---
id: django-celery-beat
version: "2.9.0"
license: BSD
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# django-celery-beat — Database-backed Periodic Tasks.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 7.6M/mo

## What it is and what it does

django-celery-beat replaces Celery's static configuration files with a database-backed schedule, allowing you to create, edit, and delete periodic tasks through Django's admin interface without restarting services. It provides three scheduling models: IntervalSchedule for fixed intervals (seconds, minutes, hours, days, microseconds), CrontabSchedule for cron-like expressions with timezone support, and PeriodicTask as the main task definition that links to either schedule type. The package integrates with Celery's beat scheduler via a custom DatabaseScheduler backend.

You manage tasks through Django Admin or programmatically via the ORM. The PeriodicTasks model tracks schedule changes, signaling the beat service to reload without restarts. Tasks support arguments, keyword arguments, queue routing, and expiration times via JSON serialization. The package depends on celery, Django, python-crontab, cron-descriptor, and timezone utilities (django-timezone-field, backports.zoneinfo, tzdata) to handle scheduling across timezones.

Use it for:

- Manage periodic data imports, cleanup jobs, or reports without redeploying—edit schedules live in Django Admin.
- Run different periodic tasks on different schedules by creating multiple IntervalSchedule or CrontabSchedule entries.
- Implement timezone-aware cron schedules (e.g., 9 AM Pacific every weekday) using CrontabSchedule with timezone parameter.
- Temporarily disable a periodic task by setting enabled=False without removing it from the database.
- Bulk-update periodic task schedules and notify beat of changes via PeriodicTasks.update_changed().

## Worth the install?

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

Stores Celery periodic task schedules in a Django database and manages them through the Django Admin interface, replacing static configuration with dynamic, editable task scheduling.

Yes. It is actively maintained, supports modern Django and Python versions, has no known vulnerabilities, and solves a real operational problem—managing task schedules without code redeploy. Install it if you use Celery with Django and need dynamic task scheduling; the low install friction and permissive license make adoption straightforward.

## Install

pip install django-celery-beat
uv add django-celery-beat
poetry add django-celery-beat

## Installing django-celery-beat

Before you install: Low install friction with a wheel distribution. Active maintenance with recent commits and a stable codebase supporting modern Django (3.2 through 6.0) and Python (3.8 through 3.14).

License in practice: BSD license is permissive, allowing use in proprietary and open-source projects without significant restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install django-celery-beat

from django_celery_beat.models import PeriodicTask, IntervalSchedule

schedule, _ = IntervalSchedule.objects.get_or_create(
    every=10, period=IntervalSchedule.SECONDS)
PeriodicTask.objects.create(
    interval=schedule, name='my-task',
    task='myapp.tasks.my_task')

Requires Django and Celery to be installed and configured; the beat scheduler must be run separately with the DatabaseScheduler backend.

Verify before relying:

- Whether timezone changes to Django TIME_ZONE setting require manual intervention beyond the documented reset procedure.
- Performance characteristics when managing thousands of periodic tasks in the database.
- Compatibility with non-relational database backends or custom Django storage engines.

## Package facts

- License: BSD (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 7.6M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

django celery periodic tasks, database-backed task scheduling, celery beat django admin, cron jobs django database, scheduled tasks management interface, celery periodic task scheduler, django task scheduling, celery-integration, django-admin, task-scheduling

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