diff --git a/rag/raptor.py b/rag/raptor.py
index a7f2c782d3..d39964f70f 100644
--- a/rag/raptor.py
+++ b/rag/raptor.py
@@ -235,7 +235,14 @@ class RecursiveAbstractiveProcessing4TreeOrganizedRetrieval:
     def _get_optimal_clusters(self, embeddings: np.ndarray, random_state: int, task_id: str = ""):
         """Choose the GMM cluster count with the lowest BIC score."""
         max_clusters = min(self._max_cluster, len(embeddings))
-        n_clusters = np.arange(1, max_clusters)
+        if max_clusters <= 1:
+            logging.info(
+                "RAPTOR GMM: _get_optimal_clusters returning 1 (max_clusters=%s, embeddings=%d)",
+                max_clusters,
+                len(embeddings),
+            )
+            return 1
+        n_clusters = np.arange(1, max_clusters + 1)
         bics = []
         for n in n_clusters:
             self._check_task_canceled(task_id, "get optimal clusters")
@@ -244,7 +251,7 @@ class RecursiveAbstractiveProcessing4TreeOrganizedRetrieval:
             gm.fit(embeddings)
             bics.append(gm.bic(embeddings))
         optimal_clusters = n_clusters[np.argmin(bics)]
-        return optimal_clusters
+        return int(optimal_clusters)
 
     def _get_clusters_ahc(self, embeddings: np.ndarray, task_id: str = "") -> np.ndarray:
         """Cluster embeddings with Ward-linkage AHC and a dendrogram gap heuristic."""
diff --git a/test/unit_test/rag/test_raptor_psi_tree_builder.py b/test/unit_test/rag/test_raptor_psi_tree_builder.py
index 1d0af20d96..5590d928f2 100644
--- a/test/unit_test/rag/test_raptor_psi_tree_builder.py
+++ b/test/unit_test/rag/test_raptor_psi_tree_builder.py
@@ -207,6 +207,46 @@ def test_unknown_clustering_method_is_rejected(raptor_module):
         _make_raptor(raptor_module, clustering_method="psi")
 
 
+@pytest.mark.p2
+def test_get_optimal_clusters_handles_max_cluster_equal_one(raptor_module):
+    raptor = _make_raptor(raptor_module, max_cluster=1)
+
+    optimal = raptor._get_optimal_clusters(
+        np.array([[0.0, 0.0], [0.1, 0.0], [1.0, 1.0], [1.1, 1.1]]),
+        random_state=0,
+    )
+
+    assert optimal == 1
+
+
+@pytest.mark.p2
+def test_get_optimal_clusters_evaluates_upper_bound_candidate(monkeypatch, raptor_module):
+    raptor = _make_raptor(raptor_module, max_cluster=3)
+    evaluated = []
+
+    class RecordingGaussianMixture:
+        def __init__(self, n_components, random_state=None):
+            self.n_components = n_components
+            evaluated.append(n_components)
+
+        def fit(self, embeddings):
+            return self
+
+        def bic(self, embeddings):
+            scores = {1: 30.0, 2: 20.0, 3: 10.0}
+            return scores[self.n_components]
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(raptor_module, "GaussianMixture", RecordingGaussianMixture)
+
+    optimal = raptor._get_optimal_clusters(
+        np.array([[0.0, 0.0], [0.1, 0.0], [1.0, 1.0], [1.1, 1.1]]),
+        random_state=0,
+    )
+
+    assert optimal == 3
+    assert evaluated == [1, 2, 3]
+
+
 def test_psi_tree_builder_ranks_all_leaf_pairs_by_original_cosine_similarity(raptor_module):
     raptor = _make_raptor(raptor_module)
     leaves = [