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Cron Expression Calculator

Decode any cron expression into plain English and see the next 10 scheduled run times. Build schedules field by field or use 15 presets for common jobs.

Enter Cron Expression
Presets
Cron Expression
expr
Minute
0-59
Hour
0-23
Day
1-31
Month
1-12
Weekday
0-7
Your Result

Fill in the details and
your result appears here.

Schedule
Human Readable
Field Breakdown
Next 10 Run Times
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Did You Know?
Always verify before deploying
A wrong cron expression can silently run too often, at the wrong time, or never at all. Always check the next run times before scheduling jobs that send emails, process payments, or write to a database.

How to use this calculator

1

Paste or type your expression

Any valid 5-field cron expression. Human-readable translation and next run times appear instantly.

2

Use presets for common schedules

15 presets covering every hour, every weekday, every 5 minutes, first of month, and more.

3

Edit fields individually

Change any of the 5 field boxes and the full expression updates automatically above.

4

Verify next run times

See the next 10 scheduled runs based on today. Always verify before deploying to production.

The formula explained

A cron expression has exactly 5 space-separated fields:

+------ minute  (0-59)
| +----- hour    (0-23)
| | +---- day     (1-31)
| | | +-- month   (1-12)
| | | | +- weekday (0-7, Sun=0 or 7)
* * * * *

Special characters:   * every   / step (*/5 = every 5)   - range (9-17)   , list (1,3,5)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a cron expression?

A string of 5 fields used to define a recurring schedule for automated tasks. Used in Unix/Linux crontab, AWS EventBridge, GitHub Actions, Kubernetes CronJobs, and almost every scheduling system in existence.

What does * mean in cron?

Asterisk means every possible value for that field. * in minute = every minute. * in hour = every hour. 0 9 * * * means at 9:00 AM every single day.

What is */5 in a cron expression?

The slash is a step value. */5 in the minute field means every 5 minutes (0, 5, 10... 55). */2 in hours means every 2 hours. 10/5 means starting at minute 10, every 5 minutes.

Is Sunday 0 or 7 in cron?

Both 0 and 7 mean Sunday in most Unix systems. 1=Monday through 6=Saturday. So 1-5 means Monday to Friday. AWS EventBridge and some systems use 1=Sunday through 7=Saturday.

How do I run a job every 30 minutes?

Use */30 * * * * which runs at :00 and :30 of every hour. Alternatively 0,30 * * * * is identical and more explicit about the exact minutes.

What is the difference between day-of-month and day-of-week fields?

If both are set to non-* values, most cron systems use OR logic — the job runs if either condition matches. To schedule only on Monday the 1st requires extra logic in the script itself.

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