metadata
title: Configure workflow timeout settings
description: Set execution timeouts to determine how long workflows can run.
contentType: howto
Configure workflow timeout settings
A workflow times out and gets canceled after this time (in seconds). If the workflow runs in the main process, a soft timeout happens (takes effect after the current node finishes). If a workflow runs in its own process, n8n attempts a soft timeout first, then kills the process after waiting for a fifth of the given timeout duration.
EXECUTIONS_TIMEOUT default is -1. For example, if you want to set the timeout to one hour:
export EXECUTIONS_TIMEOUT=3600
You can also set maximum execution time (in seconds) for each workflow individually. For example, if you want to set maximum execution time to two hours:
export EXECUTIONS_TIMEOUT_MAX=7200
Refer to Environment variables reference for more information on these variables.