> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://trigger.dev/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Wait for

> Wait for a period of time, then continue execution.

Inside your tasks you can wait for a period of time before you want execution to continue.

```ts /trigger/long-task.ts theme={"theme":"css-variables"}
export const veryLongTask = task({
  id: "very-long-task",
  run: async (payload) => {
    await wait.for({ seconds: 5 });

    await wait.for({ minutes: 10 });

    await wait.for({ hours: 1 });

    await wait.for({ days: 1 });

    await wait.for({ weeks: 1 });

    await wait.for({ months: 1 });

    await wait.for({ years: 1 });
  },
});
```

This allows you to write linear code without having to worry about the complexity of scheduling or managing cron jobs.

In the Trigger.dev Cloud we automatically pause execution of tasks when they are waiting for
longer than a few seconds.

When triggering and waiting for subtasks, the parent is checkpointed and while waiting does not count towards compute usage. When waiting for a time period (`wait.for` or `wait.until`), a wait longer than 5 seconds does not count towards compute usage.

Free compute isn't the same as freed concurrency: the concurrency slot is only released once we've snapshotted the machine and shut it down. For `wait.for` and `wait.until` that happens 60 seconds into the wait, so anything shorter stays `EXECUTING` and holds its slot for the whole wait.

## Wait idempotency

You can pass an idempotency key to any wait function, allowing you to skip waits if the same idempotency key is used again. This can be useful if you want to skip waits when retrying a task, for example:

```ts theme={"theme":"css-variables"}
// Specify the idempotency key and TTL when waiting for a duration:
await wait.for({ seconds: 10, idempotencyKey: "my-idempotency-key", idempotencyKeyTTL: "1h" });
```