Cron is the scheduler behind countless servers, CI pipelines, cloud functions and backup jobs, but its five-field syntax is famously easy to get wrong. Does 0 9 * * 1-5 mean weekdays at 9 a.m.? (Yes.) What about */15 0-6 1 * *? This free cron expression generator works in both directions. Build a schedule with simple controls: every N minutes, hourly, daily at a time, weekly on chosen days, or monthly on a date. Or paste any expression and get a plain-English explanation, plus the next five run times in your time zone so you can double-check it before deploying. It understands standard crontab syntax: *, lists (1,15), ranges (1-5), steps (*/10, 5-30/5), month and weekday names (JAN, MON-FRI), Sunday written as 0 or 7, and shortcuts such as @daily and @weekly. It also applies the classic rule that confuses everyone: when both day-of-month and day-of-week are set, the job runs when either matches. Invalid fields are flagged with a clear message. Remember that cron runs in the server's time zone (often UTC), so check your server or platform settings. Everything runs in your browser.
Build a schedule
Cron syntax
| Field | Values |
|---|---|
| Minute | 0–59 |
| Hour | 0–23 |
| Day of month | 1–31 |
| Month | 1–12 or JAN–DEC |
| Day of week | 0–7 (0 and 7 = Sunday) or SUN–SAT |
Examples
*/5 * * * *: every 5 minutes0 0 * * 0: Sundays at midnight30 2 1 * *: 02:30 on the 1st of each month
FAQ
What time zone does cron use?
The server’s or platform’s configured time zone, often UTC. Next runs here are shown in your local time.
What if I set both day of month and day of week?
Standard cron runs the job when either one matches, not both.
Does it support seconds or Quartz syntax?
No. This is standard 5-field Unix cron, as used by crontab, GitHub Actions, Kubernetes and most clouds.
Is anything sent to a server?
No. It runs in your browser.
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