diff --git a/docs/configuration.rst b/docs/configuration.rst
index 7d079a96c..391eaffbf 100644
--- a/docs/configuration.rst
+++ b/docs/configuration.rst
@@ -507,6 +507,12 @@ PAPERLESS_THREADS_PER_WORKER=<num>
     PAPERLESS_THREADS_PER_WORKER automatically.
 
 
+PAPERLESS_WORKER_TIMEOUT=<num>
+    Machines with few cores or weak ones might not be able to finish OCR on
+    large documents within the default 1800 seconds. So extending this timeout
+    may prove to be useful on weak hardware setups.
+
+
 PAPERLESS_TIME_ZONE=<timezone>
     Set the time zone here.
     See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/ref/settings/#std:setting-TIME_ZONE
diff --git a/src/paperless/settings.py b/src/paperless/settings.py
index 5f03a406e..554f9fa0d 100644
--- a/src/paperless/settings.py
+++ b/src/paperless/settings.py
@@ -422,7 +422,7 @@ def default_task_workers():
     'catch_up': False,
     'recycle': 1,
     'retry': 1800,
-    'timeout': 1800,
+    'timeout': int(os.getenv("PAPERLESS_WORKER_TIMEOUT", 1800)),
     'workers': TASK_WORKERS,
     'redis': os.getenv("PAPERLESS_REDIS", "redis://localhost:6379")
 }