diff --git a/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/__tests__/tag_cloud.js b/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/__tests__/tag_cloud.js
index 2fe354421c4f5..2e3c942d71bf8 100644
--- a/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/__tests__/tag_cloud.js
+++ b/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/__tests__/tag_cloud.js
@@ -11,9 +11,9 @@ describe('tag cloud tests', function () {
   const midValue = (minValue + maxValue) / 2;
   const baseTest = {
     data: [
-      { text: 'foo', value: minValue },
-      { text: 'bar', value: midValue },
-      { text: 'foobar', value: maxValue },
+      { rawText: 'foo', displayText: 'foo', value: minValue },
+      { rawText: 'bar', displayText: 'bar', value: midValue },
+      { rawText: 'foobar', displayText: 'foobar', value: maxValue },
     ],
     options: {
       orientation: 'single',
diff --git a/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/tag_cloud.js b/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/tag_cloud.js
index b611de801e74b..380272ab3ccc4 100644
--- a/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/tag_cloud.js
+++ b/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/tag_cloud.js
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ class TagCloud extends EventEmitter {
   }
 
   setData(data) {
-    this._words = data.map(toWordTag);
+    this._words = data;
     this._invalidate(false);
   }
 
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ class TagCloud extends EventEmitter {
       const self = this;
       enteringTags.on({
         click: function (event) {
-          self.emit('select', event.text);
+          self.emit('select', event.rawText);
         },
         mouseover: function () {
           d3.select(this).style('cursor', 'pointer');
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ class TagCloud extends EventEmitter {
     return {
       refreshLayout: true,
       size: this._size.slice(),
-      words: this._words.map(toWordTag)
+      words: this._words
     };
   }
 
@@ -281,7 +281,8 @@ class TagCloud extends EventEmitter {
           y: tag.y,
           rotate: tag.rotate,
           size: tag.size,
-          text: tag.text
+          rawText: tag.text,
+          displayText: tag.displayText
         };
       })
     };
@@ -315,7 +316,7 @@ class TagCloud extends EventEmitter {
     tagCloudLayoutGenerator.random(seed);
     tagCloudLayoutGenerator.spiral(this._spiral);
     tagCloudLayoutGenerator.words(job.words);
-    tagCloudLayoutGenerator.text(getText);
+    tagCloudLayoutGenerator.text(getDisplayText);
     tagCloudLayoutGenerator.timeInterval(this._timeInterval);
 
     this._layoutIsUpdating = true;
@@ -337,7 +338,8 @@ class TagCloud extends EventEmitter {
     const debug = {};
     debug.positions = this._completedJob ? this._completedJob.words.map(tag => {
       return {
-        text: tag.text,
+        displayText: tag.displayText,
+        rawText: tag.text,
         x: tag.x,
         y: tag.y,
         rotate: tag.rotate
@@ -358,17 +360,8 @@ function seed() {
   return 0.5;//constant seed (not random) to ensure constant layouts for identical data
 }
 
-function toWordTag(word) {
-  return {
-    displayText: word.displayText ? word.displayText : word.text,
-    text: word.text,
-    value: word.value
-  };
-}
-
-
 function getText(word) {
-  return word.text;
+  return word.rawText;
 }
 
 function getDisplayText(word) {
diff --git a/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/tag_cloud_controller.js b/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/tag_cloud_controller.js
index 0423914f26fd8..28ea70da770f1 100644
--- a/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/tag_cloud_controller.js
+++ b/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/tag_cloud_controller.js
@@ -1,24 +1,20 @@
-import _ from 'lodash';
 import { uiModules } from 'ui/modules';
 import TagCloud from 'plugins/tagcloud/tag_cloud';
 import AggConfigResult from 'ui/vis/agg_config_result';
-import { FilterBarClickHandlerProvider } from 'ui/filter_bar/filter_bar_click_handler';
 
 const module = uiModules.get('kibana/tagcloud', ['kibana']);
-module.controller('KbnTagCloudController', function ($scope, $element, Private, getAppState) {
+module.controller('KbnTagCloudController', function ($scope, $element) {
 
   const containerNode = $element[0];
-  const filterBarClickHandler = Private(FilterBarClickHandlerProvider);
   const maxTagCount = 200;
   let truncated = false;
+  let bucketAgg;
 
   const tagCloud = new TagCloud(containerNode);
   tagCloud.on('select', (event) => {
-    const appState = getAppState();
-    const clickHandler = filterBarClickHandler(appState);
-    const aggs = $scope.vis.getAggConfig().getResponseAggs();
-    const aggConfigResult = new AggConfigResult(aggs[0], false, event, event);
-    clickHandler({ point: { aggConfigResult: aggConfigResult } });
+    if (!bucketAgg) return;
+    const aggConfigResult = new AggConfigResult(bucketAgg, false, event, event);
+    $scope.vis.API.events.filter({ point: { aggConfigResult: aggConfigResult } });
     $scope.$apply();
   });
 
@@ -48,28 +44,22 @@ module.controller('KbnTagCloudController', function ($scope, $element, Private,
     $scope.renderComplete();
   });
 
-  $scope.$watch('esResponse', function (response) {
+  $scope.$watch('esResponse', async function (response) {
 
-    if (!response) {
+    if (!response || !response.tables.length) {
       tagCloud.setData([]);
       return;
     }
 
-    const bucketsAgg = _.first($scope.vis.getAggConfig().bySchemaName.segment);
-    const tagsAggId = _.get(bucketsAgg, 'id');
-    if (!tagsAggId || !response.aggregations) {
-      tagCloud.setData([]);
-      return;
-    }
-
-    const metricsAgg = _.first($scope.vis.getAggConfig().bySchemaName.metric);
-    const buckets = response.aggregations[tagsAggId].buckets;
+    const data = response.tables[0];
+    bucketAgg = data.columns[0].aggConfig;
 
-    const tags = buckets.map((bucket) => {
+    const tags = data.rows.map(row => {
+      const [tag, count] = row;
       return {
-        displayText: bucketsAgg.fieldFormatter()(bucket.key),
-        text: bucket.key,
-        value: getValue(metricsAgg, bucket)
+        displayText: bucketAgg ? bucketAgg.fieldFormatter()(tag) : tag,
+        rawText: tag,
+        value: count
       };
     });
 
@@ -91,17 +81,4 @@ module.controller('KbnTagCloudController', function ($scope, $element, Private,
     tagCloud.resize();
   });
 
-  function getValue(metricsAgg, bucket) {
-    let size = metricsAgg.getValue(bucket);
-    if (typeof size !== 'number' || isNaN(size)) {
-      try {
-        size = bucket[1].values[0].value;//lift out first value (e.g. median aggregations return as array)
-      } catch (e) {
-        size = 1;//punt
-      }
-    }
-    return size;
-  }
-
-
 });
diff --git a/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/tag_cloud_vis.js b/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/tag_cloud_vis.js
index 050b20a67e42b..df1975d701fa2 100644
--- a/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/tag_cloud_vis.js
+++ b/src/core_plugins/tagcloud/public/tag_cloud_vis.js
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ VisTypesRegistryProvider.register(function TagCloudProvider(Private) {
       },
       template: tagCloudTemplate,
     },
-    responseHandler: 'none',
+    responseHandler: 'tabify',
     editorConfig: {
       collections: {
         scales: ['linear', 'log', 'square root'],