What is a cron expression?

A cron expression is a string of 5 fields (minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week) that defines a schedule for recurring tasks. Used in Unix/Linux cron, Kubernetes, AWS CloudWatch, and many job schedulers.

What do the 5 fields mean?

1. Minute (0-59) 2. Hour (0-23) 3. Day of Month (1-31) 4. Month (1-12) 5. Day of Week (0-7, where 0 and 7 = Sunday). Use * for any value, */n for every n, a-b for ranges, a,b for lists.

How do I run something every weekday at 9 AM?

Use: 0 9 * * 1-5 (minute=0, hour=9, any day, any month, Monday-Friday)

What does */15 in the minute field mean?

Run every 15 minutes (at minutes 0, 15, 30, 45). The syntax */n means "every n".

Cron Expression Visualizer

Enter a cron expression to see a human-readable description and the next 10 run times. Supports all standard cron syntax.

Cron Expression

Quick Presets

Schedule Description

At 0 past 9 on Mon through Fri

Next 10 Run Times

1.2026-10-29 09:00:00(in 16h)

2.2026-10-30 09:00:00(in 1d)

3.2026-11-02 09:00:00(in 4d)

4.2026-11-03 09:00:00(in 5d)

5.2026-11-04 09:00:00(in 6d)

Field Breakdown

Minute

0 - 59

Hour

0 - 23

Day of Month

1 - 31

Month

1 - 12

Day of Week

1-5

0 - 7 (Sun=0/7)

Cron Expression Reference

Field Definitions

Field	Range	Special Values
Minute	0 - 59	, /n, a-b, a,b
Hour	0 - 23	, /n, a-b, a,b
Day of Month	1 - 31	, /n, a-b, a,b
Month	1 - 12	, /n, a-b, a,b
Day of Week	0 - 7 (0=Sun, 7=Sun)	, /n, a-b, a,b

Special Characters

* — Any value (every minute, every hour, etc.)
*/n — Every n-th value (e.g., */15 in minutes = every 15 minutes)
a-b — Range inclusive (e.g., 1-5 in day of week = Mon-Fri)
a,b,c — List of values (e.g., 1,15 in day of month = 1st and 15th)
a-b/n — Step within range (e.g., 1-10/2 in minutes = 1,3,5,7,9)

Common Examples

Expression	Meaning
* * * * *	Every minute
0 * * * *	Every hour at minute 0
0 0 * * *	Daily at midnight
0 9 * * *	Daily at 9:00 AM
0 9 * * 1-5	Weekdays at 9:00 AM
0 0 1 * *	First day of month at midnight
0 0 * * 0	Every Sunday at midnight
/15 * * *	Every 15 minutes
0 /6 * *	Every 6 hours
0 9 1,15 * *	1st and 15th of month at 9 AM
0 9 1-5 * *	1st-5th of month at 9 AM
30,59 * * * *	At minutes 30 and 59 every hour

Tips

Use 0-23 for hours (24-hour format). 0 = midnight, 12 = noon.
Day of week: 0 or 7 = Sunday, 1 = Monday, ..., 6 = Saturday.
Month: 1 = January, 12 = December.
Combine fields: 0 9 1,15 * 1-5 = 9 AM on 1st and 15th, weekdays only.
Test your expression with the live preview above before deploying.

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