diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 312d7f9..42fd621 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -2066,7 +2066,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "opsqueue"
-version = "0.30.5"
+version = "0.30.7"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "arc-swap",
@@ -2120,7 +2120,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "opsqueue_python"
-version = "0.30.5"
+version = "0.30.7"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "chrono",
diff --git a/libs/opsqueue_python/Cargo.toml b/libs/opsqueue_python/Cargo.toml
index 1a33888..eb43975 100644
--- a/libs/opsqueue_python/Cargo.toml
+++ b/libs/opsqueue_python/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "opsqueue_python"
-version = "0.30.6"
+version = "0.30.7"
 edition = "2021"
 
 # See more keys and their definitions at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/manifest.html
diff --git a/opsqueue/Cargo.toml b/opsqueue/Cargo.toml
index 07629e4..4a1a889 100644
--- a/opsqueue/Cargo.toml
+++ b/opsqueue/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "opsqueue"
-version = "0.30.6"
+version = "0.30.7"
 edition = "2021"
 description = "lightweight batch processing queue for heavy loads"
 repository = "https://github.com/channable/opsqueue"
diff --git a/opsqueue/app/main.rs b/opsqueue/app/main.rs
index 95d4bb4..e3cc6d6 100644
--- a/opsqueue/app/main.rs
+++ b/opsqueue/app/main.rs
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ pub async fn async_main() {
             prometheus_config,
         ));
 
-        let max_age = Duration::from_secs(60 * 60);
+        let max_age = config.max_submission_age.into();
         scope.spawn(periodically_cleanup_old(db_pool.writer_pool(), max_age));
 
         scope.spawn(prometheus::periodically_calculate_scaling_metrics(
diff --git a/opsqueue/src/config.rs b/opsqueue/src/config.rs
index a56264b..08acd42 100644
--- a/opsqueue/src/config.rs
+++ b/opsqueue/src/config.rs
@@ -74,6 +74,9 @@ pub struct Config {
     /// the full submission the chunk is a part of.
     #[arg(long, default_value_t = 10)]
     pub max_chunk_retries: u32,
+
+    #[arg(long, default_value = "1 hour")]
+    pub max_submission_age: humantime::Duration,
 }
 
 impl Default for Config {
@@ -88,6 +91,7 @@ impl Default for Config {
             humantime::Duration::from_str("10 seconds").expect("valid humantime");
         let max_missable_heartbeats = 3;
         let max_chunk_retries = 10;
+        let max_submission_age = humantime::Duration::from_str("1 hour").expect("valid humantime");
         Config {
             port,
             database_filename,
@@ -96,6 +100,7 @@ impl Default for Config {
             heartbeat_interval,
             max_missable_heartbeats,
             max_chunk_retries,
+            max_submission_age,
         }
     }
 }