasticsearch/tests/api/test_api.py
index 932edc08..c50256da 100644
--- a/stac_fastapi/elasticsearch/tests/api/test_api.py
+++ b/stac_fastapi/elasticsearch/tests/api/test_api.py
@@ -163,6 +163,23 @@ async def test_app_fields_extension_no_properties_post(app_client, ctx, txn_clie
     assert "properties" not in resp_json["features"][0]
 
 
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_app_fields_extension_no_null_fields(app_client, ctx, txn_client):
+    resp = await app_client.get("/search", params={"collections": ["test-collection"]})
+    assert resp.status_code == 200
+    resp_json = resp.json()
+    # check if no null fields: https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi-elasticsearch/issues/166
+    for feature in resp_json["features"]:
+        # assert "bbox" not in feature["geometry"]
+        for link in feature["links"]:
+            assert all(a not in link or link[a] is not None for a in ("title", "asset"))
+        for asset in feature["assets"]:
+            assert all(
+                a not in asset or asset[a] is not None
+                for a in ("start_datetime", "created")
+            )
+
+
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
 async def test_app_fields_extension_return_all_properties(app_client, ctx, txn_client):
     item = ctx.item