diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 83934db..9ae6fa8 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -135,6 +135,8 @@ are rejected client-side (Interfaze does not accept them).
 - `temperature` ≤ 1, `max_tokens` ≤ 32000, `top_p` ≤ 1 (values above → 400).
 - Both `max_tokens` and `max_completion_tokens` bound output length (`max_tokens` wins if both set).
 - `n`, `seed`, `stop`, penalties, `logprobs`, `tool_choice`, `top_k` are ignored by Interfaze.
+- Requests default to a 900s timeout (large OCR/document/vision jobs are slow); override with
+  `new Interfaze({ timeout: ... })` (milliseconds).
 - The underlying OpenAI client is available at `interfaze.openai` as an escape hatch.
 
 ## License
diff --git a/src/client.ts b/src/client.ts
index a17a6f2..9a9dd6c 100644
--- a/src/client.ts
+++ b/src/client.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import OpenAI from "openai";
 import type { ClientOptions } from "openai";
 
 import { InterfazeChat } from "./chat.js";
-import { HEADERS, INTERFAZE_BASE_URL } from "./constants.js";
+import { DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MS, HEADERS, INTERFAZE_BASE_URL } from "./constants.js";
 import { InterfazeError } from "./errors.js";
 import { Tasks } from "./tasks.js";
 
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ export class Interfaze {
       apiKey: resolvedKey,
       baseURL: baseURL ?? INTERFAZE_BASE_URL,
       defaultHeaders: headers,
+      timeout: rest.timeout ?? DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MS,
     });
 
     this.chat = new InterfazeChat(this.openai);
diff --git a/src/constants.ts b/src/constants.ts
index e597eea..68cca40 100644
--- a/src/constants.ts
+++ b/src/constants.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 export const INTERFAZE_BASE_URL = "https://api.interfaze.ai/v1";
 export const INTERFAZE_MODEL = "interfaze-beta";
+export const DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MS = 900_000;
 
 /** Task names accepted in a `<task>…</task>` tag. */
 export const TASK_NAMES = [
diff --git a/test/client.test.ts b/test/client.test.ts
index 66f5afb..7889538 100644
--- a/test/client.test.ts
+++ b/test/client.test.ts
@@ -43,4 +43,14 @@ describe("client construction", () => {
     expect(i.openai).toBeDefined();
     expect(i.openai.chat.completions).toBeDefined();
   });
+
+  it("defaults the timeout above the server's 800s cap", () => {
+    const i = new Interfaze({ apiKey: "sk-test" });
+    expect((i.openai as unknown as { timeout: number }).timeout).toBe(900_000);
+  });
+
+  it("respects an explicit timeout", () => {
+    const i = new Interfaze({ apiKey: "sk-test", timeout: 30_000 });
+    expect((i.openai as unknown as { timeout: number }).timeout).toBe(30_000);
+  });
 });