diff --git a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
index 3e52214..2f13f43 100644
--- a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
@@ -78,7 +78,8 @@ def validate_date(date_param)
   end
 
   def validate_period
-    raise ValidationError, 'Invalid bucket option. Valid options for period is day, week, month, or year' unless SelectableWithTimeBucket::TIME_BUCKET_OPTIONS.keys.include? params[:period].downcase.to_sym
+    params[:period] = params[:period].downcase
+    raise ValidationError, 'Invalid bucket option. Valid options for period is day, week, month, or year' unless SelectableWithTimeBucket::TIME_BUCKET_OPTIONS.keys.include? params[:period].to_sym
   end
 
   def valid_date_range
diff --git a/spec/controllers/user_classification_count_controller_spec.rb b/spec/controllers/user_classification_count_controller_spec.rb
index 1d7b57b..0f3aa54 100644
--- a/spec/controllers/user_classification_count_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/controllers/user_classification_count_controller_spec.rb
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@
     end
 
     context 'param validations' do
+      before(:each) { authenticate!(is_panoptes_admin: true) }
       it_behaves_like 'ensure valid query params', :query, id: 1
 
       it 'ensures you cannot query by workflow and project_contributions' do
diff --git a/spec/support/query_params_validator.rb b/spec/support/query_params_validator.rb
index ff2015d..0bf8a2e 100644
--- a/spec/support/query_params_validator.rb
+++ b/spec/support/query_params_validator.rb
@@ -18,6 +18,12 @@
     expect(response.body).to include('Invalid bucket option. Valid options for period is day, week, month, or year')
   end
 
+  it 'allows period param to be case-insensitive' do
+    params[:period] = 'MONTH'
+    get query, params: params
+    expect(response.status).to eq(200)
+  end
+
   it 'ensures that we do not query by both workflow and project' do
     params[:workflow_id] = 1
     params[:project_id] = 2