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Cron Expression Parser & Explainer

Parse cron expressions into plain English, review common schedule examples, and confirm the next or previous run time.

What does a cron expression mean?

A cron expression is a compact string that defines a recurring schedule. It consists of five fields: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. It is the standard scheduling format used by Unix/Linux cron daemons, CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI), cloud schedulers (AWS EventBridge, Google Cloud Scheduler), and task runners like Kubernetes CronJobs.

This tool translates any standard 5-field cron expression into a plain-English description so you can verify your schedule at a glance. It also shows the next and previous run times and includes a quick-reference panel and presets for common schedules.

Cron expression examples

  • Use */5 * * * * to check what "every 5 minutes" means in plain English
  • Confirm that 0 9 * * 1-5 runs on weekdays at 9:00 AM
  • Translate 0 0 1 * * to verify a monthly schedule
  • Compare the next and previous run for production job schedules before saving them to cron, CI, or cloud schedulers

How to use this cron expression parser

  1. Type or edit the five cron fields (minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week) in the input area.
  2. The plain-English translation updates instantly as you type.
  3. Use the presets dropdown to load common schedules like "every hour" or "weekdays at 9 AM".
  4. Check the next-run and previous-run times below the description to confirm the schedule matches your intent.

Cron expression FAQ

What do the five fields mean?

From left to right: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-6, where 0 is Sunday). An asterisk (*) means "every value" and a slash (/) sets an interval, so */5 in the minute field means "every 5 minutes".

Does this support 6-field or 7-field cron expressions?

This tool handles the standard 5-field format used by most cron daemons and cloud schedulers. Some systems add a seconds field at the start or a year field at the end; those extended formats are not supported here.

What is the difference between * and ? in cron?

In the standard 5-field cron format, only * is used. The ? character appears in some 6-7 field implementations, like Quartz, to mean "no specific value" in the day-of-month or day-of-week field. This tool uses the standard format where * serves that role.

What does */5 mean in cron?

Use */N in the minute field. For example, both of these expressions run on a repeating minute interval:

Cron expressions

*/10 * * * *
*/30 * * * *

The first runs every 10 minutes. The second runs every 30 minutes, at :00 and :30 past each hour.

Privacy

All parsing and schedule calculation happens entirely in your browser. No cron expressions are sent to any server.