diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 141abd7f8..209a7f317 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@ services:
       - DOCUMENTSTORE_PARAMS_HOST=elasticsearch
       - PIPELINE_YAML_PATH=/opt/pipelines/pipelines.haystack-pipeline.yml
       - TOKENIZERS_PARALLELISM=false
+      # Uncomment the following line to customise how much time (in seconds) a worker can spend serving a request
+      # before it times out. This should include the time required to cache the models and setup the pipelines.
+
+      # - GUNICORN_CMD_ARGS="--timeout=3000"
     depends_on:
       elasticsearch:
         condition: service_healthy
diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile.api b/docker/Dockerfile.api
index 31b85b459..1b6a3f9a8 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfile.api
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile.api
@@ -22,4 +22,4 @@ ENV TIKA_LOG_PATH="/var/log/$SERVICE_NAME/"
 EXPOSE 8000
 
 USER $SERVICE_NAME
-CMD ["gunicorn", "rest_api.application:app",  "-b", "0.0.0.0", "-k", "uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker", "--workers", "1", "--timeout", "180"]
+CMD ["gunicorn", "rest_api.application:app",  "-b", "0.0.0.0", "-k", "uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker", "--workers", "1", "--timeout", "1000"]