diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 31345cf62a..2412e5e9ed 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 ### HEAD
+* Allow customizing Nginx `worker_connections` ([#1021](https://github.com/roots/trellis/pull/1021))
 * Update wp-cli to 2.0.1 ([#1019](https://github.com/roots/trellis/pull/1019))
 * [BREAKING] Update wp-cli to 2.0.0 and verify its PGP signature ([#1014](https://github.com/roots/trellis/pull/1014))
 * Deploy: Remove obsoleted `git` remote checking ([#999](https://github.com/roots/trellis/pull/999))
diff --git a/roles/nginx/defaults/main.yml b/roles/nginx/defaults/main.yml
index 85178bb1c8..ed07b1c505 100644
--- a/roles/nginx/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/roles/nginx/defaults/main.yml
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ nginx_ppa: "ppa:nginx/development"
 nginx_package: nginx
 nginx_conf: nginx.conf.j2
 nginx_path: /etc/nginx
+nginx_worker_connections: 8000
 nginx_logs_root: /var/log/nginx
 nginx_user: www-data www-data
 nginx_fastcgi_buffers: 8 8k
diff --git a/roles/nginx/templates/nginx.conf.j2 b/roles/nginx/templates/nginx.conf.j2
index 3a0548a352..f4ef92d394 100644
--- a/roles/nginx/templates/nginx.conf.j2
+++ b/roles/nginx/templates/nginx.conf.j2
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ events {
   # That's probably the point at which you hire people who are smarter than you as this is *a lot* of requests.
   # Should be < worker_rlimit_nofile.
   # Default: 512
-  worker_connections 8000;
+  worker_connections {{ nginx_worker_connections }};
 }
 {% endblock %}