For a real number β>1, we say that a permutation π of length n is allowed (or realized) by the β-shift if there is some x∈[0,1] such that the relative order of the sequence x,f(x),…,fn−1(x), where f(x) is the fractional part of βx, is the same as that of the entries of π . Widely studied from such diverse fields as number theory and automata theory, β-shifts are prototypical examples of one-dimensional chaotic dynamical systems. When β is an integer, permutations realized by shifts have been recently characterized. In this paper we generalize some of the results to arbitrary β-shifts. We describe a method to compute, for any given permutation π , the smallest β such that π is realized by the β-shift.