diff --git a/docs/changelog/142330.yaml b/docs/changelog/142330.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..44bdc0f2d16d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changelog/142330.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+area: ES|QL
+issues:
+ - 139883
+pr: 142330
+summary: Log compute engine server failures as ERROR
+type: bug
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/esql/compute/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/compute/operator/Driver.java b/x-pack/plugin/esql/compute/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/compute/operator/Driver.java
index 6a70fdbb76d57..1736f15ce9a4b 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/esql/compute/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/compute/operator/Driver.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/esql/compute/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/compute/operator/Driver.java
@@ -201,12 +201,12 @@ SubscribableListener<Void> run(TimeValue maxTime, int maxIterations, LongSupplie
                 RestStatus status = ExceptionsHelper.status(e);
                 // HTTP 4xx status codes (400-499) indicate client/user errors: malformed requests, authentication
                 // failures, cancellations, etc. These are expected user actions, not system failures, so log at
-                // DEBUG level to reduce noise. HTTP 5xx status codes (500+) indicate server errors: internal
-                // failures, timeouts, etc. These are system failures that need attention, so log at WARN level.
+                // DEBUG level to reduce noise. HTTP 5xx status codes (500+) indicate internal server failures and
+                // potential bugs, so log at ERROR.
                 if (status.getStatus() >= 400 && status.getStatus() < 500) {
                     LOGGER.debug(Strings.format("User error running driver [%s]", shortDescription), e);
                 } else {
-                    LOGGER.warn(Strings.format("Error running driver [%s]", shortDescription), e);
+                    LOGGER.error(Strings.format("Error running driver [%s]", shortDescription), e);
                 }
                 throw e;
             } finally {
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/esql/compute/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/compute/operator/DriverTests.java b/x-pack/plugin/esql/compute/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/compute/operator/DriverTests.java
index 65f76e227df6c..eb32d34e24e6c 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/esql/compute/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/compute/operator/DriverTests.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/esql/compute/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/compute/operator/DriverTests.java
@@ -7,10 +7,13 @@
 
 package org.elasticsearch.compute.operator;
 
+import org.apache.logging.log4j.Level;
+import org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchStatusException;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionListener;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionRunnable;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.support.PlainActionFuture;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.breaker.CircuitBreaker;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.breaker.CircuitBreakingException;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.ByteSizeValue;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.util.MockBigArrays;
@@ -31,11 +34,16 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.compute.test.TestDriverFactory;
 import org.elasticsearch.compute.test.TestResultPageSinkOperator;
 import org.elasticsearch.core.TimeValue;
+import org.elasticsearch.rest.RestStatus;
+import org.elasticsearch.tasks.TaskCancelledException;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.MockLog;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.junit.annotations.TestLogging;
 import org.elasticsearch.threadpool.FixedExecutorBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.threadpool.TestThreadPool;
 import org.elasticsearch.threadpool.ThreadPool;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -247,6 +255,59 @@ public void testUnchangedStatus() {
         }
     }
 
+    public void testServerErrorsAreLoggedAsError() {
+        assertFailureLogged(
+            new IllegalStateException("simulated compute bug"),
+            IllegalStateException.class,
+            Level.ERROR,
+            "*Error running driver [test-task]*"
+        );
+        assertFailureLogged(
+            new ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException("simulated broken invariant"),
+            ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException.class,
+            Level.ERROR,
+            "*Error running driver [test-task]*"
+        );
+        assertFailureLogged(
+            new RuntimeException(new IOException("io failure")),
+            RuntimeException.class,
+            Level.ERROR,
+            "*Error running driver [test-task]*"
+        );
+    }
+
+    @TestLogging(reason = "assert DEBUG user-error logging in Driver", value = "org.elasticsearch.compute.operator.Driver:DEBUG")
+    public void testClientErrorsAreLoggedAsDebug() {
+        assertFailureLogged(
+            new ElasticsearchStatusException("bad request", RestStatus.BAD_REQUEST),
+            ElasticsearchStatusException.class,
+            Level.DEBUG,
+            "*User error running driver [test-task]*"
+        );
+        assertFailureLogged(
+            new IllegalArgumentException("bad argument"),
+            IllegalArgumentException.class,
+            Level.DEBUG,
+            "*User error running driver [test-task]*"
+        );
+        assertFailureLogged(
+            new CircuitBreakingException("too many bytes", CircuitBreaker.Durability.PERMANENT),
+            CircuitBreakingException.class,
+            Level.DEBUG,
+            "*User error running driver [test-task]*"
+        );
+    }
+
+    @TestLogging(reason = "assert DEBUG cancellation logging in Driver", value = "org.elasticsearch.compute.operator.Driver:DEBUG")
+    public void testTaskCancellationIsLoggedAsDebug() {
+        assertFailureLogged(
+            new TaskCancelledException("cancelled"),
+            TaskCancelledException.class,
+            Level.DEBUG,
+            "*Cancelling running driver [test-task]*"
+        );
+    }
+
     private static Driver createDriver(
         long startEpoch,
         long startNanos,
@@ -272,6 +333,51 @@ private static Driver createDriver(
         );
     }
 
+    private static Driver createFailingDriver(DriverContext driverContext, RuntimeException failure) {
+        return TestDriverFactory.create(
+            driverContext,
+            new CannedSourceOperator(List.of(new Page(driverContext.blockFactory().newConstantIntBlockWith(1, 1))).iterator()),
+            List.of(new AbstractPageMappingOperator() {
+                @Override
+                protected Page process(Page page) {
+                    throw failure;
+                }
+
+                @Override
+                public String toString() {
+                    return "failing_operator";
+                }
+            }),
+            new TestResultPageSinkOperator(page -> fail("sink should not receive output"))
+        );
+    }
+
+    private void assertFailureLogged(
+        RuntimeException failure,
+        Class<? extends RuntimeException> expectedExceptionClass,
+        Level expectedLogLevel,
+        String expectedMessagePattern
+    ) {
+        Driver driver = createFailingDriver(driverContext(), failure);
+        try {
+            MockLog.assertThatLogger(
+                () -> expectThrows(
+                    expectedExceptionClass,
+                    () -> driver.run(TimeValue.timeValueDays(1), Integer.MAX_VALUE, System::nanoTime)
+                ),
+                Driver.class,
+                new MockLog.SeenEventExpectation(
+                    "expected log event for " + failure.getClass().getSimpleName(),
+                    Driver.class.getCanonicalName(),
+                    expectedLogLevel,
+                    expectedMessagePattern
+                )
+            );
+        } finally {
+            driver.close();
+        }
+    }
+
     static class NowSupplier implements LongSupplier {
         private final long startNanos;
         private final long waitTime;