CRON Expression Parser & Builder
Translate CRON expressions to plain English. Preview the next 5 run times. Use presets for common schedules. Essential for DevOps, cloud engineers, and developers.
Common Schedules
CRON Syntax Reference
| Character | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| * | Any / all values | * in minute = every minute |
| / | Step value | */15 in minute = every 15 minutes |
| - | Range | 1-5 in weekday = Mon through Fri |
| , | List of values | 1,3,5 in weekday = Mon, Wed, Fri |
Azure & GitHub Actions CRON
GitHub Actions uses the same 5-field CRON format, evaluated in UTC. Azure Functions timer triggers add a leading seconds field (for example 0 0 0 * * * for daily at midnight). Examples:
- 0 0 * * * (daily at midnight UTC)
- 0 */6 * * * (every 6 hours)
- 0 8 * * 1 (every Monday 8am)
Kubernetes CronJob
Kubernetes CronJobs use the same standard 5-field format. All times are in UTC by default.
- */5 * * * * (every 5 minutes)
- 0 3 * * 0 (every Sunday 3am)
- 0 1 1 * * (first of month)
What the CRON Expression Parser does
The CRON Expression Parser translates a standard 5-field CRON expression (minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week) into plain English and lists the next 5 times the schedule will fire. You can type an expression, start from a preset such as every weekday at 6am, or build one field by field with the Visual Builder.
Everything runs in your browser, so you can paste schedules from crontabs, CI pipelines or Kubernetes CronJob manifests without sending them anywhere. It is useful for checking a schedule before you deploy it and for understanding an unfamiliar job you found on a server.
How to use it
Click a Common Schedules preset, or type an expression such as 0 9 * * 1-5 into the CRON Expression field.
Optionally open the Visual Builder and pick values from the dropdowns. The text field and the dropdowns stay in sync.
Click Parse.
Read the Plain English description, then check the Next 5 Scheduled Runs list to confirm the job fires when you expect.
Supported syntax: numbers, * (any), ranges such as 1-5, lists such as 1,3,5 and steps such as */15 or 0-30/10. Names like MON or JAN, macros like @daily, and special characters like L, W, # or ? are not supported.
Reading the results correctly
Time zones
Next run times are shown in your browser's local time zone. GitHub Actions schedules run in UTC, and many servers and clusters are set to UTC too, so convert before relying on the exact hour.
Day of month plus day of week
When both fields are restricted, cron runs when either one matches, and this preview follows that rule. For example, 0 9 1 * 1 runs at 09:00 on the 1st of every month and on every Monday, not only on Mondays that fall on the 1st. If one of the two fields is *, only the other one applies.
6-field formats
Azure Functions timer triggers use NCRONTAB with a leading seconds field, Quartz also starts with seconds, and AWS EventBridge uses its own 6-field syntax with a year field. This tool accepts 5 fields only, so remove the extra field and check the platform docs for differences.
A security angle
Attackers use cron jobs to keep access to Linux systems (MITRE ATT&CK technique T1053.003). If you find an unexpected crontab entry, especially one that downloads or runs a script, paste the schedule here to see how often it fires and investigate what it runs.