Queues - Knowledge of Laravel

What are queues?

Web applications often need to perform tasks that take several seconds to complete: sending emails, resizing images, calling external APIs, or generating reports. Running these tasks synchronously during an HTTP request means users wait until the work finishes. Laravel’s queue system lets you push these tasks to a background queue and return a response immediately. A worker process picks up the jobs and executes them separately.

Laravel supports multiple queue backends—database, Redis, Amazon SQS, and more. During development, the sync driver executes jobs immediately without a real queue, so no worker is required.

Queue setup and configuration

config/queue.php

All queue configuration lives in config/queue.php. Switch the backend by setting the QUEUE_CONNECTION environment variable:

// config/queue.php
'default' => env('QUEUE_CONNECTION', 'database'),

.env settings

# Use the database driver
QUEUE_CONNECTION=database

# Or switch to Redis
# QUEUE_CONNECTION=redis
# REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1
# REDIS_PORT=6379

Setting up the database driver

The database driver stores jobs in a database table. In Laravel 11+, new projects already include the required migration. If yours doesn’t, run:

php artisan make:queue-table
php artisan migrate

Setting up the Redis driver

Install the Predis package and configure a Redis connection in config/database.php:

composer require predis/predis

Then set QUEUE_CONNECTION=redis in .env.

SQS overflow storage

Amazon SQS limits the maximum queued message payload size. If your jobs may exceed that limit, you can store oversized payloads in a cache store and send only a pointer through SQS:

'sqs' => [
    // ...
    'overflow' => [
        'enabled' => env('SQS_OVERFLOW_ENABLED', false),
        'store' => env('SQS_OVERFLOW_STORE'),
        'always' => false,
        'delete_after_processing' => true,
        'flush_on_clear' => env('SQS_OVERFLOW_FLUSH_ON_CLEAR', false),
    ],
],

When enabled is true, payloads that are at least 1 MB are stored in the configured cache store.
When always is true, every SQS payload is stored in the cache store regardless of size.
delete_after_processing removes stored payloads after successful processing (default: true).
If flush_on_clear is true, queue:clear flushes the overflow store. Use a dedicated cache store so normal cache data is not removed.

Creating and dispatching jobs

Generating a job class

Create a job with the make:job Artisan command:

php artisan make:job SendWelcomeEmail

This generates app/Jobs/SendWelcomeEmail.php.

Job class structure

<?php

namespace App\Jobs;

use App\Models\User;
use App\Mail\WelcomeMail;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldQueue;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Queue\Queueable;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;

class SendWelcomeEmail implements ShouldQueue
{
    use Queueable;

    public function __construct(
        public User $user,
    ) {}

    public function handle(): void
    {
        Mail::to($this->user->email)->send(new WelcomeMail($this->user));
    }
}

Implementing ShouldQueue tells Laravel to push the job onto the queue instead of running it synchronously. The Queueable trait provides the methods needed to configure and dispatch the job.

When you pass an Eloquent model to a job constructor, Laravel serializes only the model’s ID. The worker re-fetches fresh data from the database at execution time, keeping the queue payload small.

Dispatching a job

Push a job onto the queue by calling dispatch:

use App\Jobs\SendWelcomeEmail;

public function register(Request $request): RedirectResponse
{
    $user = User::create($request->validated());

    SendWelcomeEmail::dispatch($user);

    return redirect('/dashboard');
}

Dispatching to a specific queue

Send a job to a named queue to separate different priorities:

SendWelcomeEmail::dispatch($user)->onQueue('emails');

Queue routing

Instead of calling onQueue() and onConnection() on every job dispatch, use the Queue facade’s route method in a service provider’s boot() to define default routing rules for specific job classes:

use App\Concerns\RequiresVideo;
use App\Jobs\ProcessPodcast;
use App\Jobs\ProcessVideo;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Queue;

public function boot(): void
{
    Queue::route(ProcessPodcast::class, connection: 'redis', queue: 'podcasts');
    Queue::route(RequiresVideo::class, queue: 'video');
}

You can route by interface, trait, or parent class — any job that implements, uses, or extends it will inherit the rule. To route multiple job classes at once, pass an array:

Queue::route([
    ProcessPodcast::class => ['podcasts', 'redis'], // queue and connection
    ProcessVideo::class => 'videos',                // queue only (default connection)
]);

Queue routing can still be overridden per-dispatch with onQueue() or onConnection().

Synchronous dispatch (for testing and development)

Skip the queue and run a job immediately with dispatchSync:

SendWelcomeEmail::dispatchSync($user);

Bulk dispatching

When you need to dispatch many independent jobs at once without batch tracking or callbacks, use the bulk method on the Bus facade. Laravel groups the jobs by their configured queue connection and queue name, then pushes each group to the appropriate queue in bulk:

use App\Jobs\ProcessUser;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Bus;

Bus::bulk(
    $users->map(fn ($user) => new ProcessUser($user))
);

Bus::bulk() sends jobs to the queue in bulk groups. Unlike Bus::batch(), it doesn’t provide progress tracking or completion callbacks. Use it when you want to efficiently dispatch a large number of simple, independent jobs in one call.

Delayed dispatching

Delay job execution with the delay method. Pass a DateTime or a duration:

// Run 5 minutes from now
SendWelcomeEmail::dispatch($user)->delay(now()->addMinutes(5));

dispatchAfterResponse runs the job right after Laravel sends the HTTP response to the browser, so the user isn’t kept waiting:

SendWelcomeEmail::dispatchAfterResponse($user);

Job chaining

Chain jobs so they run sequentially. If one job in the chain fails, subsequent jobs are not run:

use App\Jobs\ProcessPodcast;
use App\Jobs\OptimizePodcast;
use App\Jobs\ReleasePodcast;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Bus;

Bus::chain([
    new ProcessPodcast($podcast),
    new OptimizePodcast($podcast),
    new ReleasePodcast($podcast),
])->dispatch();

You can also attach a callback that runs when the entire chain completes:

Bus::chain([
    new ProcessPodcast($podcast),
    new ReleasePodcast($podcast),
])->catch(function (Throwable $e) {
    // A job in the chain failed...
})->dispatch();

Job batches

Batching lets you dispatch a collection of jobs and track their collective progress. Start by creating a migration for the job_batches table:

php artisan make:batches-table
php artisan migrate

Implement the Batchable trait in your job class:

<?php

namespace App\Jobs;

use Illuminate\Bus\Batchable;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldQueue;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Queue\Queueable;

class ImportContacts implements ShouldQueue
{
    use Batchable, Queueable;

    public function handle(): void
    {
        if ($this->batch()->cancelled()) {
            return;
        }

        // Import a chunk of contacts...
    }
}

Dispatch a batch using Bus::batch:

use App\Jobs\ImportContacts;
use Illuminate\Bus\Batch;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Bus;
use Throwable;

$batch = Bus::batch([
    new ImportContacts($chunkA),
    new ImportContacts($chunkB),
    new ImportContacts($chunkC),
])->then(function (Batch $batch) {
    // All jobs completed successfully
})->catch(function (Batch $batch, Throwable $e) {
    // A job failed
})->finally(function (Batch $batch) {
    // The batch has finished executing
})->dispatch();

Inspect a batch by its ID:

$batch = Bus::findBatch($batchId);

$batch->totalJobs;      // Total job count
$batch->pendingJobs;    // Jobs still waiting
$batch->failedJobs;     // Jobs that failed
$batch->progress();     // Completion percentage (0–100)

Running the queue worker

Start a worker process with:

php artisan queue:work

Target a specific connection or queue:

# Process only the 'emails' queue on Redis
php artisan queue:work redis --queue=emails

# Use the database connection
php artisan queue:work database

queue:work runs continuously. After deploying new code, run php artisan queue:restart to reload workers with the latest changes. In production, use a process manager like Supervisor to keep workers running.

Worker options

Option	Description
`--tries=N`	Maximum attempts before a job is marked as failed
`--timeout=N`	Maximum seconds a single job may run
`--sleep=N`	Seconds to sleep when the queue is empty (default: 3)
`--max-jobs=N`	Stop the worker after processing N jobs
`--max-time=N`	Stop the worker after N seconds
`--queue=A,B`	Process queues in priority order

Setting retries and timeouts on the job class

You can configure retry and timeout behavior directly on the job using PHP attributes:

use Illuminate\Foundation\Queue\Queueable;
use Illuminate\Queue\Attributes\Tries;
use Illuminate\Queue\Attributes\Timeout;

#[Tries(3)]
#[Timeout(60)]
class SendWelcomeEmail implements ShouldQueue
{
    use Queueable;

    // ...
}

Releasing jobs with middleware

Use the Release middleware when a job should return to the queue instead of running under a particular condition.

use Illuminate\Queue\Middleware\Release;

/**
 * Get the middleware the job should pass through.
 */
public function middleware(): array
{
    return [
        // Release for 60 seconds when the condition is true.
        Release::when($this->order->isPending(), releaseAfter: 60),
    ];
}

Release::unless() releases the job when the condition is false:

return [
    // Release for 60 seconds unless the order has been paid.
    Release::unless($this->order->isPaid(), releaseAfter: 60),
];

Use a closure for more complex conditions:

return [
    Release::when(function (): bool {
        return ! $this->order->isPaid();
    }, releaseAfter: 60),
];

Releasing a job still increments its attempt count. Configure #[Tries] or the $tries property appropriately.

Failed jobs

Preparing the failed_jobs table

When a job exceeds its maximum attempt count, Laravel records it in the failed_jobs table. Create the table if it doesn’t exist:

php artisan make:queue-failed-table
php artisan migrate

Handling failure in the job

Define a failed method to run cleanup logic when a job fails:

use Throwable;

public function failed(?Throwable $exception): void
{
    // Notify an admin, clean up resources, etc.
}

Stopping retries by exception

Some exceptions indicate that a job should fail immediately rather than be retried. Configure these exception types using dontRetry in bootstrap/app.php:

use App\Exceptions\InvalidPodcastSourceException;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Exceptions;

->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions): void {
    $exceptions->dontRetry([
        InvalidPodcastSourceException::class,
    ]);
})

For finer control, pass a closure to dontRetryWhen. When the closure returns true, the job is marked as failed immediately without further retries:

use App\Exceptions\PodcastProcessingException;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Exceptions;

->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions): void {
    $exceptions->dontRetryWhen(function (PodcastProcessingException $e) {
        return $e->reason() === 'Subscription expired';
    });
})

Use this for exceptions where retrying would never succeed — for example, validation errors, expired subscriptions, or permanent third-party rejections.

Managing failed jobs

# List all failed jobs
php artisan queue:failed

# Retry a specific job
php artisan queue:retry ce7bb17c-cdd8-41f0-a8ec-7b4fef4e5ece

# Retry all failed jobs
php artisan queue:retry all

# Delete a specific failed job
php artisan queue:forget ce7bb17c-cdd8-41f0-a8ec-7b4fef4e5ece

# Delete all failed jobs
php artisan queue:flush

Queue drivers compared

Driver	Best for	Notes
`sync`	Local development	Runs jobs inline, no worker needed
`database`	Simple setups	Uses an existing RDBMS; not ideal for high throughput
`redis`	Production workloads	Fast, scalable; requires a Redis server
`sqs`	AWS environments	Managed, highly scalable

For production Redis queues, consider Laravel Horizon. It provides a real-time dashboard to monitor job throughput, wait times, and failures.

Example: order confirmation email

Create the job

php artisan make:job SendOrderConfirmation

Implement the job logic

<?php

namespace App\Jobs;

use App\Models\Order;
use App\Mail\OrderConfirmed;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldQueue;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Queue\Queueable;
use Illuminate\Queue\Attributes\Tries;
use Illuminate\Queue\Attributes\Timeout;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;

#[Tries(3)]
#[Timeout(30)]
class SendOrderConfirmation implements ShouldQueue
{
    use Queueable;

    public function __construct(
        public Order $order,
    ) {}

    public function handle(): void
    {
        Mail::to($this->order->user->email)
            ->send(new OrderConfirmed($this->order));
    }

    public function failed(?Throwable $exception): void
    {
        // Notify the team about the failure
    }
}

Dispatch from the controller

use App\Jobs\SendOrderConfirmation;

public function store(Request $request): RedirectResponse
{
    $order = Order::create($request->validated());

    SendOrderConfirmation::dispatch($order);

    return redirect()->route('orders.show', $order)
        ->with('success', 'Order placed successfully.');
}

Start the worker

php artisan queue:work --tries=3 --timeout=30

Common use cases

When to use queues

Sending email, SMS, or push notifications
Resizing or converting images and video
Calling slow external APIs or webhooks
Generating reports or exporting CSV files
Indexing records in a search engine

Development tip

Set QUEUE_CONNECTION=sync in your .env during development. Jobs run immediately without a worker, making it easy to test the full flow without extra processes.

QUEUE_CONNECTION=sync

Common commands reference

# Start the worker
php artisan queue:work

# Restart workers after deployment
php artisan queue:restart

# List failed jobs
php artisan queue:failed

# Retry all failed jobs
php artisan queue:retry all

# Delete all failed jobs
php artisan queue:flush

​What are queues?

​Queue setup and configuration

​config/queue.php

​.env settings

​Setting up the database driver

​Setting up the Redis driver

​SQS overflow storage

​Creating and dispatching jobs

​Generating a job class

​Job class structure

​Dispatching a job

​Dispatching to a specific queue

​Queue routing

​Synchronous dispatch (for testing and development)

​Bulk dispatching

​Delayed dispatching

​Job chaining

​Job batches

​Running the queue worker

​Worker options

​Setting retries and timeouts on the job class

​Releasing jobs with middleware

​Failed jobs

​Preparing the failed_jobs table

​Handling failure in the job

​Stopping retries by exception

​Managing failed jobs

​Queue drivers compared

​Example: order confirmation email

​Common use cases

What are queues?

Queue setup and configuration

config/queue.php

.env settings

Setting up the database driver

Setting up the Redis driver

SQS overflow storage

Creating and dispatching jobs

Generating a job class

Job class structure

Dispatching a job

Dispatching to a specific queue

Queue routing

Synchronous dispatch (for testing and development)

Bulk dispatching

Delayed dispatching

Job chaining

Job batches

Running the queue worker

Worker options

Setting retries and timeouts on the job class

Releasing jobs with middleware

Failed jobs

Preparing the failed_jobs table

Handling failure in the job

Stopping retries by exception

Managing failed jobs

Queue drivers compared

Example: order confirmation email

Common use cases