🔒 Runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded✓ Free, no signup
Cron Expression Generator & Explainer
Build a cron schedule field by field or pick a preset. See what it means in plain English and when it will run next.
Common schedules
Special characters
*any value,list, e.g. 1,15-range, e.g. 1-5/step, e.g. */10
Next 5 runs
Fix the expression to preview runs.
Times shown in your time zone (UTC). Servers usually run cron in UTC.
When should you use the Cron Expression Generator?
- Writing the schedule for a crontab, Kubernetes CronJob or GitHub Actions workflow
- Understanding an existing cron expression in someone else's config
- Double-checking a schedule fires when you expect before deploying
How to use the Cron Expression Generator
- 1
Start from a preset or type an expression
Click a common schedule like 'Weekdays at 9:00', or paste an expression into the top box.
- 2
Adjust individual fields
Edit minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week separately. Use * for any, commas for lists, - for ranges and / for steps.
- 3
Read the explanation
The green box describes the schedule in plain English so you can confirm it matches what you meant.
- 4
Check the next runs and copy
Review the next 5 run times, keeping time zones in mind, then copy the expression.
Examples
Reading cron expressions
Expression
*/15 * * * * 0 9 * * 1-5 0 0 1 * * 30 2 * * 0
Meaning
Every 15 minutes At 09:00, Monday through Friday At 00:00, on day 1 of the month At 02:30, only on Sunday
Common errors and how to fix them
Expected 5 fields, got 4- Every field is required. Use * for any field you don't want to restrict, e.g. 0 9 * * * for daily at 09:00.
Job runs at the wrong hour- Your scheduler is almost certainly using UTC. Convert your local time to UTC, or set the scheduler's time zone if it supports one.
Job runs far more often than expected- A * in the minute field means every minute. To run once an hour use 0 * * * *, not * */1 * * *.
Job runs on extra days- When both day-of-month and day-of-week are set, cron runs when either matches. Set one of them to *.
Explore More Developer Tools
Format, Validate, and Generate Data Instantly
TrueFormatter provides essential utilities for modern web development, including JSON formatting, YAML conversion, and more.
JSON Auto-Fixer & Formatter
Repair, validate, and beautify broken JSON (missing quotes, trailing commas).
JSON Validator & Linter
Check JSON syntax and see the exact line and column of every error.
JSON Beautifier
Pretty-print and indent JSON for easy reading and debugging.
JSON Compare & Diff Tool
Find the difference between two JSON objects visually and quickly.
JSONPath Tester
Evaluate JSONPath expressions with filters and recursive queries.
JSON Schema Generator
Generate a JSON Schema from any sample JSON document.
JSON to CSV Converter
Flatten nested JSON arrays into CSV for spreadsheets.
YAML ⇆ JSON Converter
Convert YAML to JSON or JSON to YAML instantly.
JWT Decoder
Decode and inspect JSON Web Tokens (JWT) Header and Payload.
JWT Generator
Create and sign HS256/HS384/HS512 JSON Web Tokens for testing.
Hash Generator (MD5, SHA)
Generate MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512 hashes.
Base64 Encoder ⇆ Decoder
Encode text to Base64 and decode Base64 to text for API debugging.
URL Encoder & Decoder
Cleanly encode special characters in URLs and decode query strings.
SQL Formatter & Beautifier
Format SQL queries for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, SQLite and more.
CSS Minifier & Compressor
Optimize CSS by removing whitespace and comments to accelerate page load time.
JS Minifier & Compressor
Compress JavaScript to improve website speed and performance.
Regex Tester & Debugger
Test JavaScript regular expressions with live match highlighting and groups.
Cron Expression Generator
Build cron schedules, read them in plain English and preview next runs.
UUID / GUID Generator
Generate unique V4 UUIDs for database keys or testing.
Epoch converter online
Convert UNIX timestamps to human-readable dates and back instantly.
Crop Image Online
Crop images exactly as selected with fixed aspect ratios. No upload, no resize, no quality loss.
Compress Image Online
Compress JPG, PNG & WebP images directly in your browser. No upload, no tracking, instant download.
Cron Expression Generator FAQ
A cron expression is a string of five fields — minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week — that defines when a scheduled job runs. For example 0 9 * * 1-5 means 09:00 every weekday.
The slash is a step. */5 in the minute field means every 5 minutes (0, 5, 10 … 55). 0-30/10 means minutes 0, 10, 20 and 30.
Sunday is 0 in standard cron, and most implementations also accept 7. You can also use names: SUN, MON, TUE and so on.
In standard (Vixie) cron the job runs when either field matches. 0 0 1 * 1 runs on the 1st of the month and on every Monday, not only on Mondays that are the 1st.
Yes. Enter 6 fields and the first is treated as seconds, as used by Spring, Quartz-style and node-cron schedulers. Classic Linux crontab only uses 5 fields.
Cron uses the time zone of the machine or service running it — most servers, GitHub Actions and cloud schedulers use UTC. The next-run preview here uses your browser's time zone.