Cron expression generator, calculator and validator.
Type a cron expression to validate it, read it in plain English and calculate its next run times — or describe a schedule in plain English to generate the cron. Free, no login, nothing saved.
Every 5 minutes.
*/5 * * * *Standard 5-field crontab syntax. Day of month and day of week are OR'd when both are set.
See the next ten runs and how often a schedule fires in the cron calculator, or check an expression for mistakes with the cron validator.
Cron syntax reference
Five fields, separated by spaces, in this order.
*every value in the field,list: 1,15,30-range: 9-17/step: */5, 10-50/10Full cron format and syntax cheatsheet →
Common schedules
Tap any one to load it into the tool.
Browse all cron expression examples →
Questions
What does */5 * * * * mean?
It runs every 5 minutes — at minute 0, 5, 10 … 55 of every hour, every day. The slash is a step: */5 in the minute field means “start at 0 and repeat every 5”.
What order are the five fields in?
Minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week. A sixth leading field for seconds exists in some schedulers (Quartz, node-cron) but standard crontab has five.
Why did my job run on a day I didn't expect?
If you restrict both day of month and day of week, cron treats them as OR, not AND. 0 0 13 * 5 runs on the 13th and on every Friday. Leave one of the two as * to avoid surprises.
What timezone does cron use?
The system timezone of the machine running it, unless the scheduler lets you set one (CRON_TZ=, or a timezone option). Run times on this page use your browser's timezone.
Can I run something every 30 seconds?
Not with standard cron — one minute is the smallest interval. Use a one-minute job with a sleep, a systemd timer, or a scheduler with seconds support.
What's the difference between 0 */2 * * * and * */2 * * *?
The first runs once at the top of every second hour. The second runs every minute during those hours — 60 times more often. Don't leave the minute field as *.