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Cron Expression Generator — free, and it runs in your browser

Build and read cron schedules without memorising the syntax.

  • Build a cron expression from plain choices instead of memorising five fields.
  • Reads an existing expression back in English, so you can check what it does.
  • Shows the next run times, which is how you catch an off-by-one before it ships.

* * * * *

Every minute.

Common schedules

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    Of your files or text uploaded — this tool runs in the tab

  • No queue

    The work happens in this tab, not in a line behind other users

Three steps, nothing to install

Cron Expression Generator in three steps

  1. Set it up the way you need it

    Describe the schedule

    Choose the minutes, hours, days and months you want. No syntax to remember and no chance of a misplaced asterisk.

  2. GenerateFresh values on every press

    Read it back in English

    The expression is described in words and the upcoming run times are listed, so you can confirm it means what you intended.

  3. Copy CRON

    Copy the expression

    Paste it into a crontab, a CI schedule or a scheduler configuration.

Why use Cron Expression Generator

  • Both directions

    It builds an expression and it explains one. Inheriting a job that runs at an unexplained time is the more common problem of the two.

  • Next runs, listed

    An expression that looks right and fires at the wrong time costs a day to notice. Seeing the actual upcoming times catches it in seconds.

  • Free, with nothing to sign up for

    No account, no watermark, no daily cap and no trial that expires. Every tool on this site behaves the same way.

Frequently asked questions

In order: 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). An asterisk means "every".

Reading a cron expression

Cron syntax is five space-separated fields describing when a job should run. Each field accepts an asterisk for “every”, a single number, a comma-separated list, a range with a hyphen, or a step with a slash. They combine, so 0 9-17/2 * * 1-5 means every two hours between 9am and 5pm on weekdays.

The day-of-month and day-of-week trap

This is the one that catches experienced people. When both the day-of-month and day-of-week fields are restricted, cron runs the job if either matches, not both. 0 0 13 * 5 runs on the 13th of every month and on every Friday — not only on Friday the 13th. If you need an AND, leave one field as * and check the other condition inside your script.

Practical advice

  • Avoid scheduling everything at 0 0. Spreading jobs across the hour keeps a server from being hammered on the hour, every hour.
  • Be careful in the 1am–3am window if your server observes daylight saving. A job at 2:30am can run twice or be skipped entirely.
  • Cron does not prevent overlap. If a job takes longer than its interval, you get two copies running — use a lock file if that matters.

To convert the timestamps that appear in job logs, use the Unix timestamp converter.

Often used alongside

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