Validate, build, and explain cron expressions with human-readable descriptions and next run schedules.
Loading tool
About Crontab generator
Builds and validates standard 5-field cron expressions (minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week). You can type an expression or set each field from a list, and the tool explains it in plain English and lists the next 10 run times in your local time zone. Presets cover common schedules, and macros such as @daily and @hourly are expanded.
Common uses
- Write a crontab line for a backup or cleanup job
- Check what an existing cron expression in a config actually means
- Confirm the next run times before deploying a scheduled job
- Build schedules like 'weekdays at 09:00' or 'every 15 minutes'
FAQ
- What do the five cron fields mean?
- In order: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12 or JAN-DEC) and day of week (0-7 or SUN-SAT, where 0 and 7 are both Sunday).
- How do I run a cron job every 5 minutes?
- Use */5 * * * *. The */5 step in the minute field matches minutes 0, 5, 10 and so on.
- What happens when both day of month and day of week are set?
- In standard cron, if both fields are restricted (neither is *), the job runs when either one matches, not only when both match.
- Does this support 6-field cron with seconds?
- No. It handles the classic 5-field format used by Unix crontab and most schedulers, plus the @yearly, @monthly, @weekly, @daily and @hourly macros.