diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3b2bf700..554b1a3c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.
 
 ### Added
 
+- Added validator for `REDIS_MAX_CONNECTIONS` to handle empty or null-like values ("", "null", None) and return None instead. [#519](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi-elasticsearch-opensearch/pull/519)
+
 ### Changed
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/stac_fastapi/core/stac_fastapi/core/redis_utils.py b/stac_fastapi/core/stac_fastapi/core/redis_utils.py
index 6cfc00b6..f1e3fe74 100644
--- a/stac_fastapi/core/stac_fastapi/core/redis_utils.py
+++ b/stac_fastapi/core/stac_fastapi/core/redis_utils.py
@@ -36,6 +36,14 @@ def validate_db_sentinel(cls, v: int) -> int:
             raise ValueError("REDIS_DB must be a positive integer")
         return v
 
+    @field_validator("REDIS_MAX_CONNECTIONS", mode="before")
+    @classmethod
+    def validate_max_connections(cls, v):
+        """Handle empty/None values for REDIS_MAX_CONNECTIONS."""
+        if v in ["", "null", "Null", "NULL", "none", "None", "NONE", None]:
+            return None
+        return v
+
     @field_validator("REDIS_SELF_LINK_TTL")
     @classmethod
     def validate_self_link_ttl_sentinel(cls, v: int) -> int:
@@ -118,6 +126,14 @@ def validate_db_standalone(cls, v: int) -> int:
             raise ValueError("REDIS_DB must be a positive integer")
         return v
 
+    @field_validator("REDIS_MAX_CONNECTIONS", mode="before")
+    @classmethod
+    def validate_max_connections(cls, v):
+        """Handle empty/None values for REDIS_MAX_CONNECTIONS."""
+        if v in ["", "null", "Null", "NULL", "none", "None", "NONE", None]:
+            return None
+        return v
+
     @field_validator("REDIS_SELF_LINK_TTL")
     @classmethod
     def validate_self_link_ttl_standalone(cls, v: int) -> int: