diff --git a/app/vmselect/netstorage/netstorage.go b/app/vmselect/netstorage/netstorage.go
index ba11b5d19..6081cc893 100644
--- a/app/vmselect/netstorage/netstorage.go
+++ b/app/vmselect/netstorage/netstorage.go
@@ -1745,6 +1745,12 @@ func (snr *storageNodesRequest) collectResults(partialResultsCounter *metrics.Co
 				// and the number of partial responses reach -replicationFactor,
 				// since this means that the response is partial.
 				snr.finishQueryTracers("cancel request because partial responses are denied and some vmstorage nodes failed to return response")
+
+				// Returns 503 status code for partial response, so the caller could retry it if needed.
+				err = &httpserver.ErrorWithStatusCode{
+					Err: err,
+					StatusCode: http.StatusServiceUnavailable,
+				}
 				return false, err
 			}
 			continue
@@ -1771,7 +1777,12 @@ func (snr *storageNodesRequest) collectResults(partialResultsCounter *metrics.Co
 	if len(errsPartial) == len(sns) {
 		// All the vmstorage nodes returned error.
 		// Return only the first error, since it has no sense in returning all errors.
-		return false, errsPartial[0]
+		// Returns 503 status code for partial response, so the caller could retry it if needed.
+		err := &httpserver.ErrorWithStatusCode{
+			Err: errsPartial[0],
+			StatusCode: http.StatusServiceUnavailable,
+		}
+		return false, err
 	}
 	// Return partial results.
 	// This allows gracefully degrade vmselect in the case
diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index 2297289cd..7c9c1e56c 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ The following tip changes can be tested by building VictoriaMetrics components f
 
 * BUGFIX: [vminsert enterprise](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/enterprise.html): properly parse `/insert/multitenant/*` urls, which have been broken since [v1.93.2](#v1932). See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/4947).
 * BUGFIX: properly build production armv5 binaries for `GOARCH=arm`. This has been broken after the upgrading of Go builder to Go1.21.0. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/4965).
+* BUGFIX: [vmselect](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html): return `503 Service Unavailable` status code when [partial responses](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html#cluster-availability) are denied and some of `vmstorage` nodes are temporarily unavailable. Previously `422 Unprocessable Entiry` status code was mistakenly returned in this case, which could prevent from automatic recovery by re-sending the request to healthy cluster replica in another availability zone.
 
 ## [v1.87.8](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.87.8)