diff --git a/block/curl.c b/block/curl.c
index d4b85d20a5..2698ae31e8 100644
--- a/block/curl.c
+++ b/block/curl.c
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ static CURLMcode __curl_multi_socket_action(CURLM *multi_handle,
 #define CURL_NUM_ACB    8
 #define SECTOR_SIZE     512
 #define READ_AHEAD_DEFAULT (256 * 1024)
+#define CURL_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT 5
 
 #define FIND_RET_NONE   0
 #define FIND_RET_OK     1
@@ -71,6 +72,7 @@ static CURLMcode __curl_multi_socket_action(CURLM *multi_handle,
 #define CURL_BLOCK_OPT_URL       "url"
 #define CURL_BLOCK_OPT_READAHEAD "readahead"
 #define CURL_BLOCK_OPT_SSLVERIFY "sslverify"
+#define CURL_BLOCK_OPT_TIMEOUT "timeout"
 
 struct BDRVCURLState;
 
@@ -109,6 +111,7 @@ typedef struct BDRVCURLState {
     char *url;
     size_t readahead_size;
     bool sslverify;
+    int timeout;
     bool accept_range;
     AioContext *aio_context;
 } BDRVCURLState;
@@ -382,7 +385,7 @@ static CURLState *curl_init_state(BDRVCURLState *s)
         curl_easy_setopt(state->curl, CURLOPT_URL, s->url);
         curl_easy_setopt(state->curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER,
                          (long) s->sslverify);
-        curl_easy_setopt(state->curl, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 5);
+        curl_easy_setopt(state->curl, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, s->timeout);
         curl_easy_setopt(state->curl, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION,
                          (void *)curl_read_cb);
         curl_easy_setopt(state->curl, CURLOPT_WRITEDATA, (void *)state);
@@ -489,6 +492,11 @@ static QemuOptsList runtime_opts = {
             .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
             .help = "Verify SSL certificate"
         },
+        {
+            .name = CURL_BLOCK_OPT_TIMEOUT,
+            .type = QEMU_OPT_NUMBER,
+            .help = "Curl timeout"
+        },
         { /* end of list */ }
     },
 };
@@ -525,6 +533,9 @@ static int curl_open(BlockDriverState *bs, QDict *options, int flags,
         goto out_noclean;
     }
 
+    s->timeout = qemu_opt_get_number(opts, CURL_BLOCK_OPT_TIMEOUT,
+                                     CURL_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT);
+
     s->sslverify = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, CURL_BLOCK_OPT_SSLVERIFY, true);
 
     file = qemu_opt_get(opts, CURL_BLOCK_OPT_URL);
diff --git a/qemu-options.hx b/qemu-options.hx
index c573dd8893..52d56f4a1c 100644
--- a/qemu-options.hx
+++ b/qemu-options.hx
@@ -2351,6 +2351,11 @@ multiple of 512 bytes. It defaults to 256k.
 @item sslverify
 Whether to verify the remote server's certificate when connecting over SSL. It
 can have the value 'on' or 'off'. It defaults to 'on'.
+
+@item timeout
+Set the timeout in seconds of the CURL connection. This timeout is the time
+that CURL waits for a response from the remote server to get the size of the
+image to be downloaded. If not set, the default timeout of 5 seconds is used.
 @end table
 
 Note that when passing options to qemu explicitly, @option{driver} is the value
@@ -2372,9 +2377,10 @@ qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=/tmp/Fedora-x86_64-20-20131211.1-sda.qcow2,copy-o
 @end example
 
 Example: boot from an image stored on a VMware vSphere server with a self-signed
-certificate using a local overlay for writes and a readahead of 64k
+certificate using a local overlay for writes, a readahead of 64k and a timeout
+of 10 seconds.
 @example
-qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file='json:@{"file.driver":"https",, "file.url":"https://user:password@@vsphere.example.com/folder/test/test-flat.vmdk?dcPath=Datacenter&dsName=datastore1",, "file.sslverify":"off",, "file.readahead":"64k"@}' /tmp/test.qcow2
+qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file='json:@{"file.driver":"https",, "file.url":"https://user:password@@vsphere.example.com/folder/test/test-flat.vmdk?dcPath=Datacenter&dsName=datastore1",, "file.sslverify":"off",, "file.readahead":"64k",, "file.timeout":10@}' /tmp/test.qcow2
 
 qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=/tmp/test.qcow2
 @end example