Cron Expression Examples & Cheat Sheet

⏰Free Cron Expression Explainer
Translate cron schedules to plain English + next runs.Open tool →

Common schedules

Every minute: * * * * * · Every 5 minutes: */5 * * * * · Every hour: 0 * * * * · Daily at 9:00: 0 9 * * * · Weekdays at 8:30: 30 8 * * 1-5 · Every Monday at 6:00: 0 6 * * 1 · First of the month at midnight: 0 0 1 * * · Every 15 minutes during business hours on weekdays: */15 9-17 * * 1-5

How the fields work

* means every value, */n means every n, a-b is a range, a,b is a list. Day of week runs 0-6 with Sunday as 0 (7 is also Sunday on many systems).

Watch the time zone

Servers usually run cron in UTC. 0 9 * * * on a UTC server runs at 9:00 UTC, not your local 9:00.

Check before you deploy

Paste an expression into the Cron Expression Explainer to see it in plain English and the next 5 run times.

Frequently asked questions

What does @daily mean?

Same as 0 0 * * * – midnight every day.

Can cron run every 30 seconds?

Not in standard 5-field cron; run a script twice per minute instead.

Day of month AND day of week?

If both are restricted, most cron versions run when either matches.