Cron expression explainer
Turn a cron expression into plain words and list its next run times in your time zone, with daylight saving changes handled like Unix cron.
minute · hour · day of month · month · day of week
Type a 5-field expression, for example 30 9 * * 1-5.
How it works
How it works
A cron expression has five space-separated fields: minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day of month (1–31), month (1–12 or JAN–DEC) and day of week (0–7, where 0 and 7 are Sunday, or SUN–SAT). Each field accepts * (every value), a value (5), a range (1-5), a list (1,15) and steps (*/15, 0-30/10). The shortcuts @hourly, @daily, @weekly, @monthly, @yearly and @reboot work too.
The tool explains the expression in words and works out the next run times in the time zone you pick, with the local date, how long until each run and the exact UTC time to copy.
Day of month, day of week and clock changes
When both the day-of-month and day-of-week fields have a value, cron runs the job when either matches: 0 9 1 * 1 runs on day 1 and also every Monday. Clock changes follow Vixie cron, the one in almost every Linux distribution: a time that does not exist runs at the first valid minute after the jump, and a time that happens twice runs only the first time.
FAQ
What if I set both day of month and day of week?
In Unix cron, when both fields have a value (neither starts with *), either one is enough: “0 9 1 * 1” runs on day 1 of every month and also every Monday.
What does cron do when the clocks change?
If the time does not exist (the spring night the clock jumps forward), it runs at the first minute that does. If it happens twice (in autumn), it runs once, the first time.
Does it work for Quartz, Spring or AWS?
No. Those formats add seconds or years and symbols such as L, W or #. This tool uses the classic 5-field cron of Linux and most services.