Cron Expression Generator & Explainer
Build a cron expression or paste one to see it explained in plain English with its next run times.
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Cron Expression
Enter a cron expression (5 or 6 fields)
Human Readable
-
Frequency
Daily Schedules
Business Schedules
Weekly Schedules
Monthly Schedules
Field Breakdown
| Field | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Enter an expression... | ||
Next 10 Run Times
Enter an expression to see scheduled times...
Cron Syntax Reference
| Field | Values | Special Characters |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | 0-59 | * , - / |
| Hour | 0-23 | * , - / |
| Day of Month | 1-31 | * , - / L W |
| Month | 1-12 or JAN-DEC | * , - / |
| Day of Week | 0-6 or SUN-SAT | * , - / L # |
Special characters:
* = any value,
, = list separator,
- = range,
/ = step values,
L = last,
W = weekday,
# = nth occurrence
A cron expression is five fields separated by spaces — minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week — that tell a scheduler when to run a job. Use the builder above to compose one, or paste an existing expression to have it explained. * means every value, */5 means every fifth, 1-5 is a range and 1,15 is a list.
Common cron expressions
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
*/5 * * * * | Every 5 minutes |
0 * * * * | Every hour, on the hour |
0 9 * * 1-5 | 9:00 every weekday (Monday–Friday) |
30 2 * * * | 2:30 every day |
0 0 * * 0 | Midnight every Sunday |
0 0 1 * * | Midnight on the first of every month |
0 */6 * * * | Every 6 hours (00:00, 06:00, 12:00, 18:00) |
15 14 1 * * | 14:15 on the first of the month |
Things that trip people up
- Time zone — cron runs in the server's local time unless configured otherwise; use the timezone converter to check.
- Day-of-month and day-of-week — when both are set (not
*), classic cron runs when either matches. - Seconds — standard cron has no seconds field; Quartz and Spring use a 6-field variant with seconds first.
The full field-by-field guide, with special strings such as @daily, is in cron expressions explained.
Frequently Asked Questions
A short string of five space-separated fields (minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week) that defines a repeating schedule for cron and cron-compatible schedulers.
Run every 5 minutes: */5 in the minute field matches 0, 5, 10 … 55, and the other four fields are 'every'.
Use 0 * * * * — minute 0 of every hour. For every 2 hours use 0 */2 * * *.
minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day of month (1–31), month (1–12), day of week (0–6, Sunday = 0; 7 also means Sunday on most systems). Each field accepts *, ranges (1-5), lists (1,15) and steps (*/10).
Standard Unix cron does not; the smallest unit is a minute. Quartz, Spring and some cloud schedulers add a leading seconds field, making six fields.
Paste it into the explainer above. It translates each field into plain English so you can confirm the schedule before deploying it.