diff --git a/rust/lance-core/src/error.rs b/rust/lance-core/src/error.rs
index 8e02d2964c7..48150db4354 100644
--- a/rust/lance-core/src/error.rs
+++ b/rust/lance-core/src/error.rs
@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ pub enum Error {
     Internal { message: String, location: Location },
     #[snafu(display("A prerequisite task failed: {message}, {location}"))]
     PrerequisiteFailed { message: String, location: Location },
+    #[snafu(display("Unprocessable: {message}, {location}"))]
+    Unprocessable { message: String, location: Location },
     #[snafu(display("LanceError(Arrow): {message}, {location}"))]
     Arrow { message: String, location: Location },
     #[snafu(display("LanceError(Schema): {message}, {location}"))]
diff --git a/rust/lance-index/src/vector/kmeans.rs b/rust/lance-index/src/vector/kmeans.rs
index 48c61bcdbe4..be76fade6f6 100644
--- a/rust/lance-index/src/vector/kmeans.rs
+++ b/rust/lance-index/src/vector/kmeans.rs
@@ -1319,9 +1319,12 @@ where
 {
     let num_rows = array.len() / dimension;
     if num_rows < k {
-        return Err(Error::Index{message: format!(
-            "KMeans: can not train {k} centroids with {num_rows} vectors, choose a smaller K (< {num_rows}) instead"
-        ),location: location!()});
+        return Err(Error::Unprocessable {
+            message: format!(
+                "KMeans cannot train {k} centroids with {num_rows} vectors; choose a smaller K (< {num_rows})"
+            ),
+            location: location!(),
+        });
     }
 
     // Only sample sample_rate * num_clusters. See Faiss
diff --git a/rust/lance-index/src/vector/pq/builder.rs b/rust/lance-index/src/vector/pq/builder.rs
index 5b17e2f1224..d44d86e4f31 100644
--- a/rust/lance-index/src/vector/pq/builder.rs
+++ b/rust/lance-index/src/vector/pq/builder.rs
@@ -171,10 +171,9 @@ impl PQBuildParams {
 
         let num_centroids = 2_usize.pow(self.num_bits as u32);
         if data.len() < num_centroids {
-            return Err(Error::Index {
+            return Err(Error::Unprocessable {
                 message: format!(
-                    "Not enough rows to train PQ. Requires {:?} rows but only {:?} available",
-                    num_centroids,
+                    "Not enough rows to train PQ. Requires {num_centroids} rows but only {} available",
                     data.len()
                 ),
                 location: location!(),
diff --git a/rust/lance/src/index.rs b/rust/lance/src/index.rs
index 60342a00d93..2a3ad508483 100644
--- a/rust/lance/src/index.rs
+++ b/rust/lance/src/index.rs
@@ -2491,8 +2491,8 @@ mod tests {
             .create_index(&["vector"], IndexType::Vector, None, &params, false)
             .await;
 
-        assert!(matches!(result, Err(Error::Index { .. })));
-        if let Error::Index { message, .. } = result.unwrap_err() {
+        assert!(matches!(result, Err(Error::Unprocessable { .. })));
+        if let Error::Unprocessable { message, .. } = result.unwrap_err() {
             assert_eq!(
                 message,
                 "Not enough rows to train PQ. Requires 256 rows but only 100 available",
diff --git a/rust/lance/src/index/vector/pq.rs b/rust/lance/src/index/vector/pq.rs
index c6167876455..6c55f50f7af 100644
--- a/rust/lance/src/index/vector/pq.rs
+++ b/rust/lance/src/index/vector/pq.rs
@@ -508,6 +508,8 @@ pub async fn build_pq_model(
     params: &PQBuildParams,
     ivf: Option<&IvfModel>,
 ) -> Result<ProductQuantizer> {
+    let num_codes = 2_usize.pow(params.num_bits as u32);
+
     if let Some(codebook) = &params.codebook {
         let dt = if metric_type == MetricType::Cosine {
             info!("Normalize training data for PQ training: Cosine");
@@ -577,13 +579,16 @@ pub async fn build_pq_model(
         training_data
     };
 
-    let num_codes = 2_usize.pow(params.num_bits as u32);
     if training_data.len() < num_codes {
-        return Err(Error::Index {
+        warn!(
+            "Skip PQ training: only {} rows available, needs >= {}",
+            training_data.len(),
+            num_codes
+        );
+        return Err(Error::Unprocessable {
             message: format!(
-                "Not enough rows to train PQ. Requires {:?} rows but only {:?} available",
-                num_codes,
-                training_data.len()
+                "Not enough rows to train PQ. Requires {num_codes} rows but only {available} available",
+                available = training_data.len()
             ),
             location: location!(),
         });
@@ -637,7 +642,9 @@ mod tests {
     use crate::index::vector::ivf::build_ivf_model;
     use lance_core::utils::mask::RowIdMask;
     use lance_index::vector::ivf::IvfBuildParams;
-    use lance_testing::datagen::generate_random_array_with_range;
+    use lance_testing::datagen::{
+        generate_random_array_with_range, generate_random_array_with_seed,
+    };
 
     const DIM: usize = 128;
     async fn generate_dataset(
@@ -761,6 +768,35 @@ mod tests {
         );
     }
 
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn test_build_pq_model_insufficient_rows_returns_prereq() {
+        let test_dir = TempStrDir::default();
+        let test_uri = test_dir.as_str();
+
+        let dim = 16;
+        let schema = Arc::new(Schema::new(vec![Field::new(
+            "vector",
+            DataType::FixedSizeList(
+                Arc::new(Field::new("item", DataType::Float32, true)),
+                dim as i32,
+            ),
+            false,
+        )]));
+
+        let vectors = generate_random_array_with_seed::<Float32Type>(dim * 10, [11u8; 32]);
+        let fsl = FixedSizeListArray::try_new_from_values(vectors, dim as i32).unwrap();
+        let batch = RecordBatch::try_new(schema.clone(), vec![Arc::new(fsl)]).unwrap();
+        let reader = RecordBatchIterator::new(vec![Ok(batch)], schema.clone());
+        let dataset = Dataset::write(reader, test_uri, None).await.unwrap();
+
+        let params = PQBuildParams::new(16, 8);
+        let err = build_pq_model(&dataset, "vector", dim, MetricType::L2, &params, None)
+            .await
+            .unwrap_err();
+
+        assert!(matches!(err, Error::Unprocessable { .. }));
+    }
+
     struct TestPreFilter {
         row_ids: Vec<u64>,
     }