Django cached .count() proxy for querysets that is generic and works with pagination in object_list (which clones and overrides any monkeypatched count method so you have to override the clone method first).

django_cached_count_proxy.py

class CachedCountCloneProxy(object):
    ''' This allows us to monkey-patch count() on QuerySets so we can cache it and speed things up.
        ._clone is called so we have to monkey-patch that first...
    '''

    def __init__(self, queryset):
        self._queryset = queryset
        self._queryset._clone_original = self._queryset._clone

    def __call__(self):
        queryset = self._queryset._clone_original()
        queryset.count = CachedCountProxy(queryset)
        return queryset

class CachedCountProxy(object):
    ''' This allows us to monkey-patch count() on QuerySets so we can cache it and speed things up.
    '''

    def __init__(self, queryset):
        self._queryset = queryset
        self._queryset._original_count = self._queryset.count
        self._sql = self._queryset.query.get_compiler(self._queryset.db).as_sql()
        self._sql = self._sql[0] % self._sql[1]

    def __call__(self):
        ''' 1. Check cache
            2. Return cache if it's set
            3. If it's not set, call super and get the count
            4. Cache that for X minutes
        '''
        key = "paginator_count_%s" % hashlib.sha224(self._sql).hexdigest()
        count = cache.get(key)
        if count is None:
            count = self._queryset._original_count()
            cache.set(key, count, 300)
        return count

# To use:
# queryset._clone = CachedCountCloneProxy(queryset) # monkeypatch solution to cache the count for performance