diff --git a/news/9315.feature.rst b/news/9315.feature.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..64d1f25338b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/9315.feature.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Improve presentation of XMLRPC errors in pip search.
diff --git a/src/pip/_internal/commands/search.py b/src/pip/_internal/commands/search.py
index 146d653e55f..185495e7688 100644
--- a/src/pip/_internal/commands/search.py
+++ b/src/pip/_internal/commands/search.py
@@ -79,7 +79,14 @@ def search(self, query, options):
 
         transport = PipXmlrpcTransport(index_url, session)
         pypi = xmlrpc_client.ServerProxy(index_url, transport)
-        hits = pypi.search({'name': query, 'summary': query}, 'or')
+        try:
+            hits = pypi.search({'name': query, 'summary': query}, 'or')
+        except xmlrpc_client.Fault as fault:
+            message = "XMLRPC request failed [code: {code}]\n{string}".format(
+                code=fault.faultCode,
+                string=fault.faultString,
+            )
+            raise CommandError(message)
         return hits