diff --git a/pkg/ingester/ingester.go b/pkg/ingester/ingester.go
index 0ef18b988a..b8656efbaf 100644
--- a/pkg/ingester/ingester.go
+++ b/pkg/ingester/ingester.go
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ type Config struct {
 	// Config for chunk flushing
 	FlushCheckPeriod  time.Duration
 	MaxChunkIdle      time.Duration
+	FlushOpTimeout    time.Duration
 	ConcurrentFlushes int
 	ChunkEncoding     string
 
@@ -104,6 +105,7 @@ func (cfg *Config) RegisterFlags(f *flag.FlagSet) {
 
 	f.DurationVar(&cfg.FlushCheckPeriod, "ingester.flush-period", 1*time.Minute, "Period with which to attempt to flush chunks.")
 	f.DurationVar(&cfg.MaxChunkIdle, "ingester.max-chunk-idle", promql.StalenessDelta, "Maximum chunk idle time before flushing.")
+	f.DurationVar(&cfg.FlushOpTimeout, "ingester.flush-op-timeout", 1*time.Minute, "Timeout for individual flush operations.")
 	f.IntVar(&cfg.ConcurrentFlushes, "ingester.concurrent-flushes", DefaultConcurrentFlush, "Number of concurrent goroutines flushing to dynamodb.")
 	f.StringVar(&cfg.ChunkEncoding, "ingester.chunk-encoding", "1", "Encoding version to use for chunks.")
 
diff --git a/pkg/ingester/ingester_flush.go b/pkg/ingester/ingester_flush.go
index e4acaa407f..a135a1fb9d 100644
--- a/pkg/ingester/ingester_flush.go
+++ b/pkg/ingester/ingester_flush.go
@@ -167,6 +167,9 @@ func (i *Ingester) flushUserSeries(userID string, fp model.Fingerprint, immediat
 
 	// flush the chunks without locking the series, as we don't want to hold the series lock for the duration of the dynamo/s3 rpcs.
 	ctx := user.InjectOrgID(context.Background(), userID)
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, i.cfg.FlushOpTimeout)
+	defer cancel() // releases resources if slowOperation completes before timeout elapses
+
 	err := i.flushChunks(ctx, fp, series.metric, chunks)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err