Cron Expression Parser

Paste any cron expression and get a plain-English explanation with field-by-field breakdown, next run times, and validation.

Cron Expression

Cron Expression Examples

Click any example to parse it:

Expression	Meaning
* * * * *	Every minute
/5 * * *	Every 5 minutes
/15 * * *	Every 15 minutes
0 * * * *	Every hour at minute 0
0 /2 * *	Every 2 hours
0 0 * * *	Daily at midnight
0 6 * * *	Daily at 6:00 AM
30 8 * * 1-5	Weekdays at 8:30 AM
0 9 * * 1	Every Monday at 9:00 AM
0 0 * * 0	Every Sunday at midnight
0 0 1 * *	First day of every month
0 0 1,15 * *	1st and 15th of every month
0 0 1 1 *	January 1st at midnight
0 12 * * 1-5	Weekdays at noon
/10 9-17 * *	Every 10 min during business hours (9-17)
0 0 * * 6,0	Weekends at midnight

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you read a cron expression?

A cron expression has 5 fields separated by spaces: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-6, Sunday=0). Read left to right. For example, "30 9 * * 1-5" means "at minute 30, hour 9, any day of month, any month, Monday through Friday" — or simply "weekdays at 9:30 AM".

What does */5 mean in cron?

The */N syntax means "every N units." So */5 in the minute field means "every 5 minutes" (at 0, 5, 10, 15, ..., 55). The * matches all values, and /5 is the step. You can also use a start value: 2/5 means "every 5 minutes starting at minute 2" (2, 7, 12, 17, ...).

What is the difference between 5-field and 6-field cron?

Standard Unix cron uses 5 fields: minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week. Some systems add a 6th field: seconds (at the beginning, used by Spring, Quartz) or year (at the end, used by AWS CloudWatch). This tool supports the standard 5-field format. If your system uses 6 fields, simply omit the seconds or year field when using this parser.