diff --git a/src/main/java/org/juv25d/filter/TimeoutFilter.java b/src/main/java/org/juv25d/filter/TimeoutFilter.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a8542416
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/org/juv25d/filter/TimeoutFilter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+package org.juv25d.filter;
+
+import org.juv25d.filter.annotation.Global;
+import org.juv25d.http.HttpRequest;
+import org.juv25d.http.HttpResponse;
+import org.juv25d.logging.ServerLogging;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.concurrent.*;
+import java.util.logging.Logger;
+
+@Global(order = 1)
+public class TimeoutFilter implements Filter {
+
+    private static final long TIMEOUT_MS = 2000;
+
+    private static final ExecutorService executor =
+        Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
+    static {
+        Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new Thread(() -> {
+            executor.shutdownNow();
+            try {
+                executor.awaitTermination(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+                Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
+            }
+        }));
+    }
+
+    private static final Logger logger = ServerLogging.getLogger();
+
+    @Override
+    public void doFilter(HttpRequest req,
+                         HttpResponse res,
+                         FilterChain chain) throws IOException {
+
+        logger.info("TimeoutFilter START for " + req.path());
+
+        Future<?> future = executor.submit(() -> {
+            try {
+                chain.doFilter(req, res);
+            } catch (IOException e) {
+                throw new RuntimeException(e);
+            }
+        });
+
+        try {
+            future.get(TIMEOUT_MS, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
+            logger.info("TimeoutFilter COMPLETED normally for " + req.path());
+
+        } catch (TimeoutException e) {
+
+            logger.warning("Timeout triggered for " + req.path());
+
+            future.cancel(true);
+
+            res.setStatusCode(504);
+            res.setStatusText("Gateway Timeout");
+            res.setBody("504 - Gateway Timeout".getBytes());
+
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+
+            future.cancel(true);
+            throw new RuntimeException(e);
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/juv25d/plugin/SlowPlugin.java b/src/main/java/org/juv25d/plugin/SlowPlugin.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e0be45ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/org/juv25d/plugin/SlowPlugin.java
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+package org.juv25d.plugin;
+
+import org.juv25d.http.HttpRequest;
+import org.juv25d.http.HttpResponse;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+public class SlowPlugin implements Plugin {
+
+    @Override
+    public void handle(HttpRequest req, HttpResponse res) throws IOException {
+
+        try {
+            Thread.sleep(5000);
+        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        res.setStatusCode(200);
+        res.setStatusText("OK");
+        res.setBody("Slow response finished".getBytes());
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/juv25d/router/RouterConfig.java b/src/main/java/org/juv25d/router/RouterConfig.java
index 805529e8..e425a6b1 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/juv25d/router/RouterConfig.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/juv25d/router/RouterConfig.java
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 import org.juv25d.proxy.ProxyPlugin;
 import org.juv25d.proxy.ProxyRoute;
 import org.juv25d.util.ConfigLoader;
-
+import org.juv25d.plugin.SlowPlugin;
 public class RouterConfig {
 
     @Inject
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ public RouterConfig(SimpleRouter router) {
 
         router.registerPlugin("/metric", new MetricPlugin());
         router.registerPlugin("/health", new HealthCheckPlugin());
+        router.registerPlugin("/slow", new SlowPlugin());
         router.registerPlugin("/", new StaticFilesPlugin());
         router.registerPlugin("/*", new StaticFilesPlugin());
         router.registerPlugin("/notfound", new NotFoundPlugin());
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/juv25d/filter/TimeoutFilterTest.java b/src/test/java/org/juv25d/filter/TimeoutFilterTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a05e7cb6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/juv25d/filter/TimeoutFilterTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+package org.juv25d.filter;
+
+import org.juv25d.http.HttpRequest;
+import org.juv25d.http.HttpResponse;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Timeout;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith;
+import org.mockito.Mock;
+import org.mockito.junit.jupiter.MockitoExtension;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThatThrownBy;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.*;
+
+@ExtendWith(MockitoExtension.class)
+class TimeoutFilterTest {
+
+    @Mock HttpRequest req;
+    @Mock FilterChain chain;
+
+    @Test
+    void fastRequest_keepsDefault200() throws IOException {
+        when(req.path()).thenReturn("/fast");
+        HttpResponse res = new HttpResponse();
+        TimeoutFilter filter = new TimeoutFilter();
+
+        doNothing().when(chain).doFilter(req, res);
+
+        filter.doFilter(req, res, chain);
+
+        verify(chain).doFilter(req, res);
+        assertThat(res.statusCode()).isEqualTo(200);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    @Timeout(value = 4, unit = TimeUnit.SECONDS)
+    void slowRequest_sets504() throws IOException {
+        when(req.path()).thenReturn("/slow");
+        HttpResponse res = new HttpResponse();
+        TimeoutFilter filter = new TimeoutFilter();
+
+        doAnswer(inv -> {
+            Thread.sleep(3_000); // > 2000ms => timeout
+            return null;
+        }).when(chain).doFilter(req, res);
+
+        filter.doFilter(req, res, chain);
+
+        verify(chain).doFilter(req, res);
+        assertThat(res.statusCode()).isEqualTo(504);
+        assertThat(res.statusText()).isEqualTo("Gateway Timeout");
+        assertThat(new String(res.body(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8))
+            .isEqualTo("504 - Gateway Timeout");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void downstreamIOException_throwsRuntimeException() throws IOException {
+        when(req.path()).thenReturn("/boom");
+        HttpResponse res = new HttpResponse();
+        TimeoutFilter filter = new TimeoutFilter();
+
+        doThrow(new IOException("fail")).when(chain).doFilter(req, res);
+
+        assertThatThrownBy(() -> filter.doFilter(req, res, chain))
+            .isInstanceOf(RuntimeException.class);
+
+        verify(chain).doFilter(req, res);
+    }
+}