Cron Expression Generator
Build cron expressions visually or paste one to get a plain English explanation and next run times.
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Paste a cron expression
Enter a five-field cron expression to see its explanation and next run times.
Result
* * * * * Plain English
Runs every minute
Next 5 run times
What is a cron expression?
A cron expression is a compact string that defines a recurring schedule. It consists of five fields separated by spaces, each controlling a different time unit: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-7, where both 0 and 7 are Sunday).
Each field accepts a specific number, a wildcard (* for "every"), a step value (*/5 for "every 5"), a range (1-5), or a comma-separated list (1,3,5). These building blocks let you express virtually any recurring schedule in a single line.
Here are some common examples:
0 * * * *— Every hour0 0 * * *— Every day at midnight0 9 * * 1— Every Monday at 9:00 AM*/5 * * * *— Every 5 minutes0 0 1 * *— First day of every month at midnight0 12 * * 1-5— Every weekday at noon
Cron expressions originated in Unix-like operating systems in the 1970s and remain the standard way to define scheduled tasks across platforms, CI/CD pipelines, cloud schedulers, and tools like Recuro.