Five fields
Minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week — space-separated, in this order.
Cron Expression Explainer
Enter a cron expression and see what it means in plain language, a field-by-field breakdown and the next run times. Everything runs in your browser.
Presets
Meaning
At 09:00, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Fields
| 0 | Minute | 0-59 |
| 9 | Hour | 0-23 |
| * | Day of month | 1-31 |
| * | Month | 1-12 |
| 1-5 | Day of week | 0-6 (0=Sun) |
Next runsTime zone: UTC
- 1.Wed, 22 Jul 2026, 09:00
- 2.Thu, 23 Jul 2026, 09:00
- 3.Fri, 24 Jul 2026, 09:00
- 4.Mon, 27 Jul 2026, 09:00
- 5.Tue, 28 Jul 2026, 09:00
Times shown are in your local time zone.
Special characters
* any value, a-b range, a,b list, */n step. Plus names: JAN–DEC and SUN–SAT.
Next runs
See the next 5 times the job will fire — shown in your local time zone.
Frequently asked questions
What is a cron expression?
A cron expression is a short string that tells a scheduler (cron) when to run a task. It has five space-separated fields: minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week.
What do the five fields mean?
In order: minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day of month (1–31), month (1–12) and day of week (0–6, where 0 and 7 are Sunday). For example, "0 9 * * 1-5" means 09:00 on every weekday.
Which special characters are supported?
Asterisk (*) — any value; hyphen (a-b) — a range; comma (a,b) — a list; slash (*/n) — a step (every n). Month names (JAN–DEC) and weekday names (SUN–SAT) are also accepted.
Which time zone are the next runs in?
The next-run times shown are in your browser’s local time zone. On a real server, cron runs in the server’s time zone (often UTC) — check the system setting if it matters.
How do day-of-month and day-of-week combine?
When both fields are restricted (not *), the job runs if EITHER one matches (a logical OR) — this is the standard Vixie cron behaviour. If one is *, only the other applies.