How to use the cron expression generator
- Pick a preset or edit the five fields: minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week.
- Read the plain-English meaning.
- Check the next five run times and copy the expression.
About this tool
A standard cron expression has five fields: minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week. Edit the fields or pick a preset and the tool explains the schedule in plain English and lists the next five run times, so you can confirm a job fires when you expect before deploying it.
The five fields
| Field | Allowed values |
|---|---|
| Minute | 0 to 59 |
| Hour | 0 to 23 |
| Day of month | 1 to 31 |
| Month | 1 to 12, or JAN to DEC |
| Day of week | 0 to 6 (Sunday is 0, and often 7 too), or SUN to SAT |
Special characters
- * means every value of that field.
- , separates a list, for example 1,15 in the day-of-month field.
- - is a range, for example 1-5 for Monday to Friday.
- / is a step, so */15 in the minute field means every 15 minutes.
Examples you can copy
| Expression | Runs |
|---|---|
| */5 * * * * | Every 5 minutes |
| 0 * * * * | At the start of every hour |
| 30 2 * * * | Every day at 02:30 |
| 0 9 * * 1-5 | Weekdays at 09:00 |
| 0 0 1 * * | At midnight on the 1st of every month |
| 0 0 * * 0 | At midnight every Sunday |
Mistakes that cause surprises
- Writing 5 * * * * when you mean every 5 minutes. That runs once an hour, at minute 5. Use */5.
- Time zones. Most servers, GitHub Actions and many cloud schedulers run cron in UTC, which is 5 hours 30 minutes behind IST. Convert before you set the hour.
- Setting both day of month and day of week. In standard cron the job runs when either field matches, not both.
- Using Quartz or Spring syntax with seconds, L, W or #. This tool covers the standard five-field format only.
Frequently asked questions
What does */15 mean?
Every 15 units of that field. In the minute field, */15 runs at 0, 15, 30, and 45.
Does it support seconds or Quartz syntax?
No. This tool covers the standard 5-field crontab format used by Linux, GitHub Actions, and Kubernetes.
Which time zone are the next runs in?
Your browser local time. Your server may run cron in UTC.
How do I run a job every 5 minutes?
Use */5 * * * *. The step in the minute field runs the job at minutes 0, 5, 10 and so on.
How do I run a job once a day at 2 am?
Use 0 2 * * *, which means minute 0 of hour 2, every day. Check the time zone of your scheduler.