diff --git a/higgins/api/app.py b/higgins/api/app.py
index bb9152cc7..f5834af3a 100644
--- a/higgins/api/app.py
+++ b/higgins/api/app.py
@@ -35,6 +35,9 @@ API_SERVICE_OPTS = [
                        "the service, this option should be False; note, you "
                        "will want to change public API endpoint to represent "
                        "SSL termination URL with 'public_endpoint' option.")),
+    cfg.IntOpt('workers',
+               help=_("Number of workers for higgins-api service. "
+                      "The default will be the number of CPUs available.")),
 ]
 
 CONF = cfg.CONF
diff --git a/higgins/common/service.py b/higgins/common/service.py
index eeab470a2..e34304e8e 100644
--- a/higgins/common/service.py
+++ b/higgins/common/service.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ class WSGIService(service.ServiceBase):
         """
         self.name = name
         self.app = app.setup_app()
-        self.workers = (processutils.get_worker_count())
+        self.workers = (CONF.api.workers or processutils.get_worker_count())
         if self.workers and self.workers < 1:
             raise exception.ConfigInvalid(
                 _("api_workers value of %d is invalid, "