diff --git a/playbooks/roles/gitea/templates/app.ini.j2 b/playbooks/roles/gitea/templates/app.ini.j2
index 8e6d660c63..23cfb199b9 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/gitea/templates/app.ini.j2
+++ b/playbooks/roles/gitea/templates/app.ini.j2
@@ -134,3 +134,8 @@ NOTICE_ON_SUCCESS = false
 ; Note we run this several hours after 0000 (midnight) to avoid conflict
 ; with default cron jobs run by gitea at that time.
 SCHEDULE = 0 0 3 * * 0
+
+; We don't need gitea phoning out to check versions. We stay on
+; top of new releases using github release notifications over email.
+[cron.update_checker]
+ENABLED = false