What do the five fields mean?

In order: minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week. An asterisk means every value, so "0 9 * * 1" is nine o'clock on a Monday.

Why does my job run more often than I expected?

Almost always a step or a range read the wrong way. "*/15" is every fifteen minutes, not at quarter past; "0 */2 * * *" is every second hour, not twice a day. The next-five-runs list is the quickest way to see which you actually wrote.

What happens if I set both day of month and day of week?

Cron treats them as OR, not AND - the job runs when either matches. This surprises people who expect "the 1st, but only if it is a Monday" and get every 1st plus every Monday.

Which time zone are the next runs shown in?

Your own, as your browser reports it. The machine running the real cron job may well be on UTC, so check before trusting the times.

Does it handle @daily and the other shorthands?

It is built for the five-field form. Write the equivalent expression - @daily is "0 0 * * *" - and you get the translation and the run times too.

Stays on your computer How this works

Free cron expression explainer

Turn a cron expression into plain English, and see when it next runs — entirely in your browser

Type a cron expression above.

24-hour clockVerbose wording

*/15Minute0–59

9-17Hour0–23

*Day of month1–31

*Month1–12

1-5Day of week0–6

Common schedules

When both day-of-month and day-of-week are restricted, cron runs on either, not both — so 0 0 13 * 5 fires on the 13th and on every Friday.

About this cron expression translator

Turns a crontab expression into a plain-English description and lists the next few times it will actually fire, which is usually the faster way to catch a mistake than re-reading the five fields.

Ranges, steps and lists are all handled, including the ones that read correctly but do not mean what they look like. It is free to use, with no account and no upload limit, and it runs entirely in your browser: nothing is uploaded, and while the page stays open, a feature you have already used keeps working offline.

What you can do

Translate a cron expression into plain English
See the next five times a cron job will run, in your own time zone
Standard five-field crontab, including month and day names such as JAN and MON-FRI
L, W and # day extensions: last day, nearest weekday, last Friday, second Monday of the month
Day of month and day of week treated the way cron does, running when either matches
A field-by-field breakdown with the allowed range of each field
12-hour or 24-hour times, and a more verbose wording option
Also explains six-field expressions with a leading seconds field
Start from eight common schedules

How to read a cron expression

Paste or type the expression - the five fields are minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week.
Read the plain-English translation underneath it.
Check Next five runs. This is the part that catches mistakes, because a schedule that reads right often fires at the wrong time.
Pick from Common schedules if you would rather start from a working example.

Questions

What do the five fields mean?: In order: minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week. An asterisk means every value, so "0 9 * * 1" is nine o'clock on a Monday.
Why does my job run more often than I expected?: Almost always a step or a range read the wrong way. "*/15" is every fifteen minutes, not at quarter past; "0 */2 * * *" is every second hour, not twice a day. The next-five-runs list is the quickest way to see which you actually wrote.
What happens if I set both day of month and day of week?: Cron treats them as OR, not AND - the job runs when either matches. This surprises people who expect "the 1st, but only if it is a Monday" and get every 1st plus every Monday.
Which time zone are the next runs shown in?: Your own, as your browser reports it. The machine running the real cron job may well be on UTC, so check before trusting the times.
Does it handle @daily and the other shorthands?: It is built for the five-field form. Write the equivalent expression - @daily is "0 0 * * *" - and you get the translation and the run times too.