What do @daily, @hourly, and @reboot mean?

They are shortcut macros. @hourly = 0 * * * *, @daily (or @midnight) = 0 0 * * *, @weekly = 0 0 * * 0, @monthly = 0 0 1 * *, and @yearly (or @annually) = 0 0 1 1 *. @reboot runs once when the system starts up, so it has no fixed time and a next run cannot be calculated.

What time zone do cron jobs run in?

By default cron uses the server's local time zone, so the same expression can fire at different wall-clock times on different machines. Many cloud schedulers such as GitHub Actions, AWS, and Vercel use UTC. The next run times in this tool are shown in your browser's local time zone for convenience, so always confirm the time zone your server uses.

Cron Expression Generator

Build a crontab schedule visually, or paste any cron expression to validate it, translate it into plain English, and preview the next run times. A free, two-way cron generator, validator, and explainer for standard 5-field Unix cron — pick a frequency, fine-tune the fields, and copy.

Presets:

Run every

minutes

Every hour, at minute

Every day at

On these days

On day of month

On day

Edit each field

minhourday(M)monthday(W)

Cron expression

minutehourday (mo)monthday (wk)

Fix the expression above to see its description and next runs.

Next runs

No upcoming runs within the next ~4 years.

Shown in your local time zone (). Cron on a server uses the server's time zone — often UTC.

Fields (in order)

minute: 0–59
hour: 0–23
day of month: 1–31
month: 1–12 or JAN–DEC
day of week: 0–7 or SUN–SAT (0/7 = Sun)

Special characters

*: Every value
,: List — 1,15,30
-: Range — 1-5
/: Step — */15

Macros

@hourly: 0 * * * *
@daily: 0 0 * * *
@weekly: 0 0 * * 0
@monthly: 0 0 1 * *
@yearly: 0 0 1 1 *
@reboot: At startup

Good to know

day-of-month + day-of-week: When both are set, cron runs on either (OR)
Time zone: Server-local; clouds often use UTC
Minimum interval: Once per minute

What is a cron expression?

A cron expression is a compact string that tells the Unix cron scheduler when to run a recurring job. It has five fields separated by spaces — minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week — and the job runs whenever the current time matches all of them. For example, 0 9 * * 1-5 means "at 9:00 AM, Monday through Friday." Cron is the backbone of scheduled tasks on Linux servers, in CI pipelines, and in many app frameworks, so getting the expression right matters.

This free cron expression generator works both ways: build a schedule with the frequency tabs, or paste an existing expression to read it back in plain English and see exactly when it will fire next.

How to use this generator

Pick a frequency tab — Minutes, Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, or Advanced — and set the inputs; the cron expression updates live. Or type/paste directly into the big expression field and watch the plain-English description and the next run times update beneath it. Invalid expressions are flagged inline so you can fix them before deploying. When it reads the way you want, hit Copy. Use the presets for the most common schedules.

Cron syntax: fields and special characters

Each field accepts more than a single number:

* — every value (e.g. every minute, every day).
, — a list: 0,15,30,45 means those four minutes.
- — a range: 1-5 in day-of-week is Monday through Friday.
/ — a step: */15 means every 15, and 0-30/10 means 0, 10, 20, 30.
Names — months accept JAN–DEC and weekdays accept SUN–SAT.

There are also shortcut macros: @hourly, @daily, @weekly, @monthly, @yearly, and @reboot (which runs once at startup).

Common cron expression examples

* * * * * — every minute
*/5 * * * * — every 5 minutes
0 * * * * — every hour, on the hour
0 0 * * * — every day at midnight
30 8 * * 1-5 — 8:30 AM on weekdays
0 0 * * 0 — every Sunday at midnight
0 0 1 * * — the 1st of every month at midnight
0 0 1 1 * — once a year, January 1st

Cron gotchas & limitations

A few things trip people up. The biggest is the day-of-month / day-of-week rule: when you set both day fields (neither is *), cron runs the job when either matches — not both — so 0 0 13 * 5 fires on the 13th and every Friday. Time zones are another: cron uses the server's local time, while GitHub Actions, AWS, and Vercel default to UTC — the next-run times here use your browser's zone, so always confirm the server's. Cron also can't go sub-minute (one minute is the floor) and can't express things like "every other week" or "the last weekday of the month" directly. For seconds-level precision or those calendar rules, reach for Quartz/6-field cron, systemd timers, or your framework's scheduler.

Cron isn't identical on every platform. Standard Unix/Linux crontab — and this tool — uses five fields. Quartz (Java/Spring) and AWS EventBridge use a six- or seven-field format that adds a seconds field and a year, plus special characters like ?, L, W, and # — and Quartz/AWS require a ? in either the day-of-month or day-of-week field. Schedulers such as node-cron make the seconds field optional. When you copy an expression from here, confirm whether your scheduler expects 5-field Unix syntax or a 6-field Quartz-style format.

Need to style the UI around your scheduled dashboards? Try our other free tools — the CSS Flexbox and CSS Grid generators for layout, and the CSS Box Shadow Generator for depth.

Frequently asked questions

A cron expression is a string of five fields that tells the cron scheduler when to run a job: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. For example, 0 9 * * 1-5 means 9:00 AM on weekdays. Each field accepts specific values, ranges (1-5), lists (1,3,5), steps (*/15), and * for "every".

From left to right: minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day of month (1–31), month (1–12 or JAN–DEC), and day of week (0–7, where both 0 and 7 are Sunday, or SUN–SAT). A job runs whenever the current time matches all five fields.

The slash is a step value. */5 in the minute field means "every 5 minutes" (0, 5, 10, … 55). You can combine it with a range, e.g. 0-30/10 means minutes 0, 10, 20, and 30. So */5 * * * * runs every five minutes.

Both restrict which day a job runs, but there's a catch: when you set both the day-of-month and the day-of-week fields (neither is *), cron runs the job when either one matches, not both. For example, 0 0 1 * 1 runs at midnight on the 1st of the month and on every Monday. Leave one of the two day fields as * to avoid surprises.

They're shortcut macros. @hourly = 0 * * * *, @daily/@midnight = 0 0 * * *, @weekly = 0 0 * * 0, @monthly = 0 0 1 * *, and @yearly/@annually = 0 0 1 1 *. @reboot runs once when the system starts up — there's no fixed time, so a "next run" can't be calculated.

By default cron uses the server's local time zone, so the same expression can fire at different wall-clock times on different machines. Many cloud schedulers (GitHub Actions, AWS, Vercel) use UTC. The next run times in this tool are shown in your browser's local time zone for convenience, so always confirm the time zone your server uses.

Standard Unix cron has a minimum granularity of one minute and can't schedule sub-minute jobs. The common workaround is a job that runs every minute and sleeps in a loop, or a dedicated scheduler. Some formats — Quartz, node-cron — add a seconds field for finer control.

Unix cron uses five fields (minute through day-of-week). Quartz (Java/Spring) and some others use six or seven fields, adding seconds and sometimes a year, and support extra characters like ? (no specific value), L (last), W (nearest weekday), and # (nth weekday). This generator targets standard 5-field Unix cron.