Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for performing, by a user equipment (UE), radio link monitoring based on discontinuous reception mode operation of the UE. Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communication. The method generally includes operating, at a user equipment (UE), in a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode of operation. The method further includes evaluating, by the UE, link quality between the UE and a base station (BS) at least once every time period, wherein the time period is based on a length of a DRX cycle of the UE operating in the DRX mode of operation and a reference signal (RS) period, wherein the BS is configured to transmit RS periodically every RS period.