CRON Expression Parser

Parse and understand CRON expressions. See human-readable descriptions and upcoming execution times.

CRON Expression
Enter your CRON expression or select an example
MIN
HOUR
DOM
MON
DOW
0-59
0-23
1-31
1-12
0-7
Human-Readable Description

Enter a CRON expression to see its description

Next Execution Dates
Upcoming scheduled times based on current date

Enter a valid CRON expression to see upcoming dates

What is a CRON Expression?

A CRON expression is a string representing a schedule for executing tasks at specific times. It's used by cron, a time-based job scheduler in Unix-like operating systems, and many other scheduling systems.

CRON Syntax

A standard CRON expression consists of 5 fields:

┌───────────── minute (0 - 59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0 - 23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1 - 31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1 - 12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0 - 7, 0 and 7 are Sunday)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *

Special Characters

| Character | Description | Example | |-----------|-------------|---------| | * | Any value | * * * * * (every minute) | | , | Value list separator | 1,15 * * * * (at minute 1 and 15) | | - | Range of values | 1-5 * * * * (minutes 1 through 5) | | / | Step values | */15 * * * * (every 15 minutes) |

Common Examples

| Expression | Description | |------------|-------------| | 0 0 * * * | Every day at midnight | | 0 */2 * * * | Every 2 hours | | 0 9-17 * * 1-5 | Every hour from 9-5 on weekdays | | 0 0 1 * * | First day of every month | | 0 0 * * 0 | Every Sunday at midnight |

Use Cases

  • Backup scripts - Schedule regular database backups
  • Log rotation - Clean up old log files
  • Email digests - Send daily or weekly reports
  • Data sync - Synchronize data between systems
  • Cache clearing - Periodically clear application caches