diff --git a/backend/apps/core/cache.py b/backend/apps/core/cache.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f46d554
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/apps/core/cache.py
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+"""Redis cache that degrades instead of taking the whole API down.
+
+Redis backs the DRF throttles and a few caches (storage stats, guest
+blacklist, tag clouds). With Django's stock ``RedisCache``, a Redis that is
+unreachable — or merely refusing writes because its RDB snapshot failed, the
+default ``stop-writes-on-bgsave-error`` behaviour — raises inside the
+throttle check on every request, so a cache outage becomes a blanket 500.
+
+This backend treats cache failures as misses: rate limits and cached values
+simply stop working until Redis is back, and the first failure per worker is
+logged once so the cause is still visible.
+"""
+
+import logging
+
+from django.core.cache.backends.redis import RedisCache
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+_warned = False
+
+
+def _degrade(operation: str, error: Exception, default):
+    global _warned
+    if not _warned:
+        _warned = True
+        logger.warning(
+            "Cache unavailable (%s failed: %s) — continuing without it.",
+            operation,
+            error,
+        )
+    return default
+
+
+class ResilientRedisCache(RedisCache):
+    """``RedisCache`` where a broken Redis behaves like an empty cache."""
+
+    def add(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        try:
+            return super().add(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as error:  # noqa: BLE001 - any backend failure degrades
+            return _degrade("add", error, False)
+
+    def get(self, key, default=None, version=None):
+        try:
+            return super().get(key, default, version)
+        except Exception as error:  # noqa: BLE001
+            return _degrade("get", error, default)
+
+    def set(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        try:
+            return super().set(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as error:  # noqa: BLE001
+            return _degrade("set", error, None)
+
+    def touch(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        try:
+            return super().touch(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as error:  # noqa: BLE001
+            return _degrade("touch", error, False)
+
+    def delete(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        try:
+            return super().delete(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as error:  # noqa: BLE001
+            return _degrade("delete", error, False)
+
+    def get_many(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        try:
+            return super().get_many(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as error:  # noqa: BLE001
+            return _degrade("get_many", error, {})
+
+    def has_key(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        try:
+            return super().has_key(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as error:  # noqa: BLE001
+            return _degrade("has_key", error, False)
+
+    def incr(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        try:
+            return super().incr(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as error:  # noqa: BLE001
+            return _degrade("incr", error, None)
+
+    def set_many(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        try:
+            return super().set_many(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as error:  # noqa: BLE001
+            return _degrade("set_many", error, [])
+
+    def delete_many(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        try:
+            return super().delete_many(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as error:  # noqa: BLE001
+            return _degrade("delete_many", error, None)
+
+    def clear(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        try:
+            return super().clear(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as error:  # noqa: BLE001
+            return _degrade("clear", error, None)
+
+    def close(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        try:
+            return super().close(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as error:  # noqa: BLE001
+            return _degrade("close", error, None)
diff --git a/backend/apps/core/tests/test_cache.py b/backend/apps/core/tests/test_cache.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..04f466f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/apps/core/tests/test_cache.py
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+"""A broken Redis must degrade the cache, not 500 the API.
+
+A Redis that cannot persist (the default ``stop-writes-on-bgsave-error``)
+or is simply unreachable used to raise inside the DRF throttle check on
+every request; ``ResilientRedisCache`` treats that as a cache miss.
+"""
+
+from unittest import mock
+
+from django.core.cache import cache
+from django.core.cache.backends.redis import RedisCacheClient
+from django.test import SimpleTestCase
+
+
+def failing(method: str):
+    return mock.patch.object(
+        RedisCacheClient,
+        method,
+        side_effect=RuntimeError("redis is down"),
+    )
+
+
+class ResilientCacheTests(SimpleTestCase):
+    def test_get_returns_the_default_when_redis_fails(self):
+        with failing("get"):
+            self.assertIsNone(cache.get("j621-cache-test"))
+            self.assertEqual(cache.get("j621-cache-test", "fallback"), "fallback")
+
+    def test_writes_report_failure_without_raising(self):
+        with failing("set"):
+            self.assertIsNone(cache.set("j621-cache-test", "value"))
+
+    def test_bulk_and_delete_operations_degrade(self):
+        with failing("get_many"), failing("delete"):
+            self.assertEqual(cache.get_many(["a", "b"]), {})
+            self.assertFalse(cache.delete("a"))
diff --git a/backend/config/settings.py b/backend/config/settings.py
index 488ab74..3e4d74b 100644
--- a/backend/config/settings.py
+++ b/backend/config/settings.py
@@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ SIMILARITY_TTL_MINUTES = int(os.getenv("SIMILARITY_TTL_MINUTES", "30"))
 # workers and management commands (e.g. the mirrored guest blacklist).
 CACHES = {
     "default": {
-        "BACKEND": "django.core.cache.backends.redis.RedisCache",
+        "BACKEND": "apps.core.cache.ResilientRedisCache",
         "LOCATION": os.getenv("REDIS_URL", "redis://127.0.0.1:6380/1"),
     }
 }