diff --git a/letta/schemas/letta_request.py b/letta/schemas/letta_request.py
index cdaf27c1..5f16380a 100644
--- a/letta/schemas/letta_request.py
+++ b/letta/schemas/letta_request.py
@@ -42,6 +42,10 @@ class LettaStreamingRequest(LettaRequest):
         default=False,
         description="Flag to determine if individual tokens should be streamed. Set to True for token streaming (requires stream_steps = True).",
     )
+    include_pings: bool = Field(
+        default=False,
+        description="Whether to include periodic keepalive ping messages in the stream to prevent connection timeouts.",
+    )
 
 
 class LettaAsyncRequest(LettaRequest):
diff --git a/letta/server/rest_api/routers/v1/agents.py b/letta/server/rest_api/routers/v1/agents.py
index 387732cf..b146585d 100644
--- a/letta/server/rest_api/routers/v1/agents.py
+++ b/letta/server/rest_api/routers/v1/agents.py
@@ -1071,8 +1071,8 @@ async def send_message_streaming(
                     request_start_timestamp_ns=request_start_timestamp_ns,
                     include_return_message_types=request.include_return_message_types,
                 )
-                # Conditionally wrap with keepalive based on settings
-                if settings.enable_keepalive:
+                # Conditionally wrap with keepalive based on request parameter
+                if request.include_pings and settings.enable_keepalive:
                     stream = add_keepalive_to_stream(raw_stream, keepalive_interval=settings.keepalive_interval)
                 else:
                     stream = raw_stream
@@ -1089,8 +1089,8 @@ async def send_message_streaming(
                     request_start_timestamp_ns=request_start_timestamp_ns,
                     include_return_message_types=request.include_return_message_types,
                 )
-                # Conditionally wrap with keepalive based on settings
-                if settings.enable_keepalive:
+                # Conditionally wrap with keepalive based on request parameter
+                if request.include_pings and settings.enable_keepalive:
                     stream = add_keepalive_to_stream(raw_stream, keepalive_interval=settings.keepalive_interval)
                 else:
                     stream = raw_stream