diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 7ec1dabcf95af393be2a5f89d547acf44dc05db0..67ded53ad7946baf97dbdda945b0b4b9a921e535 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 Please view this file on the master branch, on stable branches it's out of date.
 
 v 8.0.0 (unreleased)
+  - Fix Error 500 in API when accessing a group that has an avatar (Stan Hu)
   - Remove user OAuth tokens from the database and request new tokens each session (Stan Hu)
   - Only show recent push event if the branch still exists or a recent merge request has not been created (Stan Hu)
   - Remove satellites
diff --git a/app/models/group.rb b/app/models/group.rb
index 4ff610f8e9d7d55c69006ec412503f27c890b2ce..9cd146bb73bf18e718beab0f34594b7ca7a50c8c 100644
--- a/app/models/group.rb
+++ b/app/models/group.rb
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ require 'carrierwave/orm/activerecord'
 require 'file_size_validator'
 
 class Group < Namespace
+  include Gitlab::ConfigHelper
   include Referable
 
   has_many :group_members, dependent: :destroy, as: :source, class_name: 'GroupMember'
diff --git a/spec/requests/api/groups_spec.rb b/spec/requests/api/groups_spec.rb
index 1d5b4f6f36b215a7cb7aefd2a9d6e6d122569e89..13cced81875c59f7680a92082e72c9c89542a56d 100644
--- a/spec/requests/api/groups_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/requests/api/groups_spec.rb
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@ describe API::API, api: true  do
   let(:user2) { create(:user) }
   let(:user3) { create(:user) }
   let(:admin) { create(:admin) }
-  let!(:group1) { create(:group) }
+  let(:avatar_file_path) { File.join(Rails.root, 'spec', 'fixtures', 'banana_sample.gif') }
+  let!(:group1) { create(:group, avatar: File.open(avatar_file_path)) }
   let!(:group2) { create(:group) }
 
   before do