diff --git a/visualdl/writer/record_writer.py b/visualdl/writer/record_writer.py
index 01ea1ad442a39497513b3822614067be6e04af36..6d0b4aa4a2d74fa2454e9c18efe8866eb5bc0336 100644
--- a/visualdl/writer/record_writer.py
+++ b/visualdl/writer/record_writer.py
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ import threading
 import os
 
 QUEUE_TIMEOUT = os.getenv("VDL_QUEUE_TIMEOUT")
+if isinstance(QUEUE_TIMEOUT, str):
+    QUEUE_TIMEOUT = int(QUEUE_TIMEOUT)
 
 
 class RecordWriter(object):