diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/misc/gitea.nix b/nixos/modules/services/misc/gitea.nix
index 70a762368b38..80f70173bb35 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/misc/gitea.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/misc/gitea.nix
@@ -913,6 +913,8 @@ in
         ]
         ++ lib.optional (useSendmail && config.services.postfix.enable) "/var/lib/postfix/queue/maildrop";
         UMask = "0027";
+        # one mid size deployments, Gitea already gets killed when doing DB migrations
+        TimeoutStartSec = "3m";
 
         # Sandboxing
         CapabilityBoundingSet = "";