diff --git a/packages/api/src/features/ai/service.test.ts b/packages/api/src/features/ai/service.test.ts
index ca1d2806a..811b2dc77 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/features/ai/service.test.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/features/ai/service.test.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ const envMock = vi.hoisted(() => ({
 vi.mock("@reactive-resume/env/server", () => ({ env: envMock }));
 
 afterEach(() => {
+	vi.unstubAllEnvs();
 	vi.unstubAllGlobals();
 	vi.useRealTimers();
 });
@@ -169,6 +170,46 @@ describe("AI provider connection test", () => {
 	});
 });
 
+describe("AI provider test connection timeout", () => {
+	/**
+	 * Re-import the service module with `AI_TEST_TIMEOUT_MS` set to a specific value.
+	 *
+	 * @param value - The environment value to test, or `undefined` to unset it.
+	 * @returns The `testConnection` function from the freshly imported module.
+	 */
+	async function loadWithTimeout(value: string | undefined) {
+		vi.stubEnv("AI_TEST_TIMEOUT_MS", value);
+		vi.resetModules();
+		const mod = await import("./service");
+		return mod.testConnection;
+	}
+
+	it("uses a valid custom timeout", async () => {
+		const testConnectionWithEnv = await loadWithTimeout("5000");
+		stubRejectedFetch(new DOMException("The operation was aborted due to timeout", "TimeoutError"));
+
+		await expect(testConnectionWithEnv(testInput())).resolves.toMatchObject({
+			ok: false,
+			message: expect.stringContaining("did not respond within 5 seconds"),
+		});
+	});
+
+	it.each([
+		["negative", "-1"],
+		["fractional", "30.5"],
+		["non-numeric", "not-a-number"],
+		["out-of-range", "999999999999"],
+	])("falls back to the default for %s values", async (_label, value) => {
+		const testConnectionWithEnv = await loadWithTimeout(value);
+		stubRejectedFetch(new DOMException("The operation was aborted due to timeout", "TimeoutError"));
+
+		await expect(testConnectionWithEnv(testInput())).resolves.toMatchObject({
+			ok: false,
+			message: expect.stringContaining("did not respond within 30 seconds"),
+		});
+	});
+});
+
 describe("AI chat service", () => {
 	it("tests OpenAI-compatible providers without requiring structured output", async () => {
 		const openAiCompatible = stubOpenAICompatibleResponse();
diff --git a/packages/api/src/features/ai/service.ts b/packages/api/src/features/ai/service.ts
index 48d68b9cf..9f8b9da2f 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/features/ai/service.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/features/ai/service.ts
@@ -90,8 +90,33 @@ type GetModelInput = {
 const MAX_AI_FILE_BYTES = 10 * 1024 * 1024; // 10MB
 const MAX_AI_FILE_BASE64_CHARS = Math.ceil((MAX_AI_FILE_BYTES * 4) / 3) + 4;
 const TEST_CONNECTION_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS = 128;
+
+// AbortSignal.timeout stores the delay as a 32-bit signed integer.
+const MAX_ABORT_SIGNAL_TIMEOUT_MS = 2_147_483_647;
+
+/**
+ * Parse `AI_TEST_TIMEOUT_MS` into a safe, finite, non-negative integer.
+ *
+ * Rejects empty, non-numeric, negative, fractional, and out-of-range values
+ * so that `AbortSignal.timeout` never receives an invalid delay.
+ *
+ * @param raw - The raw environment variable value, if set.
+ * @param fallback - Milliseconds to use when `raw` is missing or invalid.
+ * @returns The validated timeout in milliseconds.
+ */
+function parseTestConnectionTimeoutMs(raw: string | undefined, fallback: number): number {
+	if (raw === undefined) return fallback;
+	const trimmed = raw.trim();
+	if (trimmed === "") return fallback;
+	if (!/^\d+$/.test(trimmed)) return fallback;
+	const value = Number(trimmed);
+	if (value < 0 || value > MAX_ABORT_SIGNAL_TIMEOUT_MS) return fallback;
+	return value;
+}
+
 // Long enough for a cold local model to load, short enough that the UI does not look frozen.
-const TEST_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS = 30_000;
+// Self-hosted deployments with cold-start models (e.g. Ollama) can override via AI_TEST_TIMEOUT_MS.
+const TEST_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS = parseTestConnectionTimeoutMs(process.env.AI_TEST_TIMEOUT_MS, 30_000);
 const DOCX_DOCUMENT_XML_PATH = "word/document.xml";
 const ZIP_LOCAL_FILE_HEADER_SIGNATURE = 0x04034b50;
 const ZIP_CENTRAL_DIRECTORY_SIGNATURE = 0x02014b50;
diff --git a/turbo.json b/turbo.json
index 5483fe6d1..883f964b5 100644
--- a/turbo.json
+++ b/turbo.json
@@ -87,7 +87,8 @@
 		"FLAG_DISABLE_API_RATE_LIMIT",
 		"FLAG_SHOW_SPONSORS",
 		"FLAG_ALLOW_UNSAFE_OAUTH_REDIRECT_URI",
-		"FLAG_ALLOW_UNSAFE_AI_BASE_URL"
+		"FLAG_ALLOW_UNSAFE_AI_BASE_URL",
+		"AI_TEST_TIMEOUT_MS"
 	],
 	"tasks": {
 		"transit": {