diff --git a/docs/configuration.md b/docs/configuration.md
index da446401c..d3874256f 100644
--- a/docs/configuration.md
+++ b/docs/configuration.md
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ changed here.
 
     Defaults to unset, using the documented path in the home directory.
 
-`PAPERLESS_DB_TIMEOUT=<float>`
+`PAPERLESS_DB_TIMEOUT=<int>`
 
 : Amount of time for a database connection to wait for the database to
 unlock. Mostly applicable for sqlite based installation. Consider changing
diff --git a/src/paperless/settings.py b/src/paperless/settings.py
index ad386e410..c18fd5717 100644
--- a/src/paperless/settings.py
+++ b/src/paperless/settings.py
@@ -532,14 +532,14 @@ def _parse_db_settings() -> Dict:
     if os.getenv("PAPERLESS_DB_TIMEOUT") is not None:
         if databases["default"]["ENGINE"] == "django.db.backends.sqlite3":
             databases["default"]["OPTIONS"].update(
-                {"timeout": float(os.getenv("PAPERLESS_DB_TIMEOUT"))},
+                {"timeout": int(os.getenv("PAPERLESS_DB_TIMEOUT"))},
             )
         else:
             databases["default"]["OPTIONS"].update(
-                {"connect_timeout": float(os.getenv("PAPERLESS_DB_TIMEOUT"))},
+                {"connect_timeout": int(os.getenv("PAPERLESS_DB_TIMEOUT"))},
             )
             databases["sqlite"]["OPTIONS"].update(
-                {"timeout": float(os.getenv("PAPERLESS_DB_TIMEOUT"))},
+                {"timeout": int(os.getenv("PAPERLESS_DB_TIMEOUT"))},
             )
     return databases