Cron Expression Generator
Visual cron expression builder with presets, human-readable descriptions, and next run time calculations.
What is a Cron Expression?
Cron is the time-based job scheduler that has run on Unix systems since 1975 — and the format invented for it is still how nearly every CI runner, container orchestrator, and serverless platform expresses recurring schedules today. A cron expression is five whitespace-separated fields: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. Each field accepts numbers, ranges (
1-5), lists (1,15,30), wildcards (*), and step values (*/5). The grammar is small but easy to misread — 0 0 * * 0looks like "midnight every day" until you remember the trailing 0 means Sunday only. This generator builds expressions visually, parses pasted ones, and previews the next 5 run times so you catch mistakes before they hit production. Pair it with the Unix Timestamp Converter to verify run times across time zones, or use the Regex Tester when wrangling log timestamps from cron output.Visual Builder
Presets
Manual
Minute0-59, * for every, */5 for every 5 minutes
Hour0-23, * for every, */2 for every 2 hours
Day of Month1-31, * for every, 1,15 for specific days
Month1-12, * for every, 1-6 for Jan through Jun
Day of Week0-6 (0=Sunday), * for every, 1-5 for weekdays
Generated Expression
* * * * *
Every minute
Next 5 Runs:
5/27/2026, 4:00:00 PM5/27/2026, 4:01:00 PM5/27/2026, 4:02:00 PM5/27/2026, 4:03:00 PM5/27/2026, 4:04:00 PM
Cron Reference
Special Characters
* Any value
, Value list separator
- Range of values
/ Step values
Day of Week Values
0=Sun1=Mon2=Tue3=Wed4=Thu5=Fri6=Sat
How to use this tool
- 1Pick a preset or start from a fieldChoose every-5-minutes, hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly to seed an expression — then tweak the visual fields as needed.
- 2Adjust minute, hour, day, month, weekdayEach field offers checkboxes, ranges, and step inputs. The expression updates live as you click, with a human-readable description below.
- 3Verify against the next-runs previewThe next 5 firing times appear in your local time zone. If they don't match expectations, the expression is wrong — fix it before deploying.