diff --git a/open-sse/handlers/chatCore.js b/open-sse/handlers/chatCore.js
index 7fedca56..67e377ea 100644
--- a/open-sse/handlers/chatCore.js
+++ b/open-sse/handlers/chatCore.js
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ export function stripContinuityFields(body) {
   return body;
 }
 
-export async function handleChatCore({ body, modelInfo, credentials, log, onCredentialsRefreshed, onRequestSuccess, onDisconnect, clientRawRequest, connectionId, userAgent, apiKey, ccFilterNaming, rtkEnabled, headroomEnabled, headroomUrl, headroomCompressUserMessages, cavemanEnabled, cavemanLevel, ponytailEnabled, ponytailLevel, pxpipeEnabled, pxpipeMinChars, pxpipeTimeoutMs, pxpipeTransform, onPxpipeEvent, sourceFormatOverride, providerThinking }) {
+export async function handleChatCore({ body, modelInfo, credentials, log, onCredentialsRefreshed, onRequestSuccess, onDisconnect, clientRawRequest, connectionId, userAgent, apiKey, ccFilterNaming, rtkEnabled, headroomEnabled, headroomUrl, headroomCompressUserMessages, headroomTimeoutMs, cavemanEnabled, cavemanLevel, ponytailEnabled, ponytailLevel, pxpipeEnabled, pxpipeMinChars, pxpipeTimeoutMs, pxpipeTransform, onPxpipeEvent, sourceFormatOverride, providerThinking }) {
   const { provider, model } = modelInfo;
   const requestStartTime = Date.now();
   // Stable per-session color so all lines of one CLI conversation share a tag
@@ -257,7 +257,7 @@ export async function handleChatCore({ body, modelInfo, credentials, log, onCred
 
   // Headroom: optional external proxy compression; fail open if proxy is absent.
   const headroomDiagnostics = {};
-  const headroomStats = await compressWithHeadroom(translatedBody, { enabled: tokenSaverEnabled && headroomEnabled, url: headroomUrl, model: upstreamModel, format: finalFormat, compressUserMessages: headroomCompressUserMessages, diagnostics: headroomDiagnostics });
+  const headroomStats = await compressWithHeadroom(translatedBody, { enabled: tokenSaverEnabled && headroomEnabled, url: headroomUrl, model: upstreamModel, format: finalFormat, compressUserMessages: headroomCompressUserMessages, timeoutMs: headroomTimeoutMs, diagnostics: headroomDiagnostics });
   const headroomLine = formatHeadroomLog(headroomStats);
   const headroomSizeLine = formatHeadroomSizeLog(headroomDiagnostics);
   if (headroomLine) {
diff --git a/open-sse/rtk/headroom.js b/open-sse/rtk/headroom.js
index bd6e3394..05004ac4 100644
--- a/open-sse/rtk/headroom.js
+++ b/open-sse/rtk/headroom.js
@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ import {
 
 const DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MS = 3000;
 
+function normalizeTimeout(value) {
+  return typeof value === "number" && Number.isFinite(value) && value > 0
+    ? value
+    : DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MS;
+}
+
 function jsonBytes(value) {
   try {
     return new TextEncoder().encode(JSON.stringify(value) || "").length;
@@ -240,6 +246,7 @@ async function callCompress(url, messages, model, timeoutMs, compressUserMessage
 // /v1/compress only understands OpenAI shape, so Claude bodies are translated
 // to OpenAI, compressed, then translated back using 9Router's own translators.
 export async function compressWithHeadroom(body, { enabled, url, model, format, compressUserMessages, timeoutMs = DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MS, diagnostics = null } = {}) {
+  timeoutMs = normalizeTimeout(timeoutMs);
   if (!enabled) {
     setDiagnostic(diagnostics, "disabled");
     return null;
diff --git a/src/app/(dashboard)/dashboard/token-saver/TokenSaverClient.js b/src/app/(dashboard)/dashboard/token-saver/TokenSaverClient.js
index bd899342..902f84ea 100644
--- a/src/app/(dashboard)/dashboard/token-saver/TokenSaverClient.js
+++ b/src/app/(dashboard)/dashboard/token-saver/TokenSaverClient.js
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ export default function TokenSaverClient() {
   const [rtkEnabled, setRtkEnabledState] = useState(true);
   const [headroomEnabled, setHeadroomEnabled] = useState(false);
   const [headroomUrl, setHeadroomUrl] = useState("http://localhost:8787");
+  const [headroomTimeoutMs, setHeadroomTimeoutMs] = useState(3000);
   const [headroomStatus, setHeadroomStatus] = useState({
     installed: false,
     running: false,
@@ -406,6 +407,13 @@ export default function TokenSaverClient() {
     patchSetting({ pxpipeMinChars: next });
   };
 
+  const handleHeadroomTimeoutBlur = () => {
+    const raw = Math.round(Number(headroomTimeoutMs));
+    const next = Number.isFinite(raw) && raw > 0 ? raw : 3000;
+    setHeadroomTimeoutMs(next);
+    patchSetting({ headroomTimeoutMs: next });
+  };
+
   useEffect(() => {
     const loadSettings = async () => {
       try {
@@ -415,6 +423,7 @@ export default function TokenSaverClient() {
           setRtkEnabledState(data.rtkEnabled !== false);
           setHeadroomEnabled(!!data.headroomEnabled);
           setHeadroomUrl(data.headroomUrl || "http://localhost:8787");
+          if (typeof data.headroomTimeoutMs === "number") setHeadroomTimeoutMs(data.headroomTimeoutMs);
           setCodeAware(data.headroomCodeAware === true);
           setKompress(data.headroomKompress !== false);
           setCavemanEnabled(!!data.cavemanEnabled);
@@ -818,6 +827,19 @@ export default function TokenSaverClient() {
               like http://headroom:8787.
             </p>
           </div>
+          <div className="flex flex-col gap-1">
+            <p className="text-sm font-medium">Timeout (ms)</p>
+            <Input
+              value={String(headroomTimeoutMs)}
+              onChange={(e) => setHeadroomTimeoutMs(e.target.value)}
+              onBlur={handleHeadroomTimeoutBlur}
+              placeholder="3000"
+              className="font-mono text-sm"
+            />
+            <p className="text-xs text-text-muted">
+              Request timeout in milliseconds. Defaults to 3000 ms.
+            </p>
+          </div>
           {headroomManaged ? (
             <Button
               onClick={handleHeadroomStop}
diff --git a/src/lib/db/repos/settingsRepo.js b/src/lib/db/repos/settingsRepo.js
index 72a64848..b94f770a 100644
--- a/src/lib/db/repos/settingsRepo.js
+++ b/src/lib/db/repos/settingsRepo.js
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ const DEFAULT_SETTINGS = {
   headroomEnabled: false,
   headroomUrl: DEFAULT_HEADROOM_URL,
   headroomCompressUserMessages: false,
+  headroomTimeoutMs: 3000,
   cavemanEnabled: false,
   cavemanLevel: "full",
   ponytailEnabled: false,
diff --git a/src/sse/handlers/chat.js b/src/sse/handlers/chat.js
index dc7f98b1..8ae048e4 100644
--- a/src/sse/handlers/chat.js
+++ b/src/sse/handlers/chat.js
@@ -274,6 +274,7 @@ async function handleSingleModelChat(body, modelStr, clientRawRequest = null, re
       headroomEnabled: !!chatSettings.headroomEnabled,
       headroomUrl: chatSettings.headroomUrl || DEFAULT_HEADROOM_URL,
       headroomCompressUserMessages: !!chatSettings.headroomCompressUserMessages,
+      headroomTimeoutMs: chatSettings.headroomTimeoutMs,
       cavemanEnabled: !!chatSettings.cavemanEnabled,
       cavemanLevel: chatSettings.cavemanLevel || "full",
       ponytailEnabled: !!chatSettings.ponytailEnabled,
diff --git a/tests/unit/headroom.test.js b/tests/unit/headroom.test.js
index a5d28112..10989edc 100644
--- a/tests/unit/headroom.test.js
+++ b/tests/unit/headroom.test.js
@@ -202,6 +202,101 @@ describe("compressWithHeadroom", () => {
     expect(stats).toBeNull();
     expect(global.fetch).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
+
+  describe("timeout normalization", () => {
+    const mockResponse = JSON.stringify({
+      messages: [{ role: "user", content: "short" }],
+      tokens_before: 100,
+      tokens_after: 20,
+      tokens_saved: 80,
+    });
+
+    function makeSuccessfulFetch() {
+      global.fetch = vi.fn(async () =>
+        new Response(mockResponse, { status: 200 })
+      );
+    }
+
+    function captureTimeoutCalls() {
+      const calls = [];
+      vi.spyOn(AbortSignal, "timeout").mockImplementation((ms) => {
+        calls.push(ms);
+        const controller = new AbortController();
+        return controller.signal;
+      });
+      return calls;
+    }
+
+    it("passes a valid positive timeout to AbortSignal.timeout", async () => {
+      makeSuccessfulFetch();
+      const calls = captureTimeoutCalls();
+      const body = { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "hello" }] };
+
+      await compressWithHeadroom(body, { enabled: true, url: "http://localhost:8787", timeoutMs: 5000 });
+
+      expect(calls).toContain(5000);
+    });
+
+    it("falls back to the default timeout when timeoutMs is null", async () => {
+      makeSuccessfulFetch();
+      const calls = captureTimeoutCalls();
+      const body = { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "hello" }] };
+
+      await compressWithHeadroom(body, { enabled: true, url: "http://localhost:8787", timeoutMs: null });
+
+      expect(calls).toContain(3000);
+    });
+
+    it("falls back to the default timeout when timeoutMs is 0", async () => {
+      makeSuccessfulFetch();
+      const calls = captureTimeoutCalls();
+      const body = { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "hello" }] };
+
+      await compressWithHeadroom(body, { enabled: true, url: "http://localhost:8787", timeoutMs: 0 });
+
+      expect(calls).toContain(3000);
+    });
+
+    it("falls back to the default timeout when timeoutMs is negative", async () => {
+      makeSuccessfulFetch();
+      const calls = captureTimeoutCalls();
+      const body = { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "hello" }] };
+
+      await compressWithHeadroom(body, { enabled: true, url: "http://localhost:8787", timeoutMs: -100 });
+
+      expect(calls).toContain(3000);
+    });
+
+    it("falls back to the default timeout when timeoutMs is NaN", async () => {
+      makeSuccessfulFetch();
+      const calls = captureTimeoutCalls();
+      const body = { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "hello" }] };
+
+      await compressWithHeadroom(body, { enabled: true, url: "http://localhost:8787", timeoutMs: NaN });
+
+      expect(calls).toContain(3000);
+    });
+
+    it("falls back to the default timeout when timeoutMs is Infinity", async () => {
+      makeSuccessfulFetch();
+      const calls = captureTimeoutCalls();
+      const body = { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "hello" }] };
+
+      await compressWithHeadroom(body, { enabled: true, url: "http://localhost:8787", timeoutMs: Infinity });
+
+      expect(calls).toContain(3000);
+    });
+
+    it("falls back to the default timeout when timeoutMs is a string", async () => {
+      makeSuccessfulFetch();
+      const calls = captureTimeoutCalls();
+      const body = { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "hello" }] };
+
+      await compressWithHeadroom(body, { enabled: true, url: "http://localhost:8787", timeoutMs: "5000" });
+
+      expect(calls).toContain(3000);
+    });
+  });
 });
 
 describe("formatHeadroomLog", () => {