diff --git a/backend/ee/danswer/server/query_and_chat/chat_backend.py b/backend/ee/danswer/server/query_and_chat/chat_backend.py
index 555619823250..1e1639425332 100644
--- a/backend/ee/danswer/server/query_and_chat/chat_backend.py
+++ b/backend/ee/danswer/server/query_and_chat/chat_backend.py
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ from danswer.natural_language_processing.utils import get_tokenizer
 from danswer.one_shot_answer.qa_utils import combine_message_thread
 from danswer.search.models import OptionalSearchSetting
 from danswer.search.models import RetrievalDetails
+from danswer.search.models import SavedSearchDoc
 from danswer.secondary_llm_flows.query_expansion import thread_based_query_rephrase
 from danswer.server.query_and_chat.models import ChatMessageDetail
 from danswer.server.query_and_chat.models import CreateChatMessageRequest
@@ -65,18 +66,18 @@ def _translate_doc_response_to_simple_doc(
 
 def _get_final_context_doc_indices(
     final_context_docs: list[LlmDoc] | None,
-    simple_search_docs: list[SimpleDoc] | None,
+    top_docs: list[SavedSearchDoc] | None,
 ) -> list[int] | None:
     """
     this function returns a list of indices of the simple search docs
     that were actually fed to the LLM.
     """
-    if final_context_docs is None or simple_search_docs is None:
+    if final_context_docs is None or top_docs is None:
         return None
 
     final_context_doc_ids = {doc.document_id for doc in final_context_docs}
     return [
-        i for i, doc in enumerate(simple_search_docs) if doc.id in final_context_doc_ids
+        i for i, doc in enumerate(top_docs) if doc.document_id in final_context_doc_ids
     ]
 
 
@@ -148,6 +149,7 @@ def handle_simplified_chat_message(
             answer += packet.answer_piece
         elif isinstance(packet, QADocsResponse):
             response.simple_search_docs = _translate_doc_response_to_simple_doc(packet)
+            response.top_documents = packet.top_documents
         elif isinstance(packet, StreamingError):
             response.error_msg = packet.error
         elif isinstance(packet, ChatMessageDetail):
@@ -161,7 +163,7 @@ def handle_simplified_chat_message(
             }
 
     response.final_context_doc_indices = _get_final_context_doc_indices(
-        final_context_docs, response.simple_search_docs
+        final_context_docs, response.top_documents
     )
 
     response.answer = answer
@@ -296,6 +298,7 @@ def handle_send_message_simple_with_history(
             answer += packet.answer_piece
         elif isinstance(packet, QADocsResponse):
             response.simple_search_docs = _translate_doc_response_to_simple_doc(packet)
+            response.top_documents = packet.top_documents
         elif isinstance(packet, StreamingError):
             response.error_msg = packet.error
         elif isinstance(packet, ChatMessageDetail):
@@ -311,7 +314,7 @@ def handle_send_message_simple_with_history(
             }
 
     response.final_context_doc_indices = _get_final_context_doc_indices(
-        final_context_docs, response.simple_search_docs
+        final_context_docs, response.top_documents
     )
 
     response.answer = answer
diff --git a/backend/ee/danswer/server/query_and_chat/models.py b/backend/ee/danswer/server/query_and_chat/models.py
index cc66c0efab91..be1cd3c6ef6e 100644
--- a/backend/ee/danswer/server/query_and_chat/models.py
+++ b/backend/ee/danswer/server/query_and_chat/models.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ from danswer.search.enums import SearchType
 from danswer.search.models import ChunkContext
 from danswer.search.models import RerankingDetails
 from danswer.search.models import RetrievalDetails
+from danswer.search.models import SavedSearchDoc
 from ee.danswer.server.manage.models import StandardAnswer
 
 
@@ -73,7 +74,11 @@ class ChatBasicResponse(BaseModel):
     # This is built piece by piece, any of these can be None as the flow could break
     answer: str | None = None
     answer_citationless: str | None = None
+
+    # TODO: deprecate `simple_search_docs`
     simple_search_docs: list[SimpleDoc] | None = None
+    top_documents: list[SavedSearchDoc] | None = None
+
     error_msg: str | None = None
     message_id: int | None = None
     llm_selected_doc_indices: list[int] | None = None
diff --git a/backend/tests/integration/tests/dev_apis/test_simple_chat_api.py b/backend/tests/integration/tests/dev_apis/test_simple_chat_api.py
index 981a9cbd026a..d4edcc583aae 100644
--- a/backend/tests/integration/tests/dev_apis/test_simple_chat_api.py
+++ b/backend/tests/integration/tests/dev_apis/test_simple_chat_api.py
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ def test_send_message_simple_with_history(reset: None) -> None:
 
     # Check that the top document is the correct document
     assert response_json["simple_search_docs"][0]["id"] == cc_pair_1.documents[0].id
+    assert response_json["top_documents"][0]["document_id"] == cc_pair_1.documents[0].id
 
     # assert that the metadata is correct
     for doc in cc_pair_1.documents: