diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 6790e9ee7..519b4a53d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -38,3 +38,4 @@ notification.mp3
 /package-lock.json
 /.coverage*
 /test/test_outputs
+/cache
diff --git a/modules/cache.py b/modules/cache.py
index a9822a0eb..9df248d7b 100644
--- a/modules/cache.py
+++ b/modules/cache.py
@@ -2,48 +2,47 @@ import json
 import os
 import os.path
 import threading
-import time
+
+import diskcache
+import tqdm
 
 from modules.paths import data_path, script_path
 
 cache_filename = os.environ.get('SD_WEBUI_CACHE_FILE', os.path.join(data_path, "cache.json"))
-cache_data = None
+cache_dir = os.environ.get('SD_WEBUI_CACHE_DIR', os.path.join(data_path, "cache"))
+caches = {}
 cache_lock = threading.Lock()
 
-dump_cache_after = None
-dump_cache_thread = None
-
 
 def dump_cache():
-    """
-    Marks cache for writing to disk. 5 seconds after no one else flags the cache for writing, it is written.
-    """
+    """old function for dumping cache to disk; does nothing since diskcache."""
 
-    global dump_cache_after
-    global dump_cache_thread
+    pass
 
-    def thread_func():
-        global dump_cache_after
-        global dump_cache_thread
 
-        while dump_cache_after is not None and time.time() < dump_cache_after:
-            time.sleep(1)
+def convert_old_cached_data():
+    try:
+        with open(cache_filename, "r", encoding="utf8") as file:
+            data = json.load(file)
+    except FileNotFoundError:
+        return
+    except Exception:
+        os.replace(cache_filename, os.path.join(script_path, "tmp", "cache.json"))
+        print('[ERROR] issue occurred while trying to read cache.json; old cache has been moved to tmp/cache.json')
+        return
 
-        with cache_lock:
-            cache_filename_tmp = cache_filename + "-"
-            with open(cache_filename_tmp, "w", encoding="utf8") as file:
-                json.dump(cache_data, file, indent=4, ensure_ascii=False)
+    total_count = sum(len(keyvalues) for keyvalues in data.values())
 
-            os.replace(cache_filename_tmp, cache_filename)
+    with tqdm.tqdm(total=total_count, desc="converting cache") as progress:
+        for subsection, keyvalues in data.items():
+            cache_obj = caches.get(subsection)
+            if cache_obj is None:
+                cache_obj = diskcache.Cache(os.path.join(cache_dir, subsection))
+                caches[subsection] = cache_obj
 
-            dump_cache_after = None
-            dump_cache_thread = None
-
-    with cache_lock:
-        dump_cache_after = time.time() + 5
-        if dump_cache_thread is None:
-            dump_cache_thread = threading.Thread(name='cache-writer', target=thread_func)
-            dump_cache_thread.start()
+            for key, value in keyvalues.items():
+                cache_obj[key] = value
+                progress.update(1)
 
 
 def cache(subsection):
@@ -54,28 +53,21 @@ def cache(subsection):
         subsection (str): The subsection identifier for the cache.
 
     Returns:
-        dict: The cache data for the specified subsection.
+        diskcache.Cache: The cache data for the specified subsection.
     """
 
-    global cache_data
-
-    if cache_data is None:
+    cache_obj = caches.get(subsection)
+    if not cache_obj:
         with cache_lock:
-            if cache_data is None:
-                try:
-                    with open(cache_filename, "r", encoding="utf8") as file:
-                        cache_data = json.load(file)
-                except FileNotFoundError:
-                    cache_data = {}
-                except Exception:
-                    os.replace(cache_filename, os.path.join(script_path, "tmp", "cache.json"))
-                    print('[ERROR] issue occurred while trying to read cache.json, move current cache to tmp/cache.json and create new cache')
-                    cache_data = {}
+            if not os.path.exists(cache_dir) and os.path.isfile(cache_filename):
+                convert_old_cached_data()
 
-    s = cache_data.get(subsection, {})
-    cache_data[subsection] = s
+            cache_obj = caches.get(subsection)
+            if not cache_obj:
+                cache_obj = diskcache.Cache(os.path.join(cache_dir, subsection))
+                caches[subsection] = cache_obj
 
-    return s
+    return cache_obj
 
 
 def cached_data_for_file(subsection, title, filename, func):
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 731a1be7d..8699c02be 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ accelerate
 
 blendmodes
 clean-fid
+diskcache
 einops
 facexlib
 fastapi>=0.90.1
diff --git a/requirements_versions.txt b/requirements_versions.txt
index 5e30b5ea1..87aae9136 100644
--- a/requirements_versions.txt
+++ b/requirements_versions.txt
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ Pillow==9.5.0
 accelerate==0.21.0
 blendmodes==2022
 clean-fid==0.1.35
+diskcache==5.6.3
 einops==0.4.1
 facexlib==0.3.0
 fastapi==0.94.0