diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/IncludeExclude.java b/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/IncludeExclude.java
index d2768a7fea7ed..de83c7221835f 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/IncludeExclude.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/IncludeExclude.java
@@ -480,11 +480,11 @@ private static void process(
         @Override
         public LongBitSet acceptedGlobalOrdinals(SortedSetDocValues globalOrdinals) throws IOException {
             LongBitSet accept = new LongBitSet(globalOrdinals.getValueCount());
-            if (includePrefixes.isEmpty()) {
+            if (!includePrefixes.isEmpty()) {
+                process(globalOrdinals, accept.length(), includePrefixes, accept::set);
+            } else if (accept.length() > 0) {
                 // Exclude-only
                 accept.set(0, accept.length());
-            } else {
-                process(globalOrdinals, accept.length(), includePrefixes, accept::set);
             }
             process(globalOrdinals, accept.length(), excludePrefixes, accept::clear);
             return accept;