diff --git a/evals/utils/api_utils.py b/evals/utils/api_utils.py
index 7479d5e9a2..8f8b7a732d 100644
--- a/evals/utils/api_utils.py
+++ b/evals/utils/api_utils.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 """
 This file defines various helper functions for interacting with the OpenAI API.
 """
-import concurrent
 import logging
 import os
 
@@ -38,16 +37,14 @@ def openai_completion_create_retrying(client: OpenAI, *args, **kwargs):
 
 def request_with_timeout(func, *args, timeout=EVALS_THREAD_TIMEOUT, **kwargs):
     """
-    Worker thread for making a single request within allotted time.
+    Function for making a single request within allotted time.
     """
     while True:
-        with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=1) as executor:
-            future = executor.submit(func, *args, **kwargs)
-            try:
-                result = future.result(timeout=timeout)
-                return result
-            except concurrent.futures.TimeoutError:
-                continue
+        try:
+            result = func(*args, timeout=timeout, **kwargs)
+            return result
+        except openai.APITimeoutError as e:
+            continue
 
 
 @backoff.on_exception(