diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/inference/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/inference/registry/ModelRegistry.java b/x-pack/plugin/inference/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/inference/registry/ModelRegistry.java
index 33a97f1e91621..260d4e663dafd 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/inference/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/inference/registry/ModelRegistry.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/inference/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/inference/registry/ModelRegistry.java
@@ -397,6 +397,7 @@ public void updateModelTransaction(Model newModel, Model existingModel, ActionLi
                 logger.error(
                     format("Failed to update inference endpoint [%s] due to [%s]", inferenceEntityId, configResponse.buildFailureMessage())
                 );
+                preventDeletionLock.remove(inferenceEntityId);
                 // Since none of our updates succeeded at this point, we can simply return.
                 finalListener.onFailure(
                     new ElasticsearchStatusException(