diff --git a/app/controllers/projects/runners_controller.rb b/app/controllers/projects/runners_controller.rb
index 87c19eeed3e..992e42d9348 100644
--- a/app/controllers/projects/runners_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/projects/runners_controller.rb
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ class Projects::RunnersController < Projects::ApplicationController
   end
 
   def toggle_group_runners
-    project.toggle!(:group_runners_enabled)
+    project.toggle_settings!(:group_runners_enabled)
 
     redirect_to project_settings_ci_cd_path(@project)
   end
diff --git a/app/models/project.rb b/app/models/project.rb
index dadd0755848..3daedc2b47d 100644
--- a/app/models/project.rb
+++ b/app/models/project.rb
@@ -249,6 +249,7 @@ class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
   delegate :members, to: :team, prefix: true
   delegate :add_user, :add_users, to: :team
   delegate :add_guest, :add_reporter, :add_developer, :add_master, :add_role, to: :team
+  delegate :group_runners_enabled, :group_runners_enabled=, :group_runners_enabled?, to: :settings
 
   # Validations
   validates :creator, presence: true, on: :create
@@ -1893,6 +1894,10 @@ class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
     []
   end
 
+  def toggle_settings!(settings_attribute)
+    settings.toggle!(settings_attribute)
+  end
+
   private
 
   def storage
diff --git a/db/migrate/20170925142221_add_group_runners_enabled_to_projects.rb b/db/migrate/20170925142221_add_group_runners_enabled_to_projects.rb
deleted file mode 100644
index 8df7be39ee1..00000000000
--- a/db/migrate/20170925142221_add_group_runners_enabled_to_projects.rb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
-class AddGroupRunnersEnabledToProjects < ActiveRecord::Migration
-  include Gitlab::Database::MigrationHelpers
-
-  DOWNTIME = false
-
-  disable_ddl_transaction!
-
-  def up
-    add_column_with_default :projects, :group_runners_enabled, :boolean, default: true
-    add_concurrent_index :projects, :group_runners_enabled
-  end
-
-  def down
-    remove_column :projects, :group_runners_enabled
-  end
-end
diff --git a/db/migrate/20171030155459_create_project_settings.rb b/db/migrate/20171030155459_create_project_settings.rb
index eeb449505b8..ebbe4c64fbd 100644
--- a/db/migrate/20171030155459_create_project_settings.rb
+++ b/db/migrate/20171030155459_create_project_settings.rb
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ class CreateProjectSettings < ActiveRecord::Migration
   def change
     create_table :project_settings do |t|
       t.references :project, index: true, foreign_key: { on_delete: :cascade }
+
+      t.boolean :group_runners_enabled, default: true, index: true
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/db/schema.rb b/db/schema.rb
index b199342dc15..9bb5c9d3c97 100644
--- a/db/schema.rb
+++ b/db/schema.rb
@@ -1506,8 +1506,10 @@ ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 20180418053107) do
 
   create_table "project_settings", force: :cascade do |t|
     t.integer "project_id"
+    t.boolean "group_runners_enabled", default: true
   end
 
+  add_index "project_settings", ["group_runners_enabled"], name: "index_project_settings_on_group_runners_enabled", using: :btree
   add_index "project_settings", ["project_id"], name: "index_project_settings_on_project_id", using: :btree
 
   create_table "project_statistics", force: :cascade do |t|
@@ -1581,7 +1583,6 @@ ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 20180418053107) do
   add_index "projects", ["created_at"], name: "index_projects_on_created_at", using: :btree
   add_index "projects", ["creator_id"], name: "index_projects_on_creator_id", using: :btree
   add_index "projects", ["description"], name: "index_projects_on_description_trigram", using: :gin, opclasses: {"description"=>"gin_trgm_ops"}
-  add_index "projects", ["group_runners_enabled"], name: "index_projects_on_group_runners_enabled", using: :btree
   add_index "projects", ["id"], name: "index_projects_on_id_partial_for_visibility", unique: true, where: "(visibility_level = ANY (ARRAY[10, 20]))", using: :btree
   add_index "projects", ["last_activity_at"], name: "index_projects_on_last_activity_at", using: :btree
   add_index "projects", ["last_repository_check_failed"], name: "index_projects_on_last_repository_check_failed", using: :btree
diff --git a/spec/factories/projects.rb b/spec/factories/projects.rb
index 1761b6e2a3b..ad33d09f78a 100644
--- a/spec/factories/projects.rb
+++ b/spec/factories/projects.rb
@@ -15,14 +15,18 @@ FactoryBot.define do
     namespace
     creator { group ? create(:user) : namespace&.owner }
 
-    # Nest Project Feature attributes
     transient do
+      # Nest Project Feature attributes
       wiki_access_level ProjectFeature::ENABLED
       builds_access_level ProjectFeature::ENABLED
       snippets_access_level ProjectFeature::ENABLED
       issues_access_level ProjectFeature::ENABLED
       merge_requests_access_level ProjectFeature::ENABLED
       repository_access_level ProjectFeature::ENABLED
+
+      # we can't assign the delegated `#settings` attributes directly, as the
+      # `#settings` relation needs to be created first
+      group_runners_enabled nil
     end
 
     after(:create) do |project, evaluator|
@@ -47,6 +51,9 @@ FactoryBot.define do
       end
 
       project.group&.refresh_members_authorized_projects
+
+      # assign the delegated `#settings` attributes after create
+      project.reload.group_runners_enabled = evaluator.group_runners_enabled unless evaluator.group_runners_enabled.nil?
     end
 
     trait :public do
diff --git a/spec/models/project_spec.rb b/spec/models/project_spec.rb
index e0f442a334c..ed28cd50e4d 100644
--- a/spec/models/project_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/project_spec.rb
@@ -3640,4 +3640,16 @@ describe Project do
       it { is_expected.not_to be_valid }
     end
   end
+
+  describe '#toggle_settings!' do
+    it 'toggles the value on #settings' do
+      project = create :project, group_runners_enabled: false
+
+      expect(project.group_runners_enabled).to be false
+
+      project.toggle_settings!(:group_runners_enabled)
+
+      expect(project.group_runners_enabled).to be true
+    end
+  end
 end