Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE) may be configured to receive, from a network entity, a control message indicating a serving cell group including a set of serving cells usable for wireless communications at the UE. The UE may determine whether to monitor for a multi-cell scheduling message for the serving cell group based on activation states of the set of serving cells of the serving cell group, where the multi-cell scheduling message includes scheduling information for multiple serving cells of the set of serving cells. The UE may then monitor at least a portion of control signaling that includes the multi-cell scheduling message in accordance with the determination.