For years, "Django and async" came with an asterisk. The docs themselves warned you off it. Scary performance notes, a story that felt half-finished. Well, that story just got rewritten, literally, and the person who rewrote it is here to tell you why the old framing was wrong.
 

 
Carlton Gibson is a former Django Fellow, sat on the security team for eight years, and he's on the steering council. On this episode we get into the async topic doc rewrite, what actually remains versus what was just fear, the new Tasks framework in 6.0, DB-level cascades and fetch modes landing in 6.1, and why free-threading is the bet that's about to pay off big for Django. If you've been told Django's async story isn't ready, this is the episode that puts that myth to bed. 
 
Episode sponsors 
 
<a href='https://talkpython.fm/sentry'>Sentry Error Monitoring, Code talkpython26</a>
<a href='https://talkpython.fm/devopsbook'>Python in Production</a>
<a href='https://talkpython.fm/training'>Talk Python Courses</a> 
 
<h2 class="links-heading mb-4">Links from the show</h2>
<div>DjangoCon Europe: <a href="https://djangocon.eu/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >djangocon.eu</a> 
PyCon Italia: <a href="https://pycon.it/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >pycon.it</a> 
Django on the Med: <a href="https://djangomed.eu/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >djangomed.eu</a> 
Django Mantle: <a href="https://noumenal.es/mantle/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >noumenal.es</a> 
PyPI: <a href="https://pypi.org/project/django-mantle/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >pypi.org</a> 
release notes: <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/6.1/releases/6.1/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >docs.djangoproject.com</a> 
on_delete: <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/6.1/ref/models/fields/#django.db.models.ForeignKey.on_delete" target="_blank" >docs.djangoproject.com</a> 
Fetch modes: <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/6.1/topics/db/fetch-modes/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >docs.djangoproject.com</a> 
HttpRequest.multipart_parser_class: <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/6.1/ref/request-response/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >docs.djangoproject.com</a> 
async topic doc: <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/async/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >docs.djangoproject.com</a> 
docs: <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/6.0/topics/tasks/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >docs.djangoproject.com</a> 
DEP 14: <a href="https://github.com/django/deps/blob/main/final/0014-background-workers.rst?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >github.com</a> 
django-tasks: <a href="https://github.com/RealOrangeOne/django-tasks?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >github.com</a> 
django-tasks-local: <a href="https://github.com/lincolnloop/django-tasks-local?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >github.com</a> 
Celery: <a href="https://docs.celeryq.dev/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >docs.celeryq.dev</a> 
PEP 703: <a href="https://peps.python.org/pep-0703/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >peps.python.org</a> 
free-threading HOWTO: <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/howto/free-threading-python.html?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >docs.python.org</a> 
PEP 779: <a href="https://peps.python.org/pep-0779/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >peps.python.org</a> 
ASGI: <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/6.1/howto/deployment/asgi/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >docs.djangoproject.com</a> 
PGBouncer: <a href="https://www.pgbouncer.org/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >www.pgbouncer.org</a> 
Channels: <a href="https://channels.readthedocs.io/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >channels.readthedocs.io</a> 
sync_to_async / async_to_sync: <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/6.1/topics/async/#async-adapter-functions" target="_blank" >docs.djangoproject.com</a> 
noumenal.es: <a href="https://noumenal.es/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >noumenal.es</a> 
Django Chat: <a href="https://djangochat.com/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >djangochat.com</a> 
@carlton@fosstodon.org: <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@carlton" target="_blank" >fosstodon.org</a> 
Article: Cutting Python Web App Memory Over 31%: <a href="https://mkennedy.codes/posts/cutting-python-web-app-memory-over-31-percent/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >mkennedy.codes</a> 
 
Watch this episode on YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1WXYE1Wjzo" target="_blank" >youtube.com</a> 
Episode #556 deep-dive: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/episodes/show/556/updates-on-djangos-async-story#takeaways-anchor" target="_blank" >talkpython.fm/556</a> 
Episode transcripts: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/episodes/transcript/556/updates-on-djangos-async-story" target="_blank" >talkpython.fm</a> 
 
Theme Song: Developer Rap 
🥁 Served in a Flask 🎸: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/flasksong" target="_blank" >talkpython.fm/flasksong</a> 
 
---== Don't be a stranger ==--- 
YouTube: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/youtube" target="_blank" > youtube.com/@talkpython</a> 
 
Bluesky: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/talkpython.fm" target="_blank" >@talkpython.fm</a> 
Mastodon: <a href="https://fosstodon.org/web/@talkpython" target="_blank" > @talkpython@fosstodon.org</a> 
X.com: <a href="https://x.com/talkpython" target="_blank" > @talkpython</a> 
 
Michael on Bluesky: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/mkennedy.codes?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >@mkennedy.codes</a> 
Michael on Mastodon: <a href="https://fosstodon.org/web/@mkennedy" target="_blank" > @mkennedy@fosstodon.org</a> 
Michael on X.com: <a href="https://x.com/mkennedy?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" > @mkennedy</a> </div>

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