diff --git a/src/agent-runtime.ts b/src/agent-runtime.ts
index a2d51f4..8025e3f 100644
--- a/src/agent-runtime.ts
+++ b/src/agent-runtime.ts
@@ -863,9 +863,43 @@ export class AgentRuntime {
     const iframeHits = evidence?.iframe_src_hits ?? [];
     const urlHits = evidence?.url_hits ?? [];
     const textHits = evidence?.text_hits ?? [];
+    const selectorHits = evidence?.selector_hits ?? [];
     if (iframeHits.length === 0 && urlHits.length === 0 && textHits.length === 0) {
       return false;
     }
+    // Heuristic: many sites include passive reCAPTCHA badges (v3) that should not block.
+    // Only block when there is evidence of an interactive challenge.
+    const hitsAll = [...iframeHits, ...urlHits, ...textHits, ...selectorHits];
+    const hitsLower = hitsAll.map(hit => String(hit || '').toLowerCase()).filter(Boolean);
+    const joinedHits = hitsLower.join(' ');
+    const strongText = [
+      "i'm not a robot",
+      'verify you are human',
+      'human verification',
+      'complete the security check',
+      'please verify',
+    ].some(needle => joinedHits.includes(needle));
+    const strongIframe = hitsLower.some(hit =>
+      ['api2/bframe', 'hcaptcha', 'turnstile'].some(needle => hit.includes(needle))
+    );
+    const strongSelector = hitsLower.some(hit =>
+      [
+        'g-recaptcha-response',
+        'h-captcha-response',
+        'cf-turnstile-response',
+        'recaptcha-checkbox',
+        'hcaptcha-checkbox',
+      ].some(needle => hit.includes(needle))
+    );
+    const onlyGeneric =
+      !strongText &&
+      !strongIframe &&
+      !strongSelector &&
+      hitsLower.length > 0 &&
+      hitsLower.every(hit => hit.includes('captcha') || hit.includes('recaptcha'));
+    if (onlyGeneric) {
+      return false;
+    }
     const confidence = captcha.confidence ?? 0;
     const minConfidence = options.minConfidence ?? DEFAULT_CAPTCHA_OPTIONS.minConfidence;
     return confidence >= minConfidence;
diff --git a/src/backends/snapshot.ts b/src/backends/snapshot.ts
index 33cf7e5..c86057c 100644
--- a/src/backends/snapshot.ts
+++ b/src/backends/snapshot.ts
@@ -104,6 +104,8 @@ export interface SnapshotOptions {
   gridId?: number | null;
   /** Use server-side API (Pro/Enterprise tier) */
   useApi?: boolean;
+  /** Gateway snapshot timeout (milliseconds) */
+  gatewayTimeoutMs?: number;
   /** API key for server-side processing */
   sentienceApiKey?: string;
   /** Goal/task description for ordinal support and gateway reranking */
diff --git a/src/snapshot.ts b/src/snapshot.ts
index 2e07ac9..fdb552b 100644
--- a/src/snapshot.ts
+++ b/src/snapshot.ts
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ export interface SnapshotOptions {
     min_z_index?: number;
   };
   use_api?: boolean; // Force use of server-side API if True, local extension if False
+  gatewayTimeoutMs?: number; // Gateway snapshot timeout in milliseconds
   save_trace?: boolean; // Save raw_elements to JSON for benchmarking/training
   trace_path?: string; // Path to save trace file (default: "trace_{timestamp}.json")
   goal?: string; // Optional goal/task description for the snapshot
@@ -317,11 +318,20 @@ async function snapshotViaApi(
   };
 
   try {
-    const response = await fetch(gatewayUrl, {
-      method: 'POST',
-      headers,
-      body: payloadJson,
-    });
+    const timeoutMs = options.gatewayTimeoutMs ?? 30000;
+    const controller = new AbortController();
+    const timeoutId = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), timeoutMs);
+    let response: Response;
+    try {
+      response = await fetch(gatewayUrl, {
+        method: 'POST',
+        headers,
+        body: payloadJson,
+        signal: controller.signal,
+      });
+    } finally {
+      clearTimeout(timeoutId);
+    }
 
     if (!response.ok) {
       let errorText: string | undefined = undefined;
diff --git a/tests/agent-runtime-captcha-detection.test.ts b/tests/agent-runtime-captcha-detection.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6907802
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/agent-runtime-captcha-detection.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+import { AgentRuntime } from '../src/agent-runtime';
+import { TraceSink } from '../src/tracing/sink';
+import { Tracer } from '../src/tracing/tracer';
+import { CaptchaDiagnostics, Snapshot } from '../src/types';
+import { MockPage } from './mocks/browser-mock';
+
+class MockSink extends TraceSink {
+  public events: any[] = [];
+  emit(event: Record<string, any>): void {
+    this.events.push(event);
+  }
+  async close(): Promise<void> {
+    // no-op
+  }
+  getSinkType(): string {
+    return 'MockSink';
+  }
+}
+
+function makeRuntime(): AgentRuntime {
+  const sink = new MockSink();
+  const tracer = new Tracer('test-run', sink);
+  const page = new MockPage('https://example.com') as any;
+  const browserLike = {
+    snapshot: async () => ({
+      status: 'success',
+      url: 'https://example.com',
+      elements: [],
+      timestamp: 't1',
+    }),
+  };
+  const runtime = new AgentRuntime(browserLike as any, page as any, tracer);
+  runtime.setCaptchaOptions({ minConfidence: 0.1, policy: 'abort' });
+  return runtime;
+}
+
+function makeSnapshot(captcha: CaptchaDiagnostics): Snapshot {
+  return {
+    status: 'success',
+    url: 'https://example.com',
+    elements: [],
+    diagnostics: { captcha },
+    timestamp: 't1',
+  };
+}
+
+describe('AgentRuntime captcha detection', () => {
+  it('ignores passive recaptcha badges', () => {
+    const runtime = makeRuntime();
+    const captcha: CaptchaDiagnostics = {
+      detected: true,
+      confidence: 0.95,
+      provider_hint: 'recaptcha',
+      evidence: {
+        iframe_src_hits: ['https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api2/anchor?ar=1'],
+        selector_hits: [],
+        text_hits: [],
+        url_hits: [],
+      },
+    };
+
+    const detected = (runtime as any).isCaptchaDetected(makeSnapshot(captcha));
+    expect(detected).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it('detects interactive captcha challenges', () => {
+    const runtime = makeRuntime();
+    const captcha: CaptchaDiagnostics = {
+      detected: true,
+      confidence: 0.95,
+      provider_hint: 'recaptcha',
+      evidence: {
+        iframe_src_hits: [],
+        selector_hits: [],
+        text_hits: ["I'm not a robot"],
+        url_hits: [],
+      },
+    };
+
+    const detected = (runtime as any).isCaptchaDetected(makeSnapshot(captcha));
+    expect(detected).toBe(true);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/tests/snapshot-gateway-timeout.test.ts b/tests/snapshot-gateway-timeout.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b0abcc6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/snapshot-gateway-timeout.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+import { snapshot } from '../src';
+import { BrowserEvaluator } from '../src/utils/browser-evaluator';
+
+jest.mock('../src/utils/browser-evaluator', () => ({
+  BrowserEvaluator: {
+    waitForCondition: jest.fn().mockResolvedValue(true),
+    evaluate: jest.fn(),
+  },
+}));
+
+const mockedBrowserEvaluator = BrowserEvaluator as jest.Mocked<typeof BrowserEvaluator>;
+
+function makeBrowser() {
+  return {
+    getApiKey: () => 'sk_test',
+    getApiUrl: () => 'https://api.sentienceapi.com',
+    getPage: () => ({}),
+  } as any;
+}
+
+describe('Snapshot gateway timeout', () => {
+  const rawResult = {
+    raw_elements: [],
+    url: 'https://example.com',
+    viewport: { width: 800, height: 600 },
+    diagnostics: {},
+  };
+
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    mockedBrowserEvaluator.evaluate.mockResolvedValue(rawResult as any);
+  });
+
+  afterEach(() => {
+    jest.restoreAllMocks();
+  });
+
+  it('uses default gateway timeout when not provided', async () => {
+    const fetchMock = jest.fn().mockResolvedValue({
+      ok: true,
+      json: async () => ({ status: 'success', elements: [], url: 'https://example.com' }),
+      headers: new Headers(),
+    });
+    (global as any).fetch = fetchMock;
+
+    const setTimeoutSpy = jest.spyOn(global, 'setTimeout').mockImplementation(((
+      fn: (...args: any[]) => void,
+      _ms?: number
+    ) => {
+      return 123 as any;
+    }) as any);
+    const clearTimeoutSpy = jest.spyOn(global, 'clearTimeout').mockImplementation(() => {});
+
+    await snapshot(makeBrowser(), { screenshot: false, limit: 10 });
+
+    expect(setTimeoutSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.any(Function), 30000);
+    expect(clearTimeoutSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(123);
+    expect(fetchMock).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      'https://api.sentienceapi.com/v1/snapshot',
+      expect.objectContaining({
+        signal: expect.any(AbortSignal),
+      })
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('uses custom gateway timeout when provided', async () => {
+    const fetchMock = jest.fn().mockResolvedValue({
+      ok: true,
+      json: async () => ({ status: 'success', elements: [], url: 'https://example.com' }),
+      headers: new Headers(),
+    });
+    (global as any).fetch = fetchMock;
+
+    const setTimeoutSpy = jest.spyOn(global, 'setTimeout').mockImplementation(((
+      fn: (...args: any[]) => void,
+      _ms?: number
+    ) => {
+      return 456 as any;
+    }) as any);
+    const clearTimeoutSpy = jest.spyOn(global, 'clearTimeout').mockImplementation(() => {});
+
+    await snapshot(makeBrowser(), { screenshot: false, limit: 10, gatewayTimeoutMs: 12345 });
+
+    expect(setTimeoutSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.any(Function), 12345);
+    expect(clearTimeoutSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(456);
+  });
+});