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Cron Expression Generator
Use this free cron expression generator to build a schedule without memorising the five-field format. Pick the minute, hour, day of the month, month, and day of the week, and the tool writes the cron expression for you — plus a plain-English sentence that says exactly when the job will run. Everything runs in your browser, so nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Quick presets — tap one, then adjust any field:
How it works
A cron expression has five fields, always in the same order: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. The minute runs from 0 to 59, the hour from 0 to 23 on a 24-hour clock, the day of month from 1 to 31, the month from 1 to 12, and the day of week from 0 to 6, where 0 is Sunday and 6 is Saturday. A star in a field means every value is allowed, so a star in the month field means the job runs in every month. This generator fills in the five fields from your five dropdowns and joins them with single spaces, which is the standard format used by Linux crontab and most schedulers.
Steps are written with a slash, such as */15 in the minute field, and mean every 15 units starting from zero — so */15 runs at minutes 0, 15, 30, and 45 of every hour. A range such as 1-5 in the day-of-week field means Monday through Friday. A list such as 1,15 in the day-of-month field would mean the 1st and the 15th, although this generator keeps things simple and offers one value, a star, or a step per field, which covers the schedules most people actually need. The plain-English line under the expression is built from the same five values, so if the sentence does not say what you meant, change a dropdown and watch the sentence change.
| Field | Values | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | 0–59 | 30 = at 30 minutes past the hour |
| Hour | 0–23 | 9 = at 9am |
| Day of month | 1–31 | 1 = on the 1st of the month |
| Month | 1–12 | 1 = in January |
| Day of week | 0–6 | 1 = on Mondays |
One quirk is worth knowing before you save a schedule: when day of month and day of week are both set to specific values, most cron systems run the job when either one matches, not when both match. That surprises people who set the 15th and Friday and expect only Fridays that fall on the 15th. Keep one of the two fields as a star and use the other to pick your day, and the schedule will do exactly what the plain-English sentence says.
Worked example
Suppose you want a backup to run every Monday at 8:30 in the morning. Set the fields one at a time and watch the expression take shape.
Step 1: Minute — pick 30, because the backup starts half past the hour.
Step 2: Hour — pick 8, because 8 on a 24-hour clock is 8am.
Step 3: Day of month — leave it as a star, because the date does not matter.
Step 4: Month — leave it as a star, because it runs in every month.
Step 5: Day of week — pick Monday, which is 1.
Join the five fields with spaces and the tool shows exactly this: 30 8 * * 1. The plain-English line reads: At 08:30, on Mondays. Try the preset labelled "Every Monday at 8:30am" and you get the same expression instantly. For a second check, pick the "Every day at 9am" preset and the tool shows 0 9 * * * — At 09:00, every day — which is the schedule most daily reports and reminders use.
FAQ
What is a cron expression?
A cron expression is a short line of five fields — minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week — that tells a computer when to run a job. Each field is either a number, a star meaning every value, or a step such as */15 meaning every 15 units. The system reads the expression and runs the job whenever the current time matches all five fields.
What does the star mean in a cron expression?
A star means every possible value for that field. A star in the minute field means the job runs every minute, and a star in the month field means it runs in every month. When every field is a star, the job runs every minute of every day, which is usually far more often than anyone wants, so set at least the minute and hour to real values for a normal schedule.
How do I schedule a job for every weekday at 9am?
Use the preset Every weekday at 9am, or set the fields yourself: minute 0, hour 9, day of month star, month star, and day of week 1-5. The finished expression is 0 9 * * 1-5. Monday is 1 and Friday is 5 in this generator, and Sunday is 0, so 1-5 covers Monday through Friday and skips the weekend.
What is the difference between day of month and day of week?
Day of month picks a date, such as the 1st or the 15th, while day of week picks a weekday, such as Monday or Friday. When both are set to specific values, most cron systems run the job when either one matches, not both. To avoid surprises, set one of them to a star and use the other to choose your day.
Where do I use a cron expression?
Paste it into the scheduler where your job lives: the crontab file on a Linux server, a scheduled task in a cloud service, a CI pipeline, a backup tool, or a hosting control panel. The expression itself is the same everywhere, but the way you save it depends on the tool, so follow that tool's own instructions for adding a new scheduled job.