What is a cron expression?

A cron expression is a string of five fields that define when a scheduled task runs: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-7, where 0 and 7 are both Sunday).

What does * mean in a cron expression?

An asterisk (*) means "every valid value" for that field. For example, * in the minute field means "every minute"; * in the hour field means "every hour".

What does / mean in a cron expression?

A slash (/) is used for step values. For example, */5 in the minute field means "every 5 minutes"; 0/2 in the hour field means "every 2 hours starting from midnight".

How do I run a job every weekday?

Use 1-5 in the day-of-week field: for example, "0 9 * * 1-5" runs at 9:00 AM every Monday through Friday.

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

Standard Unix cron uses 5 fields (no seconds). Quartz Scheduler and some cloud platforms use 6 fields (adding seconds as the first field). This parser handles standard 5-field cron — check your scheduler documentation for 6-field support.

Cron Expression Parser — Decode & Build Cron Schedules Online

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cron expression parser

About Cron Expression Parser & Builder

Paste a cron expression to get a plain-English description of when it runs and preview upcoming execution times — or build a schedule from the individual minute/hour/day/month/weekday fields.

Last reviewed

June 23, 2026

Key Features

Translates cron expressions to plain-English descriptions
Shows the next set of scheduled run times
Supports standard 5-field cron syntax
Validates individual field ranges and special characters
Useful for CI/CD schedules, cron jobs, and task schedulers

How to Use Cron Expression Parser & Builder

1Enter a cron expression in the five-field format (min hour day month weekday).
2Review the plain-English description of when the job runs.
3Check the next run times to confirm the schedule is correct.
4Use the validated schedule in your cron job, CI pipeline, or scheduler config.

Daily midnight backup example

"0 0 * * *" runs at 00:00 every day. Entering it in the parser confirms "At 12:00 AM, every day" and shows the next occurrence dates — a useful sanity check before adding any expression to a production cron job.

How It Works

The parser interprets each of the five cron fields (minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week) according to standard cron syntax, then generates a human-readable description and a set of upcoming execution times.

Privacy Notes

Cron expressions are parsed in the browser. No input is transmitted to a server.

Limitations

The tool handles standard 5-field cron syntax. Non-standard extensions such as seconds (6-field Quartz cron), predefined nicknames (@daily, @weekly), or vendor-specific syntax may differ from what your specific scheduler uses. Always verify behavior in your target environment.

Frequently Asked Questions

cron expression parser

About Cron Expression Parser & Builder

Paste a cron expression to get a plain-English description of when it runs and preview upcoming execution times — or build a schedule from the individual minute/hour/day/month/weekday fields.

Last reviewed

June 23, 2026

Key Features

Translates cron expressions to plain-English descriptions
Shows the next set of scheduled run times
Supports standard 5-field cron syntax
Validates individual field ranges and special characters
Useful for CI/CD schedules, cron jobs, and task schedulers

How to Use Cron Expression Parser & Builder

1Enter a cron expression in the five-field format (min hour day month weekday).
2Review the plain-English description of when the job runs.
3Check the next run times to confirm the schedule is correct.
4Use the validated schedule in your cron job, CI pipeline, or scheduler config.

Daily midnight backup example

How It Works

Privacy Notes

Cron expressions are parsed in the browser. No input is transmitted to a server.

Cron Expression Parser & Builder

About Cron Expression Parser & Builder

Key Features

How to Use Cron Expression Parser & Builder

Daily midnight backup example

How It Works

Privacy Notes

Limitations

Frequently Asked Questions

1What is a cron expression?

2What does * mean in a cron expression?

3What does / mean in a cron expression?

4How do I run a job every weekday?

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

Cron Expression Parser & Builder

About Cron Expression Parser & Builder

Key Features

How to Use Cron Expression Parser & Builder

Daily midnight backup example

How It Works

Privacy Notes

Limitations

Frequently Asked Questions

1What is a cron expression?

2What does * mean in a cron expression?

3What does / mean in a cron expression?

4How do I run a job every weekday?

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