diff --git a/docs/changelog/117350.yaml b/docs/changelog/117350.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..dca54f2037a87
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changelog/117350.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+pr: 117350
+summary: "Improve halfbyte transposition performance, marginally improving bbq performance"
+area: Vector Search
+type: enhancement
+issues: []
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/BQSpaceUtils.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/BQSpaceUtils.java
index 68363b5926a6b..f9fad74835683 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/BQSpaceUtils.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/BQSpaceUtils.java
@@ -23,56 +23,38 @@
 public class BQSpaceUtils {
 
     public static final short B_QUERY = 4;
-    // the first four bits masked
-    private static final int B_QUERY_MASK = 15;
 
     /**
      * Copied from Lucene, replace with Lucene's implementation sometime after Lucene 10
+     * Transpose the query vector into a byte array allowing for efficient bitwise operations with the
+     * index bit vectors. The idea here is to organize the query vector bits such that the first bit
+     * of every dimension is in the first set dimensions bits, or (dimensions/8) bytes. The second,
+     * third, and fourth bits are in the second, third, and fourth set of dimensions bits,
+     * respectively. This allows for direct bitwise comparisons with the stored index vectors through
+     * summing the bitwise results with the relative required bit shifts.
+     *
      * @param q the query vector, assumed to be half-byte quantized with values between 0 and 15
-     * @param dimensions the number of dimensions in the query vector
      * @param quantQueryByte the byte array to store the transposed query vector
      */
-    public static void transposeBin(byte[] q, int dimensions, byte[] quantQueryByte) {
-        // TODO: rewrite this in Panama Vector API
-        int qOffset = 0;
-        final byte[] v1 = new byte[4];
-        final byte[] v = new byte[32];
-        for (int i = 0; i < dimensions; i += 32) {
-            // for every four bytes we shift left (with remainder across those bytes)
-            for (int j = 0; j < v.length; j += 4) {
-                v[j] = (byte) (q[qOffset + j] << B_QUERY | ((q[qOffset + j] >>> B_QUERY) & B_QUERY_MASK));
-                v[j + 1] = (byte) (q[qOffset + j + 1] << B_QUERY | ((q[qOffset + j + 1] >>> B_QUERY) & B_QUERY_MASK));
-                v[j + 2] = (byte) (q[qOffset + j + 2] << B_QUERY | ((q[qOffset + j + 2] >>> B_QUERY) & B_QUERY_MASK));
-                v[j + 3] = (byte) (q[qOffset + j + 3] << B_QUERY | ((q[qOffset + j + 3] >>> B_QUERY) & B_QUERY_MASK));
-            }
-            for (int j = 0; j < B_QUERY; j++) {
-                moveMaskEpi8Byte(v, v1);
-                for (int k = 0; k < 4; k++) {
-                    quantQueryByte[(B_QUERY - j - 1) * (dimensions / 8) + i / 8 + k] = v1[k];
-                    v1[k] = 0;
-                }
-                for (int k = 0; k < v.length; k += 4) {
-                    v[k] = (byte) (v[k] + v[k]);
-                    v[k + 1] = (byte) (v[k + 1] + v[k + 1]);
-                    v[k + 2] = (byte) (v[k + 2] + v[k + 2]);
-                    v[k + 3] = (byte) (v[k + 3] + v[k + 3]);
-                }
-            }
-            qOffset += 32;
-        }
-    }
-
-    private static void moveMaskEpi8Byte(byte[] v, byte[] v1b) {
-        int m = 0;
-        for (int k = 0; k < v.length; k++) {
-            if ((v[k] & 0b10000000) == 0b10000000) {
-                v1b[m] |= 0b00000001;
-            }
-            if (k % 8 == 7) {
-                m++;
-            } else {
-                v1b[m] <<= 1;
+    public static void transposeHalfByte(byte[] q, byte[] quantQueryByte) {
+        for (int i = 0; i < q.length;) {
+            assert q[i] >= 0 && q[i] <= 15;
+            int lowerByte = 0;
+            int lowerMiddleByte = 0;
+            int upperMiddleByte = 0;
+            int upperByte = 0;
+            for (int j = 7; j >= 0 && i < q.length; j--) {
+                lowerByte |= (q[i] & 1) << j;
+                lowerMiddleByte |= ((q[i] >> 1) & 1) << j;
+                upperMiddleByte |= ((q[i] >> 2) & 1) << j;
+                upperByte |= ((q[i] >> 3) & 1) << j;
+                i++;
             }
+            int index = ((i + 7) / 8) - 1;
+            quantQueryByte[index] = (byte) lowerByte;
+            quantQueryByte[index + quantQueryByte.length / 4] = (byte) lowerMiddleByte;
+            quantQueryByte[index + quantQueryByte.length / 2] = (byte) upperMiddleByte;
+            quantQueryByte[index + 3 * quantQueryByte.length / 4] = (byte) upperByte;
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/es816/BinaryQuantizer.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/es816/BinaryQuantizer.java
index 5bdee45d2bddf..768c6d526e468 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/es816/BinaryQuantizer.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/codec/vectors/es816/BinaryQuantizer.java
@@ -225,9 +225,7 @@ public QueryAndIndexResults quantizeQueryAndIndex(float[] vector, byte[] indexDe
 
         // q¯ = Δ · q¯𝑢 + 𝑣𝑙 · 1𝐷
         // q¯ is an approximation of q′ (scalar quantized approximation)
-        // FIXME: vectors need to be padded but that's expensive; update transponseBin to deal
-        byteQuery = BQVectorUtils.pad(byteQuery, discretizedDimensions);
-        BQSpaceUtils.transposeBin(byteQuery, discretizedDimensions, queryDestination);
+        BQSpaceUtils.transposeHalfByte(byteQuery, queryDestination);
         QueryFactors factors = new QueryFactors(quantResult.quantizedSum, distToC, lower, width, normVmC, vDotC);
         final float[] indexCorrections;
         if (similarityFunction == EUCLIDEAN) {
@@ -368,9 +366,7 @@ public QueryFactors quantizeForQuery(float[] vector, byte[] destination, float[]
 
         // q¯ = Δ · q¯𝑢 + 𝑣𝑙 · 1𝐷
         // q¯ is an approximation of q′ (scalar quantized approximation)
-        // FIXME: vectors need to be padded but that's expensive; update transponseBin to deal
-        byteQuery = BQVectorUtils.pad(byteQuery, discretizedDimensions);
-        BQSpaceUtils.transposeBin(byteQuery, discretizedDimensions, destination);
+        BQSpaceUtils.transposeHalfByte(byteQuery, destination);
 
         QueryFactors factors;
         if (similarityFunction != EUCLIDEAN) {