A cron expression is five fields that tell a scheduler when to run a job: minute, hour, day-of-month, month and day-of-week. For example, */5 * * * * means “every 5 minutes”. To read a cron expression, paste it into a cron tool to see it in plain English and the next run times. This guide explains each field and the common patterns.
The five fields are minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week — in that order.
An asterisk means “every”, a-b is a range, a,b is a list and */n is a step.
A cron reader translates it to plain English so you can be sure.
Seeing the next few fire times is the quickest way to verify a schedule.
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 (0–6 or SUN–SAT, where 0 and 7 are Sunday). Each field accepts a single value, a list, a range, or a step. The cron tool explains any expression and lists its next runs.
Common cron examples
*/5 * * * *— every 5 minutes.0 * * * *— at minute 0 of every hour.0 0 * * *— every day at midnight.0 9 * * 1-5— at 09:00 on weekdays (Mon–Fri).0 0 1 * *— at midnight on the 1st of each month.
The day-of-month vs day-of-week trap
If you set both the day-of-month and day-of-week fields (neither is *), standard cron runs the job when either matches, not both. That surprises many people — for example 0 0 13 * 5 runs on the 13th and on every Friday. When in doubt, check the next run times.
Tip: Times are in the server’s timezone, not yours — if a job fires at the wrong local time, check the timezone your scheduler runs in.
Read your cron expression now
Paste a cron expression to see it in plain English with the next run times — free, in your browser.
Open the Cron Expression tool →Frequently Asked Questions
What are the five cron fields?
Minute, hour, day-of-month, month and day-of-week, in that order. Each can be a value, list, range or step like */5.
What does */5 mean in cron?
A step of 5 — run every 5 units of that field. In the minute field, */5 means every 5 minutes.
How do I check when a cron runs?
Paste it into a cron reader to see plain-English meaning and the next run times.