diff --git a/apis/python/src/tiledb/vector_search/index.py b/apis/python/src/tiledb/vector_search/index.py
index e99765b0b..a4495fb1b 100644
--- a/apis/python/src/tiledb/vector_search/index.py
+++ b/apis/python/src/tiledb/vector_search/index.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 import json
 import os
 import time
+import warnings
 from abc import ABCMeta
 from abc import abstractmethod
 from typing import Any, Mapping, Optional
@@ -800,6 +801,17 @@ def _set_has_updates(self, has_updates: bool = True):
             self.group = tiledb.Group(self.uri, "r", ctx=tiledb.Ctx(self.config))
 
     def _consolidate_update_fragments(self):
+        # Disable update fragment consolidation for TileDB Cloud URIs
+        # as this is not supported.
+        if self.uri.startswith("tiledb://"):
+            warnings.warn(
+                "Update fragment consolidation is not supported for `tiledb://` URIs. "
+                "Executing multiple updates without consolidating the update fragments can "
+                "result in poor search performance. Please make sure that you periodically "
+                "execute `_consolidate_update_fragments` using the storage filesystem URI.",
+                stacklevel=2,
+            )
+            return
         with tiledb.scope_ctx(ctx_or_config=self.config):
             fragments_info = tiledb.array_fragments(self.updates_array_uri)
         count_fragments = 0