All calculators·Cron expression helper

Cron expression helper

Read a cron schedule in plain words, or start from a preset

Fields

Minute 0–590
Hour 0–239
Day of month 1–31*
Month 1–12*
Day of week 0–7*

In words: Every day at 9am

Presets

Five fields, in this order

Minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week. An asterisk means every value. Getting the order wrong is the classic mistake — 0 9 * * * is nine in the morning, while 9 0 * * * is nine minutes past midnight.

Day-of-month and day-of-week are an OR

If you set both to something other than *, most cron implementations run the job when either matches, not both. A schedule of 0 0 1 * 1 fires on the first of the month and on every Monday.

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Frequently asked questions

Q. Is Sunday 0 or 7?

Both, in most implementations. 0 and 7 each mean Sunday, which is why you sometimes see 0-6 and sometimes 1-7 in documentation.

Q. What timezone does cron use?

The server’s, unless the scheduler says otherwise. This is worth checking before you assume a nightly job runs at midnight where you are.

Q. What does */5 mean?

Every fifth value from the start of the range. In the minute field, */5 fires at 0, 5, 10 and so on — not "five minutes after the job last ran".