Quantum measurement backaction can inject energy into a system, enabling work extraction at a single temperature without feedback. Treating measurement as a finite-time physical interaction, we identify a finite-time dynamical constraint on measurement-driven quantum engines. Positive work extraction is guaranteed when the measurement-induced dynamics is bistochastic. While short-time measurements satisfy this condition, increasing the measurement duration generically breaks bistochasticity, driving the working substance toward detailed-balance thermalization or dynamical freezing. Finite-measurement time thus sets a generic dynamical limitation within the class of single-temperature measurement-driven quantum engines.

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• Quantum measurements
• Quantum thermodynamics
• Quantum heat engines & refrigerators