---
id: channels-redis
version: "4.3.0"
license: BSD
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# channels-redis — Redis-backed ASGI channel layer implementation

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 4.9M/mo

## What it is and what it does

channels_redis bridges Django Channels (an ASGI framework for async communication) with Redis, providing a persistent, distributed channel layer for real-time applications. It offers two implementations: RedisChannelLayer, which handles channels and groups directly, and RedisPubSubChannelLayer, which uses Redis Pub/Sub for message dispatch (currently in Beta). Both support single-server and sharded configurations, allowing you to scale WebSocket, HTTP streaming, and other real-time features across multiple application servers.

The package integrates into Django's CHANNEL_LAYERS setting and handles message routing, group membership, and capacity management. It supports SSL/TLS connections, Redis Sentinel for high availability, UNIX domain sockets, optional symmetric encryption, and configurable message expiry and per-channel capacity limits. The package is tested against Python 3.9 through 3.13 and maintains compatibility with current and legacy redis-py versions.

Use it for:

- Scale WebSocket connections across multiple Django application servers using a shared Redis channel layer.
- Implement real-time group messaging (e.g., chat rooms, notifications) where consumers need to broadcast to many connected clients.
- Build high-availability ASGI deployments with Redis Sentinel for automatic failover and connection resilience.
- Add optional message encryption for sensitive real-time data transmitted through the channel layer.
- Configure per-channel capacity and message expiry to manage backpressure and memory usage in peaky traffic scenarios.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides Redis-backed channel layers for Django Channels, enabling asynchronous message dispatch and group communication in ASGI applications through either traditional channel handling or Redis Pub/Sub.

Yes. channels_redis is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and is the standard Redis integration for Django Channels. Install it if you're building real-time features in Django and need to distribute channels across multiple servers—it's low-friction and well-tested. Use RedisPubSubChannelLayer only if you understand its Beta status and can tolerate potential breaking changes.

## Install

pip install channels-redis
uv add channels-redis
poetry add channels-redis

## Installing channels-redis

Before you install: Low friction install with four runtime dependencies (redis, msgpack, asgiref, channels). Package is actively maintained with recent commits and no known vulnerabilities. Requires Python 3.9 or later.

License in practice: BSD permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions—suitable for most projects.

Quickstart:

pip install channels-redis

# In Django settings.py:
CHANNEL_LAYERS = {
    "default": {
        "BACKEND": "channels_redis.core.RedisChannelLayer",
        "CONFIG": {
            "hosts": [("localhost", 6379)],
        },
    },
}

Requires a running Redis server; Django Channels must already be installed and configured in your project.

Verify before relying:

- Performance characteristics and throughput limits of each implementation (RedisChannelLayer vs. RedisPubSubChannelLayer) under load.
- Whether the Beta status of RedisPubSubChannelLayer implies active breaking changes or stable-with-caution maturity.

## Package facts

- License: BSD (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 4.9M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

django channels redis backend, asgi channel layer redis, websocket message queue django, redis pubsub channels, django asgi messaging, distributed channel layer, redis-backed asgi, django-asgi, websocket-messaging, distributed-systems

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