diff --git a/datadog_checks_base/datadog_checks/base/utils/http.py b/datadog_checks_base/datadog_checks/base/utils/http.py
index 40e1cd41fb17d..904ddb5c8429e 100644
--- a/datadog_checks_base/datadog_checks/base/utils/http.py
+++ b/datadog_checks_base/datadog_checks/base/utils/http.py
@@ -52,6 +52,8 @@
 # https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2988
 DEFAULT_TIMEOUT = 10
 
+DEFAULT_EXPIRATION = 300
+
 # 16 KiB seems optimal, and is also the standard chunk size of the Bittorrent protocol:
 # https://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0003.html
 DEFAULT_CHUNK_SIZE = 16
@@ -859,11 +861,13 @@ def read(self, **request):
             self._expiration = get_timestamp()
             try:
                 # According to https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6749#section-5.1, the `expires_in` field is optional
-                token_expiration = response.get('expires_in', 0)
-                self._expiration += token_expiration
+                self._expiration += _parse_expires_in(response.get('expires_in'))
             except TypeError:
-                LOGGER.warning('OAuth2 included an `expires_in` value of unexpected type %s.', type(token_expiration))
-
+                LOGGER.warning(
+                    'The `expires_in` field of the OAuth2 response is not a number, defaulting to %s',
+                    DEFAULT_EXPIRATION,
+                )
+                self._expiration += DEFAULT_EXPIRATION
             return self._token
 
 
@@ -997,6 +1001,21 @@ def quote_uds_url(url):
     return urlunparse(parsed)
 
 
+def _parse_expires_in(token_expiration):
+    if isinstance(token_expiration, int) or isinstance(token_expiration, float):
+        return token_expiration
+    if isinstance(token_expiration, str):
+        try:
+            token_expiration = int(token_expiration)
+        except ValueError:
+            LOGGER.warning('Could not convert %s to an integer', token_expiration)
+    else:
+        LOGGER.warning('Unexpected type for `expires_in`: %s.', type(token_expiration))
+        token_expiration = None
+
+    return token_expiration
+
+
 # For documentation generation
 # TODO: use an enum and remove STANDARD_FIELDS when mkdocstrings supports it
 class StandardFields(object):
diff --git a/datadog_checks_base/tests/base/utils/http/test_authtoken.py b/datadog_checks_base/tests/base/utils/http/test_authtoken.py
index 70589c0a482dc..c22421ae86e24 100644
--- a/datadog_checks_base/tests/base/utils/http/test_authtoken.py
+++ b/datadog_checks_base/tests/base/utils/http/test_authtoken.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 import pytest
 
 from datadog_checks.base import ConfigurationError
-from datadog_checks.base.utils.http import RequestsWrapper
+from datadog_checks.base.utils.http import DEFAULT_EXPIRATION, RequestsWrapper
 from datadog_checks.base.utils.time import get_timestamp
 from datadog_checks.dev import TempDir
 from datadog_checks.dev.fs import read_file, write_file
@@ -470,14 +470,18 @@ def fetch_token(self, *args, **kwargs):
                 http.get('https://www.google.com')
 
     @pytest.mark.parametrize(
-        'token_response',
+        'token_response, expected_expiration',
         [
-            pytest.param({'access_token': 'foo', 'expires_in': 9000}, id='With expires_in'),
-            pytest.param({'access_token': 'foo'}, id='Without expires_in'),
-            pytest.param({'access_token': 'foo', 'expires_in': 'two minutes'}, id='With string expires_in'),
+            pytest.param({'access_token': 'foo', 'expires_in': 9000}, 9000, id='With expires_in'),
+            pytest.param({'access_token': 'foo'}, DEFAULT_EXPIRATION, id='Without expires_in'),
+            pytest.param(
+                {'access_token': 'foo', 'expires_in': 'two minutes'}, DEFAULT_EXPIRATION, id='With string expires_in'
+            ),
+            pytest.param({'access_token': 'foo', 'expires_in': '3600'}, 3600, id='With numeric string expires_in'),
+            pytest.param({'access_token': 'foo', 'expires_in': [1, 2, 3]}, 300, id='With list expires_in'),
         ],
     )
-    def test_success(self, token_response):
+    def test_success(self, token_response, expected_expiration):
         instance = {
             'auth_token': {
                 'reader': {'type': 'oauth', 'url': 'foo', 'client_id': 'bar', 'client_secret': 'baz'},
@@ -499,7 +503,7 @@ def fetch_token(self, *args, **kwargs):
 
         with mock.patch('requests.get') as get, mock.patch('oauthlib.oauth2.BackendApplicationClient'), mock.patch(
             'requests_oauthlib.OAuth2Session', side_effect=MockOAuth2Session
-        ):
+        ), mock.patch('datadog_checks.base.utils.http.get_timestamp', return_value=0):
             http.get('https://www.google.com')
 
             get.assert_called_with(
@@ -514,6 +518,7 @@ def fetch_token(self, *args, **kwargs):
             )
 
             assert http.options['headers'] == expected_headers
+            assert http.auth_token_handler.reader._expiration == expected_expiration
 
     def test_success_with_auth_params(self):
         instance = {