See the minute, hour, day of the month, month and day of the week each in words, with the allowed range beside it. Ranges, lists, steps such as */15, names such as MON-FRI and shortcuts such as @daily are understood.
Date & Time
Cron Expression Explainer
Translate a cron schedule such as 0 9 * * 1-5 into words, see what each field means, and check the next times it will run before you deploy it.
Quick guide
How to use this tool
Type a cron expression such as 0 9 * * 1-5, or choose one of the Common schedules. It can have 5 fields, or 6 with seconds first, and shortcuts such as @daily work.
Read the plain-English summary and the table that explains each field. If something is wrong, the message names the field and the value.
Choose the time zone to show the times in, matching the machine that runs the job, and check the next ten run times. Turn on 24-hour clock if you prefer it.
How to use this tool
Type a cron expression such as 0 9 * * 1-5, or choose one of the Common schedules. It can have 5 fields, or 6 with seconds first, and shortcuts such as @daily work.
Read the plain-English summary and the table that explains each field. If something is wrong, the message names the field and the value.
Choose the time zone to show the times in, matching the machine that runs the job, and check the next ten run times. Turn on 24-hour clock if you prefer it.
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What it handles
Know when a job runs before it runs.
Cron schedules are compact and easy to get wrong: swap two fields and a nightly job becomes an hourly one. This shows what an expression means and when it will really fire.
The real upcoming dates and times, counted the way cron counts them, including the rule that a day of the month and a day of the week together match when either does.
Show the times in your zone, UTC or any city, and see how daylight saving changes them. A time that a clock skips in spring is left out, and one that repeats in autumn is listed once.
Frequently asked questions
What are the five fields of a cron expression?
In order: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of the month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of the week (0-6, Sunday is 0). Some systems add a sixth field for seconds at the start, which this tool also reads.
Why does 0 0 13 * 5 run on more days than I expected?
When both the day of the month and the day of the week are set, cron runs the job when either one matches, so this runs on every 13th and on every Friday. If only one of them is set, it alone decides.
What time zone does cron use?
The clock of the machine or service that runs it, which is often UTC on servers and cloud schedulers. Choose that zone above to see the run times as they will really happen.
What do */5 and 1-5 mean?
A star with a slash is a step: */5 in the minute field is every fifth minute, 0, 5, 10 and so on. 1-5 is a range, so in the day of the week field it is Monday to Friday. A comma makes a list, such as 1,15.
Does it support Quartz or AWS cron with L, W, # or a year?
No. This tool reads standard cron. Those extras belong to other schedulers, and it will say so if it sees them.