Quick Answer
What is a cron expression?
// Answer
A cron expression is a five-field string that defines a schedule: minute, hour, day-of-month, month, and day-of-week. For example, 0 9 * * 1-5 means "at 9:00 AM every weekday." An asterisk (*) means "every" value for that field.
The five fields
| Field | Allowed values |
|---|---|
| Minute | 0–59 |
| Hour | 0–23 |
| Day of month | 1–31 |
| Month | 1–12 |
| Day of week | 0–6 (Sun–Sat) |
Why use this tool
Schedule with confidence
Cron syntax is terse and easy to misremember. Build your schedule field by field, confirm it in plain English, and copy it into your crontab or CI config.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
An asterisk means "every" possible value for that field — every minute, every hour, and so on.
Use 0 9 * * 1-5 for 9 AM Monday through Friday. The 1-5 covers Monday to Friday.
Yes. Use 1-5 for ranges, 1,3,5 for lists, and */15 for "every 15" in a field.
Yes, the expression is built entirely in your browser.
More tools