Cron Expression Explainer

Decode any cron schedule and preview the next run times.

MinuteHourDay of monthMonthDay of week

At 09:00, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Field breakdown
Minute00
Hour99
Day of month*every
Month*every
Day of week1-51, 2, 3, 4, 5
Next 5 runs
  • Mon, Aug 17, 2026, 09:00 AMin 2 d
  • Tue, Aug 18, 2026, 09:00 AMin 3 d
  • Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 09:00 AMin 4 d
  • Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 09:00 AMin 5 d
  • Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 09:00 AMin 6 d

Times are shown in your local timezone. Uses standard 5-field cron with the day-of-month / day-of-week OR rule.

What is a cron expression?

A cron expression is a compact way to describe a recurring schedule. It is used by the classic Unix cron daemon, but also by Kubernetes CronJobs, GitHub Actions, Vercel Cron, AWS EventBridge, and most job schedulers. A single line answers one question: when should this task run?

Because the syntax is terse, it is easy to misread a schedule — and a wrong cron line can mean a job that never fires or one that hammers your system every minute. This tool decodes any expression into plain English, breaks down each field, and previews the next run times so you can confirm the schedule before you ship it.

The five fields

A standard cron expression has five space-separated fields, in this order:

FieldRangeExample
Minute0–590, 30, */15
Hour0–239, 0-6, */2
Day of month1–311, 15, L is not standard
Month1–12 or JAN–DEC1, JAN, 6-8
Day of week0–7 or SUN–SAT1-5, MON, 0 and 7 = Sunday

A * means “every” value for that field, so * * * * * runs every single minute.

Special characters

SymbolMeaning
*Every value in the field
*/nEvery n units — */15 in minutes is every 15 minutes
a-bA range, inclusive — 1-5 for Monday to Friday
a,b,cA specific list of values
a-b/nStepped range — 0-30/10 gives 0, 10, 20, 30

Common schedules

ScheduleExpression
Every 15 minutes*/15 * * * *
Every hour, on the hour0 * * * *
Every day at 9:00 AM0 9 * * *
Weekdays at 9:00 AM0 9 * * 1-5
Every Monday at 8:30 AM30 8 * * MON
First of every month, midnight0 0 1 * *

Frequently asked questions

What is a cron expression?+
A cron expression is a five-field string that defines a repeating schedule: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. Schedulers such as Linux cron, Kubernetes CronJobs, and most CI systems use it to decide when a task should run.
How do I read the five fields?+
From left to right the fields are minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day of month (1–31), month (1–12 or names like JAN), and day of week (0–7 where both 0 and 7 mean Sunday, or names like MON). A star means "every" value for that field.
What does the day-of-month / day-of-week rule mean?+
When both the day-of-month and day-of-week fields are restricted (neither is a star), standard cron runs the job when EITHER matches, not both. For example "0 0 13 * FRI" runs on the 13th of every month and on every Friday. This tool follows that same OR rule.
What timezone are the next run times shown in?+
The next run times are calculated in your browser using your local timezone. Remember that a real server usually runs cron in UTC or the server’s own timezone, so double-check the environment where the schedule will actually run.
Can I use step and range values?+
Yes. You can combine ranges (1-5), lists (1,3,5), and steps (*/15 or 0-30/10). For instance "*/15 * * * *" runs every fifteen minutes and "0 9 * * 1-5" runs at 9 AM on weekdays.
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