Schedule autoscaling for traffic

Autoscaling responds to traffic that has already arrived, so requests at the start of a traffic increase wait behind a cold start while new replicas start up. When your traffic follows known clock times, you can change the autoscaling settings before the traffic arrives rather than after. An autoscaling schedule is a window on a model environment, recurring or one-time, carrying its own autoscaling settings. While the window is active, the environment runs the schedule’s settings. Outside every window, it runs the environment’s default configuration. Schedules do this natively, so you don’t need an external cron job or GitHub Action calling the Management API on a timer.

How schedules work

Autoscaling defaults to the configuration values you set on the environment. To vary those values by time of day or day of week, define up to 10 schedules, each pairing a recurring window with its own set of autoscaling settings. The schedule whose window covers the current time is the one in effect. A schedule’s window runs on one of three cadences:

Daily: one window a day, between a start and end time, on the days you choose, such as 09:00 to 18:00 on Monday through Friday.
Hourly: a window in every hour, optionally limited to a range of hours, such as :55 to :20 during hours 09 to 17.
One time: a single window between two absolute date-times, such as September 1 at 09:00 to 13:00. Use one-time schedules for planned events like launches, load tests, and migrations. The window does not repeat, and the schedule stops applying when it ends.

Windows include their start and exclude their end: in a 09:00 to 17:00 window, 09:00 is inside and 17:00 is not. A recurring end time at or before the start wraps past midnight, so a 22:00 to 06:00 window covers the overnight hours. Every schedule on an environment shares one timezone, set once for the whole set. Recurring times are local to it; one-time windows accept any timezone offset and convert to UTC.

Configure a schedule

You configure schedules per environment, from the same dialog as the rest of your autoscaling settings. To add an autoscaling schedule:

Sign in to your workspace at app.baseten.co and choose Dedicated Inference in the sidebar.
Select your model, then select the deployment for the environment you want to schedule.
Choose Configure autoscaling.
For Config to edit, choose Schedules.
Choose Add schedule, then set its window and replicas:
- For Frequency, choose Daily, Hourly, or One time.
- For a daily or hourly schedule, select the days it runs under On days, then set Starts at and Ends at. For an hourly schedule, use Limit to hours to restrict which hours it runs in.
- For a one-time schedule, set the Schedule window start and end date-times.
- Set Min and Max replicas for the window. To override the remaining autoscaling settings, choose More options.
Choose Save.

If the new schedule’s window covers the current time, the environment switches to it as soon as you save. An Active badge marks whichever configuration is running.

A start time is the earliest the settings change, not a promise that replicas are ready to serve. If the deployment can’t take the change right then, because it’s deploying, loading a model, mid rolling promotion, or migrating, Baseten applies it as soon as it can.

Validation

Saving fails if any schedule breaks one of these rules:

Count: up to 10 schedules per environment. Expired one-time schedules don’t count.
Window length: at least 5 minutes, long enough to scale up and back down. A one-time window can span at most 48 hours, including back-to-back chains of one-time schedules.
Overlap: two windows can’t cover the same time.
Gaps: windows either touch exactly or leave at least 5 minutes between them.
Coverage: schedules can’t fill the entire week, so the default configuration always has time to run.
Timezone: one shared timezone per environment.
One-time start: a new one-time schedule must start in the future. You can still edit an existing one-time schedule after its window starts.
One-time horizon: a one-time window can end at most 90 days in the future.

Windows that touch exactly hand off directly. A 05:40 to 09:00 window can hand straight to a 09:00 to 18:00 window with no gap and no return to the default in between.

Edit or remove a schedule

Changes to the schedule that’s currently running apply immediately, not at its next start. Disabling or removing it falls back to the default, or to another schedule whose window covers the current time. To edit, rename, duplicate, disable, or remove a schedule:

Sign in to your workspace at app.baseten.co and choose Dedicated Inference in the sidebar.
Select your model, then select the deployment for the environment.
Choose Configure autoscaling.
For Config to edit, choose Schedules.
Expand the schedule and make your changes:
- To rename, duplicate, or remove it, use the actions menu on its header.
- To pause it without removing it, use the Enabled switch.
Choose Save.

A disabled schedule still has to pass validation, so you can re-enable it later. A one-time schedule stays on the environment after its window passes; remove it when you no longer need it.

Manage schedules from the API

The Update environment endpoint manages the same schedule collection. Each entry in schedules is a complete create or replacement: include a schedule’s id to replace it, or omit id to create a new one. Schedules you leave out of the list stay unchanged, and deletion stays explicit through delete_schedules.

PATCH /v1/models/{model_id}/environments/{env_name}

{
  "autoscaling_schedule_settings": {
    "timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
    "schedules": [
      {
        "cadence": "ONE_TIME",
        "name": "Launch day scale-up",
        "enabled": true,
        "start_at": "2026-09-01T16:00:00Z",
        "end_at": "2026-09-01T20:00:00Z",
        "autoscaling_settings": {
          "min_replica": 4,
          "max_replica": 16,
          "autoscaling_window": null,
          "scale_down_delay": null,
          "concurrency_target": null,
          "target_utilization_percentage": null,
          "target_in_flight_tokens": null,
          "max_scale_down_rate": null
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

The cadence field selects the timing shape: DAILY and HOURLY take the weekday and time-of-day fields, while ONE_TIME takes start_at and end_at. Every autoscaling_settings field is required; set a field to null to follow the environment’s current value. One-time date-times must include a timezone offset, and Baseten converts them to UTC. The PATCH response reports the requested state, and schedule application reconciles asynchronously. Poll Get environment to confirm the applied settings.

Next steps

Traffic patterns

Match autoscaling settings to the shape of your traffic.

Cold starts

Shrink the time between a scale-up and a served request.

Environments

Understand the environments that schedules attach to.

Scale a deployment

Apply autoscaling changes to a live deployment from a script.

Get started

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Troubleshooting

Schedule autoscaling for traffic

How schedules work

Configure a schedule

Validation

Edit or remove a schedule

Manage schedules from the API

Next steps

Traffic patterns

Cold starts

Environments

Scale a deployment

​How schedules work

​Configure a schedule

​Validation

​Edit or remove a schedule

​Manage schedules from the API

​Next steps

Traffic patterns

Cold starts

Environments

Scale a deployment

How schedules work

Configure a schedule

Validation

Edit or remove a schedule

Manage schedules from the API

Next steps