How to use
- Pick one of the common templates to start, or type your own cron expression in the Crontab line box.
- Read the schedule in plain English under Schedule. If the expression is wrong, the tool says so before you put it on a server.
- Check the next 5 run times, shown in your own time zone, to make sure the job runs when you expect.
- You can paste a whole crontab line with the command after the schedule; the command is shown separately. Click Copy Summary to copy the result.
Cron expression format
A standard cron expression has five fields separated by spaces: minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week. Anything after the fifth field in a crontab line is the command to run.
| Field | Allowed values | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | 0–59 | 30 = at half past |
| Hour | 0–23 | 14 = 2 PM |
| Day of month | 1–31 | 1 = the 1st |
| Month | 1–12 or JAN–DEC | JUN = June |
| Day of week | 0–7 or SUN–SAT (0 and 7 are Sunday) | 1-5 = Monday to Friday |
Special characters
* means every value. A comma makes a list (9,17 = at 9 and 17). A hyphen makes a range (1-5 = 1 through 5). A slash sets a step (*/15 = every 15, and 0-30/10 = 0, 10, 20 and 30).
Shortcuts such as @hourly, @daily, @weekly, @monthly, @yearly and @reboot can replace all five fields. @reboot runs once when the server starts, so it has no run times to preview.
Cron expression cheat sheet
Copy one of these into the box above and change the numbers to build the schedule you need.
| Cron expression | Runs |
|---|---|
| * * * * * | Every minute |
| */5 * * * * | Every 5 minutes |
| */15 * * * * | Every 15 minutes |
| 0 * * * * | Every hour, on the hour |
| 0 */2 * * * | Every 2 hours |
| 0 0 * * * | Every day at midnight |
| 0 9 * * 1-5 | Weekdays at 9:00 AM |
| 0 9,17 * * * | Every day at 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM |
| 30 2 * * 0 | Sundays at 2:30 AM |
| 0 0 1 * * | The 1st of every month at midnight |
| 0 0 1 1 * | Once a year, January 1 at midnight |
Day of month and day of week together
When both day fields are set, cron runs the job if either one matches, not only when both match. 0 0 13 * 5 runs at midnight on every 13th of the month and on every Friday, not only on Friday the 13th. The preview above follows this rule, so you can see the real run dates.
Time zones
Cron uses the time zone of the server it runs on, which is often UTC. This page previews run times in your device's time zone. If your server is set to UTC and you are in New York, a job at 0 9 * * * runs at 5:00 or 4:00 AM local time, depending on daylight saving time.
Frequently asked questions
Does it support seconds or Quartz cron expressions?
No. It reads standard five-field crontab expressions, as used by Linux cron, cPanel and most hosting panels. Quartz and Spring use six or seven fields (with seconds, and characters such as L, W and #), so those expressions show as invalid here.
How do I run a cron job every 5 minutes?
Use */5 * * * * followed by your command. The */5 in the minute field means every fifth minute: 0, 5, 10 and so on.
Is Sunday 0 or 7?
Both. Most cron versions accept 0 and 7 for Sunday, and so does this tool. You can also write SUN.
Why did my cron job run at the wrong time?
Usually because the server's time zone differs from yours, or because both day-of-month and day-of-week were set, which makes cron run when either one matches.
Is my crontab sent anywhere?
No. The expression is parsed in your browser, so commands, paths and URLs in your crontab line never leave your device.
