Cron Expression Generator Free
See what a cron expression means in plain English and when it runs next. Build one field by field or start from a preset.
* means every value, */5 means every 5, 1-5 means 1 through 5, and 1,3,5 means 1, 3, and 5. Weekdays can also be written as MON, TUE, and so on.
Common presets
Next 10 run times
About this tool
Covers the standard 5-field Unix crontab format (minute, hour, day, month, weekday). Formats with seconds or years, such as Quartz or AWS EventBridge, use a different number of fields and are not supported.
When both day-of-month and day-of-week are set, it follows crontab's rule and runs on any day that matches either one.
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to our server.
When to use it
Useful for checking what a cron string in a crontab, a CI pipeline, or a server task scheduler actually does before you deploy it.
Also useful for building a schedule from scratch without memorizing the field order, either by filling in each field or starting from a common preset like "weekdays at 9:00".
How to use
- Enter a cron expression to see what it means in plain language and its next 10 run times.
- Or fill in the minute, hour, day, month, and weekday fields individually, or click a common preset to build one.
- Choose whether the next run times use this computer's time zone or UTC, then copy the expression with "Copy expression".
How the 5 fields work
From left to right: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-7, where 0 and 7 are both Sunday). * means every value, */5 means every 5 units, 9-17 means 9 through 17, and 1,3,5 means 1, 3, and 5.
For example, "0 9 * * 1-5" runs at 9:00 on weekdays, "*/10 * * * *" runs every 10 minutes, and "0 0 1 * *" runs at midnight on the first of each month.
Supported syntax
Supports the standard 5-field Unix crontab format, plus shortcuts like @daily and @hourly.
Formats that add a seconds field or use symbols like ? L W # (such as Quartz or AWS EventBridge) have a different meaning and field count, and are not supported.
FAQ
- What happens if I set both day of month and day of week?
- Following crontab's rule, the job runs on any day matching either field. For example, "0 9 13 * 5" runs at 9:00 on the 13th and at 9:00 every Friday.
- The next run times don't match my server's clock.
- Cron runs in the time zone of the machine it's scheduled on. If your server runs in UTC, switch "time zone for the next run times" to UTC to match it.