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Schedule a Convex function to run later — once after a delay, or recurring on a cron schedule. See Convex scheduled functions for the full reference; this page is the orientation.

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Two patterns

One-shot delayed

ctx.scheduler.runAfter(60_000, api.foo.bar, args) — runs once, after 60 seconds.

Recurring (cron)

crons.cron("0 0 * * *", api.foo.dailyCleanup, args) — runs daily at midnight UTC.

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Common uses

Reminder emails

“Send a reminder 24 hours before the booking” — schedule from the booking creation mutation.

Cleanup jobs

Delete soft-deleted rows after 30 days; clear old presence records hourly.

Nightly reports

Aggregate yesterday’s data into a dailyMetrics table for fast dashboard queries.

Renewals

“Mark subscription as ‘renewing’ 24 hours before period end.”

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Tips

For complex workflows, use Inngest or Trigger.dev. Scheduled functions are great for simple one-shots; orchestrators are better for multi-step jobs with retries.
All cron schedules are UTC. If you want “midnight in user’s timezone”, store the timezone on the user and pick a daily action that processes per-user.

Convex scheduled functions

Full reference.

Background jobs

For longer / chunked work.

Inngest

For complex workflows.
Last modified on April 18, 2026