diff --git a/middleware/api/es-search.js b/middleware/api/es-search.js
index b31e31a5f2..4b73c2625d 100644
--- a/middleware/api/es-search.js
+++ b/middleware/api/es-search.js
@@ -15,6 +15,14 @@ function getClient() {
   }
   return new Client({
     node: ELASTICSEARCH_URL,
+    // The default is 30,000ms but we noticed that the median time is about
+    // 100ms with some occasional searches taking multiple seconds.
+    // The default `maxRetries` is 5 which is a sensible number.
+    // If a query gets stuck, it's better to (relatively) quickly give up
+    // and retry. So if it takes longer than this time here, we're banking on
+    // that it was just bad luck and that it'll work if we simply try again.
+    // See internal issue #2318.
+    requestTimeout: 500,
   })
 }