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Cron jobs on App Platforms timeout limits

Posted on January 1, 2026

Hi, I have a python program that should just run scheduled jobs. Every day at a fixed time, a python function in my main.py will be called and this function can take an hour to complete execution. I found on app platform docs that there is a 30 min job deployment (https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/details/limits/) I wanted to confirm if this timeout applies to my use case as well?



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Hi there,

I might be wrong, but yes, that 30 minute limit does apply to scheduled jobs as well. Scheduled jobs on App Platform run in the same execution environment as other app components, so they inherit the same runtime and deployment limits.

I think that jobs are meant for short, bounded tasks rather than long running batch jobs.

A few alternatives which I can think of:

  • Move the job to a Droplet or a separate worker process where you control execution time.

  • Break the job into smaller chunks that each finish well under the timeout.

  • Use an external scheduler that triggers shorter tasks instead of one long run.

If long-running jobs are a core requirement, might be worth to reach out to the DigitalOcean support team and see if there is anything that could be increased on their end.

Heya, @87d92166c5bb4194a9100ed30ddd13

Scheduled jobs run in the same App Platform job environment, so they inherit the same timeout, and they’re really intended for short, bounded tasks rather than hour-long batch work.

If your job can take ~1 hour, the usual options are to run it on a Droplet/worker where you control runtime, or split it into smaller chunks that each finish well under 30 minutes (sometimes triggered by an external scheduler). If you truly need long-running jobs on App Platform, you could ask support, but I wouldn’t count on that limit being raised.

Thanks for the answers. I decided to just go with render instead as that was easier for my use case coz they have a 12 hour timeout

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