---
title: Heartbeat monitors
description: Know when a cron job, backup, or scheduled task fails to run.
category: monitors
updated: 2026-10-12
tags: [heartbeat, cron, backup, push]
---

Most monitors reach *out* to check something. A heartbeat monitor works the other
way around: **your job checks in with us.** If the check-in doesn't arrive on time,
we alert you. It's the way to catch a nightly backup, cron job, or scheduled task
that silently stopped running.

![A heartbeat monitor's detail panel, showing its 24-hour interval and, below the configuration, the Heartbeat Ping URL your job should call when it finishes successfully](/img/docs/app-monitor-heartbeat.png)
*Each heartbeat monitor gets its own ping URL. Have your job call it on success -
if the call doesn't arrive in time, we alert you.*

Heartbeat monitors are available on **Pro, Business and MSP**.

## How it works

1. Create a heartbeat monitor and give it an **expected interval** — how often the
   job should check in (for a nightly backup, roughly 24 hours).
2. We give you a unique **ping URL**.
3. At the end of your job, have it send a request to that URL — for example:
   ```bash
   curl -fsS https://…/your-heartbeat-url
   ```
4. Each successful ping resets the clock. If no ping arrives within the expected
   window, the monitor goes **down** and you're alerted.

## Where to put the ping

Add it as the **last step** of your job, so it only fires when the job actually
finished successfully. If the job crashes partway through, no ping is sent — and
that's exactly the failure you want to hear about.

## Good to know

- Give the interval a little slack so normal variation in run time doesn't trip a
  false alert.
- Heartbeats are perfect for things that have no address to check from the outside —
  backups, data syncs, report generation, queue workers.

## Get started

- [Create a heartbeat monitor](/docs/getting-started/quickstart)
- [Set notification channels](/docs/alerts/notification-channels)

## Related

- [How alerts work](/docs/alerts/how-alerts-work)
- [Plans & limits](/docs/account/plans-and-limits)