Async Views in Django DRF — Setup, Benefits, Bottlenecks, and Use Cases

3 min readJun 14, 2025

As web applications scale, handling I/O-bound tasks efficiently becomes critical. Django has historically been synchronous, but recent versions support async views — including with Django REST Framework. Let’s break down how to use it, why it matters, and where it fits (and doesn’t).

🔧 How to Set It Up

Since Django 3.1, you can write async views directly. DRF (as of v3.12+) also supports async-compatible views.

1.Async APIView Example

from rest_framework.views import APIView
from rest_framework.response import Response

class AsyncHelloView(APIView):
    async def get(self, request):
        return Response({"message": "Hello, async world!"})

2.Using async in function-based views

from rest_framework.decorators import api_view
from rest_framework.response import Response

@api_view(['GET'])
async def async_hello(request):
    return Response({"message": "Hi from async FBV"})

3.Run an async-compatible server

To truly benefit from async, use ASGI servers like:

uvicorn
daphne

In asgi.py, make sure you have:

from django.core.asgi import get_asgi_application
application = get_asgi_application()

Then run:

uvicorn your_project.asgi:application

⚡ Why Use Async in DRF?

1 . Handle many requests efficiently

Async allows the server to handle other requests while waiting for external I/O (e.g., DB, external APIs).

2. Improved performance on I/O-heavy operations

Useful when calling:

Third-party APIs
External services like Redis
File systems or cloud storage

3. Better concurrency without threads

Unlike threads, async uses a single-threaded event loop — reducing overhead.

🧱 Bottlenecks and Gotchas

1. Django ORM is not async

This is the biggest blocker. If you call:

await MyModel.objects.all()

It will raise an error. You must use sync wrappers:

from asgiref.sync import sync_to_async
queryset = await sync_to_async(MyModel.objects.all)()

2. Mixing sync and async wrongly leads to problems

Use sync_to_async carefully. Too many sync wrappers = performance hit.

3. Third-party packages

Not all are async-compatible. You must test your stack.

4. Testing async views

Django’s test client is sync by default. For proper async tests, use tools like httpx or pytest-asyncio.

🔥 Relatable Use Cases

✅ Good Use Cases

Calling external APIs (e.g., weather, payments)
Fetching data from multiple services concurrently
Waiting on cloud storage or Redis/MongoDB (if async-enabled)
Webhook endpoints with minimal DB hits

❌ Poor Use Cases

Heavy ORM operations
Complex database transactions
Views that just CRUD directly with Django ORM (better stay sync)

Final Thoughts

Using async in DRF is a powerful tool when your app is I/O-bound — not CPU-bound or DB-heavy. Use it selectively in views that wait on external services, and be mindful of Django’s sync internals.

Start small. Test performance. Use async where it makes sense.

References

Django 3.1 release notes (async view support)
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/releases/3.1/

Testing async views in Django
https://testdriven.io/blog/django-async-views/

Where to find Me 👇

Here on Medium ♥️

You can also find me also 👉 Github https://github.com/Onlynfk/
Instagram / LinkedIn

Want to Work with me?

If you’re looking for a skilled developer to collaborate with, you can view my portfolio here. Let’s bring your ideas to life together