diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 3701e7c8db..b38693abcd 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ actix-web-httpauth = "0.8.1"
 actix-web-validator = "5.0.1"
 tonic = { workspace = true }
 tonic-reflection = { workspace = true }
-tower = "0.4.13"
+tower = { version = "0.4.13", features = ["filter"] }
 tower-layer = "0.3.2"
 tar = "0.4.40"
 reqwest = { version = "0.11", default-features = false, features = ["stream", "rustls-tls", "blocking"] }
diff --git a/src/tonic/api_key.rs b/src/tonic/api_key.rs
index 5b8b89e75b..8f5dd8ccfd 100644
--- a/src/tonic/api_key.rs
+++ b/src/tonic/api_key.rs
@@ -1,13 +1,6 @@
-use std::task::{Context, Poll};
-
 use actix_web_httpauth::headers::authorization::{Bearer, Scheme};
-use futures_util::future::BoxFuture;
-use reqwest::header::HeaderValue;
-use reqwest::StatusCode;
-use tonic::body::BoxBody;
-use tonic::Code;
-use tower::Service;
-use tower_layer::Layer;
+use tonic::Status;
+use tower::filter::{FilterLayer, Predicate};
 
 use crate::common::auth::AuthKeys;
 use crate::common::strings::ct_eq;
@@ -30,36 +23,20 @@ const READ_ONLY_RPC_PATHS: [&str; 14] = [
 ];
 
 #[derive(Clone)]
-pub struct ApiKeyMiddleware<T> {
-    service: T,
+pub struct ApiKeyMiddleware {
     auth_keys: AuthKeys,
 }
 
-#[derive(Clone)]
-pub struct ApiKeyMiddlewareLayer {
-    auth_keys: AuthKeys,
-}
-
-impl<S> Service<tonic::codegen::http::Request<tonic::transport::Body>> for ApiKeyMiddleware<S>
-where
-    S: Service<
-        tonic::codegen::http::Request<tonic::transport::Body>,
-        Response = tonic::codegen::http::Response<tonic::body::BoxBody>,
-    >,
-    S::Future: Send + 'static,
-{
-    type Response = tonic::codegen::http::Response<tonic::body::BoxBody>;
-    type Error = S::Error;
-    type Future = BoxFuture<'static, Result<Self::Response, S::Error>>;
-
-    fn poll_ready(&mut self, cx: &mut Context<'_>) -> Poll<Result<(), Self::Error>> {
-        self.service.poll_ready(cx)
+impl ApiKeyMiddleware {
+    pub fn new_layer(auth_keys: AuthKeys) -> FilterLayer<Self> {
+        FilterLayer::new(Self { auth_keys })
     }
+}
 
-    fn call(
-        &mut self,
-        request: tonic::codegen::http::Request<tonic::transport::Body>,
-    ) -> Self::Future {
+impl Predicate<tonic::codegen::http::Request<tonic::transport::Body>> for ApiKeyMiddleware {
+    type Request = tonic::codegen::http::Request<tonic::transport::Body>;
+
+    fn check(&mut self, request: Self::Request) -> Result<Self::Request, tower::BoxError> {
         // Grab API key from request
         let key =
             // Request header
@@ -76,38 +53,11 @@ where
             let is_allowed = self.auth_keys.can_write(&key)
                 || (is_read_only(&request) && self.auth_keys.can_read(&key));
             if is_allowed {
-                return Box::pin(self.service.call(request));
+                return Ok(request);
             }
         }
 
-        let mut response = Self::Response::new(BoxBody::default());
-        *response.status_mut() = StatusCode::FORBIDDEN;
-        response.headers_mut().append(
-            "grpc-status",
-            HeaderValue::from(Code::PermissionDenied as i32),
-        );
-        response
-            .headers_mut()
-            .append("grpc-message", HeaderValue::from_static("Invalid api-key"));
-
-        Box::pin(async move { Ok(response) })
-    }
-}
-
-impl ApiKeyMiddlewareLayer {
-    pub fn new(auth_keys: AuthKeys) -> Self {
-        Self { auth_keys }
-    }
-}
-
-impl<S> Layer<S> for ApiKeyMiddlewareLayer {
-    type Service = ApiKeyMiddleware<S>;
-
-    fn layer(&self, service: S) -> Self::Service {
-        ApiKeyMiddleware {
-            service,
-            auth_keys: self.auth_keys.clone(),
-        }
+        Err(Box::new(Status::permission_denied("Invalid api-key")))
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/tonic/mod.rs b/src/tonic/mod.rs
index 5e0cd9120d..bb79e1c7f9 100644
--- a/src/tonic/mod.rs
+++ b/src/tonic/mod.rs
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ pub fn init(
                 telemetry_collector,
             ))
             .option_layer({
-                AuthKeys::try_create(&settings.service).map(api_key::ApiKeyMiddlewareLayer::new)
+                AuthKeys::try_create(&settings.service).map(api_key::ApiKeyMiddleware::new_layer)
             })
             .into_inner();
 
diff --git a/tests/api_key/test_grpc.py b/tests/api_key/test_grpc.py
index bc05676fa3..68ba143e02 100644
--- a/tests/api_key/test_grpc.py
+++ b/tests/api_key/test_grpc.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+from grpc import RpcError
 from qdrant_client import QdrantClient, grpc as qgrpc
 import pytest
 from qdrant_client.conversions.conversion import payload_to_grpc
@@ -149,5 +150,5 @@ def assert_ro_token_failure(stub, request):
     try:
         stub(request, metadata=(("api-key", "my-ro-secret"),), timeout=1.0)
         pytest.fail("Request should have failed")
-    except:
+    except RpcError:
         return
diff --git a/tests/integration-tests-api-key.sh b/tests/integration-tests-api-key.sh
index a273018f57..e8aaa579ee 100755
--- a/tests/integration-tests-api-key.sh
+++ b/tests/integration-tests-api-key.sh
@@ -16,9 +16,6 @@ export QDRANT__SERVICE__READ_ONLY_API_KEY="my-ro-secret"
 #Capture PID of the process
 PID=$!
 
-# Sleep to make sure the process has started (workaround for empty pidof)
-sleep 5
-
 function clear_after_tests()
 {
     echo "server is going down"
@@ -41,4 +38,3 @@ docker run --rm \
        -e QDRANT_HOST=host.docker.internal \
        --add-host host.docker.internal:host-gateway \
        $IMAGE_NAME sh -c "pytest /tests"
-