Cron Parser

Cron Expression Parser

Translate cron expressions into plain English. See the next 5 scheduled run times, get a field-by-field breakdown, and pick from 15+ common presets.

Plain-English Description Next 5 Runs Field Breakdown 15+ Presets @daily / @reboot support
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The 5 Cron Fields

Every cron expression has exactly five space-separated fields — here is what each one controls.

Field Position Allowed Values Special Chars Example
Minute1st0–59* , - /30 (at :30 past the hour)
Hour2nd0–23* , - /14 (2:00 PM)
Day of Month3rd1–31* , - / ? L W15 (15th of month)
Month4th1–12 or JAN–DEC* , - /6 (June)
Day of Week5th0–7 or SUN–SAT* , - / ? L #1 (Monday)

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 5 fields in a cron expression?
A standard 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 represent Sunday). Special characters include * (any), , (list), - (range), and / (step). For example, */15 * * * * runs every 15 minutes.
What is the difference between cron and systemd timers?
Cron is the classic Unix job scheduler, configured through crontab files, and is available on virtually every Linux/macOS system. Systemd timers are a more modern alternative on systems using systemd. Timers support monotonic clocks, have logging via journald, and can be made persistent to catch up on missed runs. Cron is simpler for basic scheduling.
How does cron handle timezones?
By default, cron runs in the system's local timezone. Most cron implementations don't support per-job timezone settings natively. To run a job in a specific timezone, prepend the command with TZ=America/New_York or set the CRON_TZ variable at the top of the crontab. Some extended cron systems and hosting platforms support a CRON_TZ directive directly.
What are @reboot and other special cron strings?
Many cron implementations support shorthand strings: @reboot (run once at startup), @yearly or @annually (0 0 1 1 *), @monthly (0 0 1 * *), @weekly (0 0 * * 0), @daily or @midnight (0 0 * * *), and @hourly (0 * * * *). These are convenient aliases that improve readability.

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