diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7c4dea8..c93e087 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1013,6 +1013,13 @@ Create `~/.agentmemory/.env`:
 # OPENAI_EMBEDDING_MODEL=text-embedding-3-small
 # OPENAI_EMBEDDING_DIMENSIONS=1536        # Required when the model is not in the known-models table
 
+# Outbound LLM / embedding timeout
+# AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS=60000       # Default: 60 000 ms (60 s). Applies to every
+                                          # raw-fetch provider (Gemini, OpenRouter, MiniMax,
+                                          # OpenAI/Cohere/Voyage/OpenRouter embedding).
+                                          # Increase for slow networks or large batch calls;
+                                          # decrease to fail-fast on rate-limit holds.
+
 # Search tuning
 # BM25_WEIGHT=0.4
 # VECTOR_WEIGHT=0.6
diff --git a/src/providers/_fetch.ts b/src/providers/_fetch.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed9b5e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/providers/_fetch.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+import { getEnvVar } from "../config.js";
+
+export function fetchWithTimeout(
+  url: string,
+  init: RequestInit,
+  timeoutMs?: number,
+): Promise<Response> {
+  const parsed =
+    timeoutMs ??
+    Number.parseInt(getEnvVar("AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS") ?? "60000", 10);
+  const ms = Number.isFinite(parsed) && parsed > 0 ? parsed : 60000;
+
+  const ctl = new AbortController();
+  const signal = init.signal
+    ? AbortSignal.any([init.signal, ctl.signal])
+    : ctl.signal;
+  const t = setTimeout(() => ctl.abort(), ms);
+  return fetch(url, { ...init, signal }).finally(() => clearTimeout(t));
+}
diff --git a/src/providers/embedding/cohere.ts b/src/providers/embedding/cohere.ts
index 1a96cc4..02b7f13 100644
--- a/src/providers/embedding/cohere.ts
+++ b/src/providers/embedding/cohere.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import type { EmbeddingProvider } from "../../types.js";
 import { getEnvVar } from "../../config.js";
+import { fetchWithTimeout } from "../_fetch.js";
 
 const API_URL = "https://api.cohere.ai/v1/embed";
 
@@ -19,7 +20,7 @@ export class CohereEmbeddingProvider implements EmbeddingProvider {
   }
 
   async embedBatch(texts: string[]): Promise<Float32Array[]> {
-    const response = await fetch(API_URL, {
+    const response = await fetchWithTimeout(API_URL, {
       method: "POST",
       headers: {
         Authorization: `Bearer ${this.apiKey}`,
diff --git a/src/providers/embedding/gemini.ts b/src/providers/embedding/gemini.ts
index 6cfb276..1401646 100644
--- a/src/providers/embedding/gemini.ts
+++ b/src/providers/embedding/gemini.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import type { EmbeddingProvider } from "../../types.js";
 import { getEnvVar } from "../../config.js";
+import { fetchWithTimeout } from "../_fetch.js";
 
 const BATCH_LIMIT = 100;
 const MODEL = "models/gemini-embedding-001";
@@ -25,7 +26,7 @@ export class GeminiEmbeddingProvider implements EmbeddingProvider {
 
     for (let i = 0; i < texts.length; i += BATCH_LIMIT) {
       const chunk = texts.slice(i, i + BATCH_LIMIT);
-      const response = await fetch(`${API_BASE}?key=${this.apiKey}`, {
+      const response = await fetchWithTimeout(`${API_BASE}?key=${this.apiKey}`, {
         method: "POST",
         headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
         body: JSON.stringify({
diff --git a/src/providers/embedding/openai.ts b/src/providers/embedding/openai.ts
index 308479f..bbc0f9f 100644
--- a/src/providers/embedding/openai.ts
+++ b/src/providers/embedding/openai.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import type { EmbeddingProvider } from "../../types.js";
 import { getEnvVar } from "../../config.js";
+import { fetchWithTimeout } from "../_fetch.js";
 
 const DEFAULT_BASE_URL = "https://api.openai.com";
 const DEFAULT_MODEL = "text-embedding-3-small";
@@ -70,7 +71,7 @@ export class OpenAIEmbeddingProvider implements EmbeddingProvider {
 
   async embedBatch(texts: string[]): Promise<Float32Array[]> {
     const url = `${this.baseUrl}/v1/embeddings`;
-    const response = await fetch(url, {
+    const response = await fetchWithTimeout(url, {
       method: "POST",
       headers: {
         Authorization: `Bearer ${this.apiKey}`,
diff --git a/src/providers/embedding/openrouter.ts b/src/providers/embedding/openrouter.ts
index 7d4acb2..46999e5 100644
--- a/src/providers/embedding/openrouter.ts
+++ b/src/providers/embedding/openrouter.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import type { EmbeddingProvider } from "../../types.js";
 import { getEnvVar } from "../../config.js";
+import { fetchWithTimeout } from "../_fetch.js";
 
 const API_URL = "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/embeddings";
 
@@ -23,7 +24,7 @@ export class OpenRouterEmbeddingProvider implements EmbeddingProvider {
   }
 
   async embedBatch(texts: string[]): Promise<Float32Array[]> {
-    const response = await fetch(API_URL, {
+    const response = await fetchWithTimeout(API_URL, {
       method: "POST",
       headers: {
         Authorization: `Bearer ${this.apiKey}`,
diff --git a/src/providers/embedding/voyage.ts b/src/providers/embedding/voyage.ts
index b92fb60..14ddc36 100644
--- a/src/providers/embedding/voyage.ts
+++ b/src/providers/embedding/voyage.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import type { EmbeddingProvider } from "../../types.js";
 import { getEnvVar } from "../../config.js";
+import { fetchWithTimeout } from "../_fetch.js";
 
 const API_URL = "https://api.voyageai.com/v1/embeddings";
 
@@ -19,7 +20,7 @@ export class VoyageEmbeddingProvider implements EmbeddingProvider {
   }
 
   async embedBatch(texts: string[]): Promise<Float32Array[]> {
-    const response = await fetch(API_URL, {
+    const response = await fetchWithTimeout(API_URL, {
       method: "POST",
       headers: {
         Authorization: `Bearer ${this.apiKey}`,
diff --git a/src/providers/minimax.ts b/src/providers/minimax.ts
index e912fab..72fc9ec 100644
--- a/src/providers/minimax.ts
+++ b/src/providers/minimax.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import type { MemoryProvider } from '../types.js'
 import { getEnvVar } from '../config.js'
+import { fetchWithTimeout } from './_fetch.js'
 
 /**
  * MiniMax provider using raw fetch to call MiniMax's Anthropic-compatible API.
@@ -40,7 +41,7 @@ export class MinimaxProvider implements MemoryProvider {
 
   private async call(systemPrompt: string, userPrompt: string): Promise<string> {
     const url = `${this.baseUrl}/v1/messages`
-    const response = await fetch(url, {
+    const response = await fetchWithTimeout(url, {
       method: 'POST',
       headers: {
         'Content-Type': 'application/json',
diff --git a/src/providers/openrouter.ts b/src/providers/openrouter.ts
index 219ce42..5c47bb0 100644
--- a/src/providers/openrouter.ts
+++ b/src/providers/openrouter.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import type { MemoryProvider } from "../types.js";
+import { fetchWithTimeout } from "./_fetch.js";
 
 export class OpenRouterProvider implements MemoryProvider {
   name: string;
@@ -32,7 +33,7 @@ export class OpenRouterProvider implements MemoryProvider {
     systemPrompt: string,
     userPrompt: string,
   ): Promise<string> {
-    const response = await fetch(this.baseUrl, {
+    const response = await fetchWithTimeout(this.baseUrl, {
       method: "POST",
       headers: {
         "Content-Type": "application/json",
diff --git a/test/fetch-timeout.test.ts b/test/fetch-timeout.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2beb04a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/fetch-timeout.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,197 @@
+import { describe, it, expect, vi, afterEach, beforeEach } from "vitest";
+import { fetchWithTimeout } from "../src/providers/_fetch.js";
+import { MinimaxProvider } from "../src/providers/minimax.js";
+import { OpenRouterProvider } from "../src/providers/openrouter.js";
+import { GeminiEmbeddingProvider } from "../src/providers/embedding/gemini.js";
+import { OpenAIEmbeddingProvider } from "../src/providers/embedding/openai.js";
+import { CohereEmbeddingProvider } from "../src/providers/embedding/cohere.js";
+import { VoyageEmbeddingProvider } from "../src/providers/embedding/voyage.js";
+import { OpenRouterEmbeddingProvider } from "../src/providers/embedding/openrouter.js";
+
+// A fetch mock that never resolves — simulates a hung upstream.
+function hangingFetch(_url: string, _init?: RequestInit): Promise<Response> {
+  // honour AbortSignal so the timeout actually cancels us
+  const init = _init ?? {};
+  return new Promise<Response>((_resolve, reject) => {
+    if (init.signal) {
+      if (init.signal.aborted) {
+        reject(new DOMException("AbortError", "AbortError"));
+        return;
+      }
+      init.signal.addEventListener("abort", () => {
+        reject(new DOMException("AbortError", "AbortError"));
+      });
+    }
+  });
+}
+
+// ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+// fetchWithTimeout unit tests
+// ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+describe("fetchWithTimeout", () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    vi.spyOn(globalThis, "fetch").mockImplementation(hangingFetch as typeof fetch);
+  });
+
+  afterEach(() => {
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+    delete process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"];
+  });
+
+  it("resolves normally when fetch completes within the timeout", async () => {
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+    vi.spyOn(globalThis, "fetch").mockResolvedValue(
+      new Response(JSON.stringify({ ok: true }), { status: 200 }),
+    );
+    const res = await fetchWithTimeout("https://example.com", {}, 1000);
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200);
+  });
+
+  it("aborts with an AbortError when fetch hangs beyond the configured timeout", async () => {
+    await expect(
+      fetchWithTimeout("https://example.com", {}, 50),
+    ).rejects.toThrow();
+  });
+
+  it("reads AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS as the default timeout when no explicit ms is given", async () => {
+    process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"] = "50";
+    // no explicit third arg — must pick up the env var
+    await expect(
+      fetchWithTimeout("https://example.com", {}),
+    ).rejects.toThrow();
+  });
+
+  it("falls back to 60 000 ms when AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS is not set (type check only)", () => {
+    delete process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"];
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+    vi.spyOn(globalThis, "fetch").mockResolvedValue(
+      new Response(null, { status: 204 }),
+    );
+    const p = fetchWithTimeout("https://example.com", {});
+    expect(p).toBeInstanceOf(Promise);
+    return p;
+  });
+});
+
+// ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+// Provider hang regression tests
+// Each provider must call fetchWithTimeout, which honours the
+// AbortSignal when the explicit timeoutMs is tiny (50 ms).
+// ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+describe("Provider hang regression — MinimaxProvider", () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    vi.spyOn(globalThis, "fetch").mockImplementation(hangingFetch as typeof fetch);
+    process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"] = "50";
+  });
+  afterEach(() => {
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+    delete process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"];
+  });
+
+  it("compress() aborts after timeout when upstream hangs", async () => {
+    const provider = new MinimaxProvider("test-key", "MiniMax-M2.7", 800);
+    await expect(provider.compress("system", "user")).rejects.toThrow();
+  });
+});
+
+describe("Provider hang regression — OpenRouterProvider (covers Gemini LLM path)", () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    vi.spyOn(globalThis, "fetch").mockImplementation(hangingFetch as typeof fetch);
+    process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"] = "50";
+  });
+  afterEach(() => {
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+    delete process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"];
+  });
+
+  it("compress() aborts after timeout when upstream hangs", async () => {
+    const provider = new OpenRouterProvider(
+      "test-key",
+      "gemini-2.5-flash",
+      1024,
+      "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/chat/completions",
+    );
+    await expect(provider.compress("system", "user")).rejects.toThrow();
+  });
+});
+
+describe("Provider hang regression — GeminiEmbeddingProvider", () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    vi.spyOn(globalThis, "fetch").mockImplementation(hangingFetch as typeof fetch);
+    process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"] = "50";
+  });
+  afterEach(() => {
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+    delete process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"];
+  });
+
+  it("embedBatch() aborts after timeout when upstream hangs", async () => {
+    const provider = new GeminiEmbeddingProvider("test-key");
+    await expect(provider.embedBatch(["hello"])).rejects.toThrow();
+  });
+});
+
+describe("Provider hang regression — OpenAIEmbeddingProvider", () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    vi.spyOn(globalThis, "fetch").mockImplementation(hangingFetch as typeof fetch);
+    process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"] = "50";
+  });
+  afterEach(() => {
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+    delete process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"];
+  });
+
+  it("embedBatch() aborts after timeout when upstream hangs", async () => {
+    const provider = new OpenAIEmbeddingProvider("test-key");
+    await expect(provider.embedBatch(["hello"])).rejects.toThrow();
+  });
+});
+
+describe("Provider hang regression — CohereEmbeddingProvider", () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    vi.spyOn(globalThis, "fetch").mockImplementation(hangingFetch as typeof fetch);
+    process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"] = "50";
+  });
+  afterEach(() => {
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+    delete process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"];
+  });
+
+  it("embedBatch() aborts after timeout when upstream hangs", async () => {
+    const provider = new CohereEmbeddingProvider("test-key");
+    await expect(provider.embedBatch(["hello"])).rejects.toThrow();
+  });
+});
+
+describe("Provider hang regression — VoyageEmbeddingProvider", () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    vi.spyOn(globalThis, "fetch").mockImplementation(hangingFetch as typeof fetch);
+    process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"] = "50";
+  });
+  afterEach(() => {
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+    delete process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"];
+  });
+
+  it("embedBatch() aborts after timeout when upstream hangs", async () => {
+    const provider = new VoyageEmbeddingProvider("test-key");
+    await expect(provider.embedBatch(["hello"])).rejects.toThrow();
+  });
+});
+
+describe("Provider hang regression — OpenRouterEmbeddingProvider", () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    vi.spyOn(globalThis, "fetch").mockImplementation(hangingFetch as typeof fetch);
+    process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"] = "50";
+  });
+  afterEach(() => {
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+    delete process.env["AGENTMEMORY_LLM_TIMEOUT_MS"];
+  });
+
+  it("embedBatch() aborts after timeout when upstream hangs", async () => {
+    const provider = new OpenRouterEmbeddingProvider("test-key");
+    await expect(provider.embedBatch(["hello"])).rejects.toThrow();
+  });
+});