Cron Expression Generator
Build, test, and understand cron expressions visually. Select fields or type an expression to see when it runs.
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Cron Expression
Schedule Description
Every minute
Quick Presets
Minute(0-59)
*Matches every minute (0-59).
Hour(0-23)
*Matches every hour (0-23).
Day of Month(1-31)
*Matches every day of month (1-31).
Month(1-12)
*Matches every month (1-12).
Day of Week(0-6)
*Matches every day of week (0-6).
Next 5 Run Times
- 1Tue, Mar 3, 2026, 07:16 AM
- 2Tue, Mar 3, 2026, 07:17 AM
- 3Tue, Mar 3, 2026, 07:18 AM
- 4Tue, Mar 3, 2026, 07:19 AM
- 5Tue, Mar 3, 2026, 07:20 AM
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How to Use the Cron Expression Generator
The cron expression generator lets you build cron schedules visually without memorizing cron syntax. Choose a mode for each of the five fields — minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week — and the tool constructs a valid cron expression in real time. You can also type or paste an existing expression into the text input, and the visual selectors will update automatically to reflect the parsed schedule.
A standard cron expression consists of five space-separated fields. The minute field accepts values from 0 to 59. The hour field accepts 0 to 23 (using 24-hour time). The day of month field accepts 1 to 31. The month field accepts 1 to 12. The day of week field accepts 0 to 6, where 0 represents Sunday. Each field supports wildcards (*), specific values, ranges (e.g., 1-5), and step values (e.g., */15).
The tool displays a human-readable description of your schedule, such as “At 09:00 AM, Monday through Friday” or “Every 15 minutes.” This makes it easy to verify that your expression matches your intent before deploying it. Below the description, the next five upcoming run times are calculated from the current moment so you can see exactly when your job will fire.
Use the quick preset buttons to instantly load common schedules like every minute, every hour, daily at midnight, weekdays at 9 AM, or the first of every month. These presets are a great starting point that you can customize by adjusting individual fields. The copy button lets you grab the expression string with one click, ready to paste into your crontab file, CI/CD configuration, or cloud scheduler.
Cron expressions are used across a wide range of systems, including Unix and Linux cron daemons, macOS launchd, Kubernetes CronJobs, AWS EventBridge (formerly CloudWatch Events), Google Cloud Scheduler, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, and many more. While some systems extend the standard five-field format with a seconds field or year field, this tool covers the standard five-field syntax that is universally supported.
Common use cases include running database backups at night, sending weekly email digests, clearing temporary files every hour, triggering CI builds on a schedule, and rotating log files at the start of each month. Understanding cron syntax is essential for any developer or system administrator who manages scheduled tasks.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a cron expression?
A cron expression is a string of five fields separated by spaces that defines a schedule for recurring tasks on Unix-like systems. The five fields represent minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. Cron expressions are used by cron daemons, task schedulers, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud services like AWS CloudWatch and Google Cloud Scheduler.
What do the five fields in a cron expression mean?
The five fields are: Minute (0-59), Hour (0-23), Day of Month (1-31), Month (1-12), and Day of Week (0-6, where 0 is Sunday). Each field can contain a specific value, a wildcard (*) meaning every value, a range (e.g., 1-5), a list (e.g., 1,3,5), or a step value (e.g., */15 for every 15 units).
What does */5 mean in a cron expression?
The */5 syntax means 'every 5 units' for that particular field. For example, */5 in the minute field means every 5 minutes (0, 5, 10, 15, etc.), while */2 in the hour field means every 2 hours (0, 2, 4, 6, etc.). The asterisk represents the full range, and the slash defines the step interval.
How do I schedule a cron job to run on weekdays only?
To run a job on weekdays (Monday through Friday), set the day of week field to 1-5. For example, '0 9 * * 1-5' runs at 9:00 AM every weekday. You can also use three-letter abbreviations like MON-FRI in some cron implementations, though the numeric format is more universally supported.
What are some common cron expression patterns?
Common patterns include: '* * * * *' (every minute), '0 * * * *' (every hour), '0 0 * * *' (daily at midnight), '0 9 * * 1-5' (weekdays at 9 AM), '0 0 1 * *' (first of every month), '0 0 * * 0' (every Sunday), and '*/15 * * * *' (every 15 minutes). These cover most scheduling needs.
Is my data safe when using this cron generator?
Yes, completely. This tool runs entirely in your browser using client-side JavaScript. No cron expressions or data are sent to any server. You can safely use it on air-gapped machines or in secure environments without any privacy concerns.