Cron Expression Generator
Build cron expressions with a visual field editor or type them directly. Get an instant human-readable description and the next 5 scheduled run times in your local timezone.
Cron expression format
A standard Unix cron expression has five space-separated fields: minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day of month (1–31), month (1–12), and day of week (0–7, where both 0 and 7 mean Sunday). Each field accepts a number, a wildcard (*), a range (1–5), a step (*/15), or a comma-separated list (1,3,5).
Where cron is used
Cron runs scheduled tasks on Unix/Linux systems. You'll encounter cron expressions in: Linux crontab files, GitHub Actions scheduled workflows (on: schedule), Kubernetes CronJobs, AWS EventBridge Scheduler, cloud function triggers (GCP Cloud Scheduler, Azure Logic Apps), and CI/CD pipelines for nightly builds, automated backups, and report generation.
Common gotchas
Day-of-month and day-of-week use OR semantics — "0 0 1 * 1" means "midnight on the 1st OR every Monday", not the intersection. Month values start at 1 (January), but day-of-week can start at 0 or 7 for Sunday (both are valid). Many platforms extend the standard 5-field format with a 6th seconds field or a 7th year field — this tool handles standard 5-field Unix cron only.
