Venus is physically similar to Earth but with no oceans and a hot dense atmosphere. Its near-random distribution of impact craters led to the inferences of episodic global resurfacing and a stagnant lid regime, and imply that it is not currently in thermal equilibrium. This paper shows that a CO₂-induced asthenosphere and decoupling of the mantle from the crust, caused by the elevated surface temperature, enables recycling of a stagnant lid below the crust; global hypsography implies a lid recycling rate of 5·0 ± 0·5 km² a⁻¹. For a scaled Earth-like heat production rate of 36 TW, ~90% (31·9 TW) can be accounted for by lid recycling. Lid recycling by both plume activity and convection is consistent with a number of geological features on Venus, particularly the global network of chasmata, by generating major melting at upwelling sites, an adjacent region of minor melting aiding lateral slip, and downwelling above geoid lows. An age of ~15 Ma is inferred for the western Eistla Regio plume and subcrustal slip rates between 13 and 100 mm a⁻¹ (average 46 mm a⁻¹) are determined from fits to topographic profiles across the principal chasmata. While Venus appears to be in thermal equilibrium now, higher rates of radiogenic heat production in the past imply a greatly enhanced rate of magmatic resurfacing, which 1 Ga ago was capable of resurfacing the whole planet in ~40 Ma.