Cron Expression Parser & Generator
What Is a Cron Expression?
A cron expression is a string of five (or six) space-separated fields that defines when a scheduled task should run. Originally from Unix cron daemons, cron expressions are now used universally — in CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI), cloud schedulers (AWS EventBridge, Google Cloud Scheduler), task queues (Celery, Sidekiq), container orchestrators (Kubernetes CronJobs), and application frameworks. The five standard fields are: minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day of month (1–31), month (1–12), and day of week (0–6, Sunday=0). Special characters include * (any value), , (list), - (range), and / (step/interval). For example, */15 * * * * means every 15 minutes, and 0 9 * * 1-5 means every weekday at 9:00 AM.
Cron Syntax Reference
A cron expression has five space-separated fields. Special characters: * (any), , (list), - (range), / (step).
| Field | Allowed Values | Special Chars |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | 0–59 | * , - / |
| Hour | 0–23 | * , - / |
| Day of Month | 1–31 | * , - / |
| Month | 1–12 | * , - / |
| Day of Week | 0–6 (Sun=0, Sat=6) | * , - / |
How to Use This Tool
- Paste any cron expression into the Parser tab input, or click one of the preset buttons (e.g. 'Every 15 min', 'Weekdays 9–17').
- The tool instantly translates the expression into plain English and shows the next 10 scheduled run times in your local timezone.
- Switch to the Generator tab to build an expression visually — choose from Every, Every N, Specific, or Range for each field.
- Copy the generated expression with the Copy button, or click 'Open in Parser' to verify its schedule.