diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 57c6862..f2ebcb5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 ## 5.1.0 (unreleased)
 
+- Added support for fractional search timeout
 - Fixed search timeout with `elasticsearch` 8+ and `opensearch-ruby` gems
 - Fixed search timeout not applying to `multi_search`
 
diff --git a/lib/searchkick/query.rb b/lib/searchkick/query.rb
index a195e73..1f7567a 100644
--- a/lib/searchkick/query.rb
+++ b/lib/searchkick/query.rb
@@ -505,7 +505,13 @@ module Searchkick
         set_highlights(payload, fields) if options[:highlight]
 
         # timeout shortly after client times out
-        payload[:timeout] ||= "#{Searchkick.search_timeout + 1}s"
+        payload[:timeout] ||=
+          if Searchkick.search_timeout.is_a?(Integer)
+            "#{Searchkick.search_timeout + 1}s"
+          else
+            # ensure at least 1 ms
+            "#{(Searchkick.search_timeout * 1000).ceil}ms"
+          end
 
         # An empty array will cause only the _id and _type for each hit to be returned
         # https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-request-source-filtering.html
--
libgit2 0.21.0