diff --git a/zerver/decorator.py b/zerver/decorator.py
index 49e95b4f58..db305d0a0f 100644
--- a/zerver/decorator.py
+++ b/zerver/decorator.py
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ from functools import wraps
 import base64
 import datetime
 import logging
-import cProfile
 import ujson
 from io import BytesIO
 from six.moves import zip, urllib
@@ -692,34 +691,6 @@ def rate_limit(domain='all'):
         return wrapped_func
     return wrapper
 
-def profiled(func):
-    # type: (FuncT) -> FuncT
-    """
-    This decorator should obviously be used only in a dev environment.
-    It works best when surrounding a function that you expect to be
-    called once.  One strategy is to write a backend test and wrap the
-    test case with the profiled decorator.
-
-    You can run a single test case like this:
-
-        # edit zerver/tests/test_external.py and place @profiled above the test case below
-        ./tools/test-backend zerver.tests.test_external.RateLimitTests.test_ratelimit_decrease
-
-    Then view the results like this:
-
-        ./tools/show-profile-results.py test_ratelimit_decrease.profile
-
-    """
-    @wraps(func)
-    def wrapped_func(*args, **kwargs):
-        # type: (*Any, **Any) -> Any
-        fn = func.__name__ + ".profile"
-        prof = cProfile.Profile()
-        retval = prof.runcall(func, *args, **kwargs)  # type: Any
-        prof.dump_stats(fn)
-        return retval
-    return wrapped_func  # type: ignore # https://github.com/python/mypy/issues/1927
-
 def return_success_on_head_request(view_func):
     # type: (Callable) -> Callable
     @wraps(view_func)
diff --git a/zerver/lib/profile.py b/zerver/lib/profile.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..375c509769
--- /dev/null
+++ b/zerver/lib/profile.py
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+from __future__ import absolute_import
+
+import cProfile
+
+from functools import wraps
+from typing import Any
+
+from zerver.decorator import FuncT
+
+def profiled(func):
+    # type: (FuncT) -> FuncT
+    """
+    This decorator should obviously be used only in a dev environment.
+    It works best when surrounding a function that you expect to be
+    called once.  One strategy is to write a backend test and wrap the
+    test case with the profiled decorator.
+
+    You can run a single test case like this:
+
+        # edit zerver/tests/test_external.py and place @profiled above the test case below
+        ./tools/test-backend zerver.tests.test_external.RateLimitTests.test_ratelimit_decrease
+
+    Then view the results like this:
+
+        ./tools/show-profile-results.py test_ratelimit_decrease.profile
+
+    """
+    @wraps(func)
+    def wrapped_func(*args, **kwargs):
+        # type: (*Any, **Any) -> Any
+        fn = func.__name__ + ".profile"
+        prof = cProfile.Profile()
+        retval = prof.runcall(func, *args, **kwargs)  # type: Any
+        prof.dump_stats(fn)
+        return retval
+    return wrapped_func  # type: ignore # https://github.com/python/mypy/issues/1927