Read a cron schedule in plain English, check it for mistakes and see when it runs next.

How Cron Schedules Work
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What is a cron expression?

cron runs commands on a schedule on Linux and other Unix systems, and many other schedulers borrowed its notation. A schedule is five fields: minute, hour, day of the month, month and day of the week.

A command runs in every minute that matches all five. 5 4 * * * is minute 5 of hour 4 on any day: every day at 04:05.

How to Use
  • Type an expression, such as */15 9-17 * * 1-5. It is read in plain English above the field as you type.
  • Under the field, the part the cursor is in is marked, and the table below shows the values that part takes.
  • Warnings appear under the field when a schedule runs more often than it looks, skips a day, or meets the switch to summer time.
  • The next runs are listed in your time zone, 5, 20 or 50 of them, and The coming week shows them hour by hour.
  • Build a schedule puts an expression together from plain choices.
  • The copy button beside the dice copies the expression. The dice and the buttons fill in an example, and the address bar follows, so a link opens the same schedule.
Worked Examples
*/15 * * * *every 15 minutes
0 9-17 * * 1-5on the hour from 09:00 to 17:00, Monday to Friday
0 0 1 * *at midnight on the first of every month
30 2 * * 0at 02:30 every Sunday
Important Notes
  • When both the day of the month and the day of the week are set, cron runs on either: 0 0 13 * 5 is every 13th and every Friday, not only Friday the 13th.
  • cron uses the time zone of the machine it runs on. The next runs here are in yours.
  • A day that does not exist, such as 0 0 30 2 *, never comes.
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Next runs

    The coming week

    Runs per hour, from today, in your time zone.

    Build a schedule

    Each change here writes the expression at the top.

    to
    On

    Characters

    *
    any value
    ,
    list of values: 1,15
    -
    range of values: 1-5
    /
    step values: */10, 0-30/5
    @yearly
    once a year, 0 0 1 1 *; also @annually
    @monthly
    0 0 1 * *
    @weekly
    0 0 * * 0
    @daily
    0 0 * * *; also @midnight
    @hourly
    0 * * * *
    @reboot
    once, when cron starts

    Allowed values

    minute
    0-59
    hour
    0-23
    day (month)
    1-31
    month
    1-12 or JAN-DEC
    day (week)
    0-6 or SUN-SAT, and 7 for Sunday on most systems