Cron expressions

Type a cron expression to see in plain words when it runs - and the next run times in your time zone.

Expression

Next runs

Everything happens in your browser - nothing you type here is sent to any server.

How it works

How to read a cron expression

The five fields are, in order: minute, hour, day of the month, month and day of the week (0 or 7 is Sunday). An asterisk means “every”, a comma lists values (8,12,18), a hyphen is a range (1-5) and a slash a step (*/15 - every 15). For example “0 9 * * 1-5” is 9:00 on weekdays.

A trap: day of the month and day of the week

When you set both the day of the month and the day of the week, cron runs the job when either matches - not both. “0 0 13 * 5” is every 13th of the month and every Friday, not only Friday the 13th.

Frequently asked questions

Which time zone does cron use?

The server's (usually UTC). The tool shows run times in your time zone - check the server's settings if they differ.

What do @daily and @weekly mean?

They're shortcuts: @hourly = 0 * * * *, @daily = 0 0 * * *, @weekly = 0 0 * * 0, @monthly = 0 0 1 * *, @yearly = 0 0 1 1 *.

Is a seconds field supported?

No - classic cron has 5 fields. Some libraries (e.g. Quartz or node-cron) add seconds at the start; drop that first field.