diff --git a/services/web/app/coffee/Features/Spelling/SpellingController.coffee b/services/web/app/coffee/Features/Spelling/SpellingController.coffee
index 3ac130fb08..81a697525f 100644
--- a/services/web/app/coffee/Features/Spelling/SpellingController.coffee
+++ b/services/web/app/coffee/Features/Spelling/SpellingController.coffee
@@ -2,13 +2,15 @@ request = require 'request'
 Settings = require 'settings-sharelatex'
 logger = require 'logger-sharelatex'
 
+TEN_SECONDS = 1000 * 10
+
 module.exports = SpellingController =
 	proxyRequestToSpellingApi: (req, res, next) ->
 		url = req.url.slice("/spelling".length)
 		url = "/user/#{req.session.user._id}#{url}"
 		req.headers["Host"] = Settings.apis.spelling.host
-		getReq = request(url: Settings.apis.spelling.url + url, method: req.method, headers: req.headers, json: req.body)
-		getReq.on "error", (error) ->
+		request(url: Settings.apis.spelling.url + url, method: req.method, headers: req.headers, json: req.body, timeout:TEN_SECONDS)
+		.on "error", (error) ->
 			logger.error err: error, "Spelling API error"
 			res.sendStatus 500
-		getReq.pipe(res)
+		.pipe(res)