Decode cron schedules → plain English + next 10 run times
Ctrl+Enter = parse
Presets:
*
Minute 0–59
*
Hour 0–23
*
Day (month) 1–31
*
Month 1–12
*
Day (week) 0–7
Next 10 run times (local timezone)
Cron to Human Readable
Free online cron expression parser. Paste any cron schedule and instantly see a plain English description, the next 10 run times, and a visual breakdown of each field. Supports 5-field (standard), 6-field (with seconds), and 7-field (with year) cron expressions.
FreeNo login100% browser-basedNo data sent to servers
Cron is the Unix job scheduler. A cron expression is a 5-field string (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week) that defines when a job runs. For example, 0 9 * * 1-5 means "9:00 AM every weekday". The syntax supports ranges, steps, and lists but is notoriously cryptic — even experienced engineers reach for a reference when writing non-trivial schedules.
This tool parses any cron expression and shows a plain-English description of the schedule, the next 10 run times, and validation errors if any. Supports standard 5-field cron and non-standard extensions like @daily, @weekly, @monthly.
What is a cron expression?
A cron expression is a string of 5–7 fields that defines a recurring schedule for automated tasks. The standard 5-field format is: minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day of month (1–31), month (1–12), day of week (0–7, where 0 and 7 are Sunday). Each field can be a specific value, a range (1-5), a list (1,3,5), or a step value (*/15 = every 15).
What does */5 mean in a cron expression?
The */5 syntax means 'every 5 units'. In the minute field, */5 means every 5 minutes (at 0, 5, 10, 15... 55). In the hour field, */2 means every 2 hours. The * means 'all possible values' and /5 specifies the step — so */5 means 'every 5th value starting from the first'.
What's the difference between 0 and 7 for Sunday in the weekday field?
Both 0 and 7 represent Sunday in the day-of-week field. This is a historical quirk — original Unix cron used 0-6 (Sunday=0, Saturday=6), while some systems added 7 as an alias for Sunday. Most modern cron implementations accept both. Monday = 1, Tuesday = 2, through Saturday = 6.
What does the cron expression "0 9 * * 1-5" mean?
"0 9 * * 1-5" means: at minute 0, hour 9, any day of month, any month, Monday through Friday. In plain English: every weekday at 9:00 AM. The five fields are: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), day of week (0-7, where both 0 and 7 = Sunday).
What is the difference between cron and crontab?
cron is the daemon (background service) that executes scheduled tasks on Unix/Linux systems. crontab is the configuration file that defines the schedule (cron table). You edit your schedule with "crontab -e" and list current jobs with "crontab -l". Each user can have their own crontab. System-wide cron jobs are stored in /etc/cron.d/.
How do I run a cron job every 5 minutes?
"*/5 * * * *" runs every 5 minutes. The */ syntax means "every N units". Similarly: */15 = every 15 minutes, */2 for hours = every 2 hours. For "every 5 minutes during business hours": */5 9-17 * * 1-5. Note: AWS EventBridge, GitHub Actions, and other platforms have slightly different cron syntax variations.
Why did my cron job not run at the expected time?
Common causes: timezone mismatch (cron runs in the server timezone, not yours — check with "crontab -e" and add CRON_TZ=America/New_York), the script lacks execute permissions (chmod +x), environment variables are not available (cron has a minimal $PATH), or the command path is relative (always use absolute paths in cron jobs).