diff --git a/backend/config.py b/backend/config.py
index 8b89a9b38..5d3b1e53f 100644
--- a/backend/config.py
+++ b/backend/config.py
@@ -425,7 +425,14 @@ OLLAMA_API_BASE_URL = os.environ.get(
 )
 
 OLLAMA_BASE_URL = os.environ.get("OLLAMA_BASE_URL", "")
-AIOHTTP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT = int(os.environ.get("AIOHTTP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT", "300"))
+AIOHTTP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT = os.environ.get("AIOHTTP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT", "300")
+
+if AIOHTTP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT == "":
+    AIOHTTP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT = None
+else:
+    AIOHTTP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT = int(AIOHTTP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT)
+
+
 K8S_FLAG = os.environ.get("K8S_FLAG", "")
 USE_OLLAMA_DOCKER = os.environ.get("USE_OLLAMA_DOCKER", "false")