diff --git a/quickwit/quickwit-serve/src/elasticsearch_api/bulk_v2.rs b/quickwit/quickwit-serve/src/elasticsearch_api/bulk_v2.rs
index e7e48617059..dabcf02f46c 100644
--- a/quickwit/quickwit-serve/src/elasticsearch_api/bulk_v2.rs
+++ b/quickwit/quickwit-serve/src/elasticsearch_api/bulk_v2.rs
@@ -18,8 +18,9 @@
 // along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
 use std::collections::HashMap;
-use std::time::Instant;
+use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
 
+use elasticsearch_dsl::ErrorCause;
 use hyper::StatusCode;
 use quickwit_config::INGEST_V2_SOURCE_ID;
 use quickwit_ingest::IngestRequestV2Builder;
@@ -130,7 +131,8 @@ pub(crate) async fn elastic_bulk_ingest_v2(
     let Some(ingest_request) = ingest_request_opt else {
         return Ok(ElasticBulkResponse::default());
     };
-    let ingest_response_v2 = ingest_router.ingest(ingest_request).await?;
+    let ingest_response_v2 = tokio::time::timeout(Duration::from_millis(500), ingest_router.ingest(ingest_request)).await
+        .map_err(|_| ElasticsearchError::new(StatusCode::REQUEST_TIMEOUT, "router timeout".to_string(), None))??;
     let errors = !ingest_response_v2.failures.is_empty();
     let mut items = Vec::new();