0 9 * * 1-5
At 09:00, on Monday through Friday.
Cron Expression Explainer
Explain a cron schedule in plain English and see when it runs next.
Five fields: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week.
At 09:00, on Monday through Friday.
- 0
- Minute
- 9
- Hour
- *
- Day of month
- *
- Month
- 1-5
- Day of week
Next runs
…
Runs in your browser — nothing you enter is sent to a server.
How the Cron Expression Explainer works
A cron expression has five fields: minute, hour, day of the month, month and day of the week. Paste one to read it in plain English and see the next five times it will run in your time zone. Month and day names (JAN, MON), ranges (1-5), lists (9,17), steps (*/15) and macros like @daily all work.
One classic surprise: when both the day-of-month and day-of-week fields are set, cron runs when either matches — so 0 0 13 * 5 runs on every 13th and every Friday, not only on Friday the 13th.
Field reference
- minute 0–59 · hour 0–23 · day 1–31 · month 1–12 or JAN–DEC · weekday 0–7 or SUN–SAT (0 and 7 are Sunday)
- * every · , list · - range · / step
- @hourly · @daily · @weekly · @monthly · @yearly
Formula
minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week
Examples
*/5 * * * *
Every 5 minutes.
0 0 13 * 5
At 00:00, on day 13 of the month or on Friday.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my 6-field expression fail?
Standard cron has five fields. Tools like Quartz and Spring add a seconds field at the start — remove it to explain the schedule here.
Which time zone does cron use?
The server's time zone, often UTC. The next runs here are shown in your time zone, so check your server's setting.
How do I run something on the last day of the month?
Standard cron has no “last day” field (some schedulers support L). A common trick is to run on days 28–31 and check in the script whether tomorrow is the 1st.
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