Question 1

What is a cron expression?

Accepted Answer

A cron expression is a string of 5 fields (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week) that defines a recurring schedule. It's used by Unix/Linux systems, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud schedulers to run tasks automatically.

Question 2

How do I run a cron job every 5 minutes?

Accepted Answer

Use the expression */5 * * * *. The */5 in the minute field means 'every 5th minute'. The asterisks in other fields mean 'every hour, every day, every month, every weekday'.

Question 3

What does */5 mean in cron?

Accepted Answer

The */ syntax means 'every Nth'. So */5 in the minute field means every 5 minutes (0, 5, 10, 15...), */2 in the hour field means every 2 hours, etc.

Question 4

How to schedule a weekly cron job?

Accepted Answer

Set the day-of-week field (5th field) to the desired day: 0=Sunday, 1=Monday, ..., 6=Saturday. For example, 0 9 * * 1 runs every Monday at 9:00 AM.

Question 5

What timezone does cron use?

Accepted Answer

Traditional cron uses the system's local timezone. Cloud services (AWS, GCP) often use UTC. Always check your platform's documentation. This tool lets you preview next runs in both UTC and local time.

Question 6

Can I use natural language to create cron expressions?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Type something like 'Every Monday at 3AM' or 'Every 5 minutes' in the natural language field above, and the cron expression will be generated automatically.

Field	Range	Special	Example
Minute	0-59	* , - /	*/15
Hour	0-23	* , - /	9-17
Day of Month	1-31	* , - /	1,15
Month	1-12	* , - /	1-6
Day of Week	0-6	* , - /	1-5

Cron Schedule Generator

Cron Expression Syntax

FAQ

Related Tools