diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/opensearch/sql/plugin/rest/RestPPLQueryAction.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/opensearch/sql/plugin/rest/RestPPLQueryAction.java
index 5c6266beee1..528dc77f3e7 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/opensearch/sql/plugin/rest/RestPPLQueryAction.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/opensearch/sql/plugin/rest/RestPPLQueryAction.java
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 import java.util.Set;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.opensearch.ExceptionsHelper;
 import org.opensearch.OpenSearchException;
 import org.opensearch.core.action.ActionListener;
 import org.opensearch.core.rest.RestStatus;
@@ -65,13 +66,10 @@ private static int getRawErrorCode(Exception ex) {
     if (ex instanceof OpenSearchException) {
       return ((OpenSearchException) ex).status().getStatus();
     }
-    // Possible future work: We currently do this on exception types, when we have more robust
-    // ErrorCodes in more locations it may be worth switching this to be based on those instead.
-    // That lets us identify specific error cases at a granularity higher than exception types.
     if (isClientError(ex)) {
       return 400;
     }
-    return 500;
+    return ExceptionsHelper.status(ex).getStatus();
   }
 
   private static RestStatus loggedErrorCode(Exception ex) {
diff --git a/plugin/src/test/java/org/opensearch/sql/plugin/rest/RestPPLQueryActionTest.java b/plugin/src/test/java/org/opensearch/sql/plugin/rest/RestPPLQueryActionTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7af3396beb4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugin/src/test/java/org/opensearch/sql/plugin/rest/RestPPLQueryActionTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright OpenSearch Contributors
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+ */
+
+package org.opensearch.sql.plugin.rest;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+import java.lang.reflect.Method;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.opensearch.OpenSearchStatusException;
+import org.opensearch.core.concurrency.OpenSearchRejectedExecutionException;
+import org.opensearch.core.rest.RestStatus;
+import org.opensearch.index.IndexNotFoundException;
+import org.opensearch.sql.common.antlr.SyntaxCheckException;
+import org.opensearch.sql.exception.QueryEngineException;
+
+/** Unit tests for error status mapping in {@link RestPPLQueryAction}. */
+public class RestPPLQueryActionTest {
+
+  /**
+   * Invokes the private static getRawErrorCode via reflection so we can verify
+   * the status mapping for various exception types.
+   */
+  private static int getRawErrorCode(Exception ex) throws Exception {
+    Method method =
+        RestPPLQueryAction.class.getDeclaredMethod("getRawErrorCode", Exception.class);
+    method.setAccessible(true);
+    return (int) method.invoke(null, ex);
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testRejectedExecutionReturns429() throws Exception {
+    OpenSearchRejectedExecutionException ex =
+        new OpenSearchRejectedExecutionException("admission control backpressure", false);
+    assertEquals(429, getRawErrorCode(ex));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testOpenSearchStatusExceptionPreservesStatus() throws Exception {
+    OpenSearchStatusException ex =
+        new OpenSearchStatusException("not found", RestStatus.NOT_FOUND);
+    assertEquals(404, getRawErrorCode(ex));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testIndexNotFoundReturns404() throws Exception {
+    // IndexNotFoundException extends OpenSearchException with status NOT_FOUND
+    IndexNotFoundException ex = new IndexNotFoundException("missing_index");
+    assertEquals(404, getRawErrorCode(ex));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testSyntaxCheckExceptionReturns400() throws Exception {
+    SyntaxCheckException ex = new SyntaxCheckException("bad syntax");
+    assertEquals(400, getRawErrorCode(ex));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testQueryEngineExceptionReturns400() throws Exception {
+    QueryEngineException ex = new QueryEngineException("semantic error");
+    assertEquals(400, getRawErrorCode(ex));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testGenericRuntimeExceptionReturns500() throws Exception {
+    RuntimeException ex = new RuntimeException("unexpected failure");
+    assertEquals(500, getRawErrorCode(ex));
+  }
+}