diff --git a/react/render_server.py b/react/render_server.py
index a7b1907..2cecaa2 100644
--- a/react/render_server.py
+++ b/react/render_server.py
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ def render(self, path, props=None, to_static_markup=False, request_headers=None,
 
         # Add a send/receive timeout with the request if not specified
         if not isinstance(timeout, (tuple, int, float)):
-            timeout = (5, 5)
+            timeout = 5.0
 
         try:
             res = requests.post(