Cron Expression Parser
Translate complex cron schedules into human-readable text and calculate upcoming execution times.
Cron Schedule
Parsing Results
Enter a valid expression to see description.
No executions to display.
What is a Cron Expression?
A cron expression is a string representing a schedule to execute a routine task, originally used by the cron command-line utility in Unix-like operating systems. It is widely used in software development for scheduling background jobs, database backups, sending emails, and executing recurring tasks.
Cron Syntax Explained
A standard cron expression consists of 5 fields separated by white space. Some implementations support a 6th field for seconds or years, but standard UNIX cron uses 5:
| Position | Field | Allowed Values |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minute | 0-59 |
| 2 | Hour | 0-23 |
| 3 | Day of month | 1-31 |
| 4 | Month | 1-12 (or JAN-DEC) |
| 5 | Day of week | 0-7 (0 or 7 is Sunday, or SUN-SAT) |
Special Characters
*(Asterisk): Represents "all possible values" for a field. E.g.,*in the hour field means "every hour".,(Comma): Specifies a list of values. E.g.,1,15,30means those specific minutes or days.-(Hyphen): Specifies a range of values. E.g.,1-5means 1 through 5./(Slash): Specifies step values. E.g.,*/10means "every 10 increments" (every 10 minutes if in the minute field).