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Test cron expressions with human-readable descriptions and next 10 run times.
Cron is the time-based job scheduler found in Unix-like operating systems. It uses a concise expression format to define when tasks should run — from simple schedules like "every day at midnight" to complex patterns like "every weekday at 9:30 AM in January and July." Despite being invented in the 1970s, cron expressions remain the most widely used scheduling format in DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, cloud functions, and backend services.
A standard cron expression has five space-separated fields: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12 or JAN-DEC), and day of week (0-6 or SUN-SAT). Each field accepts specific values, ranges (1-5), lists (1,3,5), and step values (*/10). An asterisk (*) means "every possible value" for that field.
0 0 * * * — Midnight daily. 0 */2 * * * — Every 2 hours. 0 9 * * 1-5 — Weekdays at 9 AM. 0 0 1 * * — First day of every month at midnight. */15 * * * * — Every 15 minutes. These patterns cover the vast majority of scheduling needs for log rotation, backups, report generation, and health checks.
The most common cron mistakes include confusing the day-of-week numbering (is Sunday 0 or 7?), forgetting that month and day-of-week fields are OR-combined (not AND), and timezone mismatches between development and production. This tester solves these problems by showing the human-readable interpretation and the exact next 10 execution times, so you can verify your expression matches your intent before deploying it.
Pro includes execution history, next-run previews for 100+ dates, and timezone-aware scheduling.
A cron expression is a string of five (or six) fields that defines a schedule for recurring tasks. The standard five fields represent: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-6, where 0 is Sunday). Special characters like * (any), / (step), - (range), and , (list) allow complex scheduling.
The expression * * * * * means 'every minute of every hour of every day of every month on every day of the week' — in other words, it runs once per minute, 1,440 times per day.
Use the expression */5 * * * * — the */5 in the minute field means 'every 5th minute' (at :00, :05, :10, :15, etc.). This is one of the most common cron patterns for health checks and polling tasks.
Standard Unix cron uses 5 fields (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week). Some systems like Quartz and Spring add a sixth field for seconds at the beginning. This tool supports the standard 5-field format.
Yes. The next 10 run times are calculated and displayed in your browser's local timezone. Cron jobs on servers typically run in the server's configured timezone (often UTC).
Cron Expression Tester is part of BriskTool's collection of free online tools. All processing runs entirely in your browser for maximum privacy and speed.