diff --git a/src/app/modules/angular-slickgrid/editors/autoCompleteEditor.ts b/src/app/modules/angular-slickgrid/editors/autoCompleteEditor.ts
index d89780785..5b68efbff 100644
--- a/src/app/modules/angular-slickgrid/editors/autoCompleteEditor.ts
+++ b/src/app/modules/angular-slickgrid/editors/autoCompleteEditor.ts
@@ -160,8 +160,9 @@ export class AutoCompleteEditor implements Editor {
 
   serializeValue() {
     // if user provided a custom structure, we will serialize the value returned from the object with custom structure
+    const minLength = typeof this.editorOptions.minLength !== 'undefined' ? this.editorOptions.minLength : 3;
     if (this.editorOptions.forceUserInput) {
-      this._currentValue = this.$input.val().length > 3 ? this.$input.val() : this._currentValue;
+      this._currentValue = this.$input.val().length >= minLength ? this.$input.val() : this._currentValue;
     }
     if (this.customStructure && this._currentValue.hasOwnProperty(this.labelName)) {
       return this._currentValue[this.labelName];