diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index cd232dd..354b166 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -24,4 +24,5 @@ dev: build-dev
 		-e FIRETAIL_KUBERNETES_SENSOR_DEV_SERVER_ENABLED=true \
 		-e DISABLE_SERVICE_IP_FILTERING=true \
 		-e ENABLE_ONLY_LOG_JSON=true \
+		-e FIRETAIL_KUBERNETES_SENSOR_LIFETIME_MINUTES=0 \
 		firetail/kubernetes-sensor-dev
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 86499da..ad9183c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # Firetail Kubernetes Sensor
 
+
+
 ## Deployment
 
 - Create an API & API Key on the FireTail Platform 
@@ -8,6 +10,8 @@
 - ```git clone https://github.com/FireTail-io/firetail-kubernetes-sensor.git```
 - deploy helm chart ```cd helm && helm install firetail-sensor firetail-sensor/ --set apiKey="PS-02-XXXXXXXX"```
 
+
+
 ## Environment Variables
 
 | Variable Name                                   | Required?   | Example                                                      | Description                                                    |
@@ -18,6 +22,7 @@
 | `ENABLE_ONLY_LOG_JSON`                          | ❌         | `true`                                                       | Enables only logging requests where the content-type implies the payload should be JSON, or the payload is valid JSON regardless of the content-type. |
 | `DISABLE_SERVICE_IP_FILTERING`                  | ❌         | `true`                                                       | Disables polling Kubernetes for the IP addresses of services & subsequently ignoring all requests captured that aren't made to one of those IPs. |
 | `FIRETAIL_API_URL`                              | ❌         | `https://api.logging.eu-west-1.prod.firetail.app/logs/bulk`  | The API url the sensor will send logs to. Defaults to the EU region production environment. |
+| `FIRETAIL_KUBERNETES_SENSOR_LIFETIME_MINUTES`   | ❌         | `15`                                                         | The maximum lifetime of the FireTail kubernetes sensor in minutes. Must be an integer. Values <=0 will disable the shutdown timer. |
 | `FIRETAIL_KUBERNETES_SENSOR_DEV_MODE`           | ❌         | `true`                                                       | Enables debug logging when set to `true`, and reduces the max age of a log in a batch to be sent to FireTail. |
 | `FIRETAIL_KUBERNETES_SENSOR_DEV_SERVER_ENABLED` | ❌         | `true`                                                       | Enables a demo web server when set to `true`; useful for sending test requests to. |
 
diff --git a/src/main.go b/src/main.go
index c77dab4..0bdd052 100644
--- a/src/main.go
+++ b/src/main.go
@@ -15,6 +15,28 @@ import (
 )
 
 func main() {
+	maxLifetimeMinutes, err := strconv.Atoi(os.Getenv("FIRETAIL_KUBERNETES_SENSOR_LIFETIME_MINUTES"))
+	if err != nil {
+		slog.Warn(
+			"FIRETAIL_KUBERNETES_SENSOR_LIFETIME_MINUTES environment variable not set. " +
+				"This sensor will shutdown in 15 minutes.",
+		)
+		maxLifetimeMinutes = 15
+	} else {
+		if maxLifetimeMinutes > 0 {
+			slog.Warn("This sensor will shutdown in " + strconv.Itoa(maxLifetimeMinutes) + " minute(s).")
+		} else {
+			slog.Warn("Shutdown timeout disabled. This sensor will run indefinitely.")
+		}
+	}
+	if maxLifetimeMinutes > 0 {
+		go func() {
+			time.Sleep(time.Minute * time.Duration(maxLifetimeMinutes))
+			slog.Warn("Timeout reached. Shutting down the sensor...")
+			os.Exit(0)
+		}()
+	}
+
 	logsApiToken, logsApiTokenSet := os.LookupEnv("FIRETAIL_API_TOKEN")
 	if !logsApiTokenSet {
 		log.Fatal("FIRETAIL_API_TOKEN environment variable not set")