Cron Builder / Explainer
Type a 5-field cron expression (minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week) and see the description in plain English and the next 5 run times.
What is a cron expression?
Cron is the task scheduler used by Unix/Linux systems. A cron expression describes when a task should run, using five space-separated fields:
- minute — 0 to 59
- hour — 0 to 23
- day of month — 1 to 31
- month — 1 to 12
- day of week — 0 to 6 (0 = Sunday)
Supported syntax
*— any value (every minute, every hour, etc.).- Lists —
1,2,3(specific values). - Ranges —
1-5(Monday through Friday, for example). - Steps —
*/5(every 5) or1-30/5(from 1 to 30, every 5).
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is out of scope?
This tool covers the classic 5-field format. There is no support for a
seconds field (the 6-field format used by some schedulers) nor for
spelled-out names such as MON/SUN or JAN/DEC —
use numbers only. There is also no support for shortcuts like @daily.
How do day-of-month and day-of-week combine?
It follows the classic cron rule: if both are restricted (different from
*), the task runs when either one matches (OR). If only one is
restricted, only that one applies.
Which time zone are the run times based on?
The next run times are calculated in your browser's local time.