Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. In some aspects, a user equipment (UE) may determine a new beam ready time that indicates a time at which a beam is to be ready for use in communicating with a base station. The beam may be activated by a downlink control information based beam activation command received by the UE. The UE may communicate with the base station using the beam after the new beam ready time. Numerous other aspects are provided.