Cron Expression Explainer
Paste any cron expression and instantly get a plain English explanation, visual field breakdown, and next 10 run times.
Common Cron Expressions
| Expression | Description |
|---|---|
| * * * * * | Every minute |
| */5 * * * * | Every 5 minutes |
| 0 * * * * | Every hour (on the hour) |
| 0 */2 * * * | Every 2 hours |
| 0 0 * * * | Every day at midnight |
| 0 8 * * * | Every day at 8:00 AM |
| 0 9 * * 1 | Every Monday at 9:00 AM |
| 0 9 * * 1-5 | Weekdays at 9:00 AM |
| 0 0 1 * * | First day of every month at midnight |
| 0 0 1 1 * | January 1st at midnight (yearly) |
| 30 4 * * * | Every day at 4:30 AM |
| 0 12 * * 0 | Every Sunday at noon |
| 0 0 * * 6,0 | Every Saturday and Sunday at midnight |
| */15 * * * * | Every 15 minutes |
| 0 6-18 * * * | Every hour from 6 AM to 6 PM |
| 0 0 15 * * | 15th of every month at midnight |
| 30 8 1 */3 * | Every 3 months on the 1st at 8:30 AM |
| 0 22 * * 1-5 | Weekdays at 10:00 PM |
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I read a cron expression?
A cron expression has five fields from left to right: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-6, where 0 is Sunday). An asterisk (*) means "every" value in that field, a number means a specific value, a slash (/) means a step interval, a dash (-) defines a range, and a comma (,) separates a list of values.
What is */5 in cron?
The */5 syntax means "every 5th value." In the minute field, */5 means every 5 minutes (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55). In the hour field, */5 would mean every 5 hours (0, 5, 10, 15, 20). You can use any number after the slash to set the step interval.
What does 0 * * * * mean?
This expression runs at minute 0 of every hour -- in other words, once per hour on the hour. The first field (minute) is set to 0, while all other fields are wildcards (*), meaning every hour, every day, every month, and every day of the week.