Build and understand cron schedules
Cron expressions schedule recurring jobs using five fields — minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. The syntax is terse and easy to get wrong, and a misplaced value can mean a job runs every minute instead of once a day. This helper lets you assemble a schedule and reads it back in plain English, so you know exactly when it will fire before you commit it.
How to use it
- Set each field, or paste an existing cron expression.
- Read the plain-language description of when it runs.
- Copy the expression into your crontab or scheduler.
Common patterns
- Every day at a fixed time for backups or reports.
- Every few minutes for a frequent check.
- Once a week on a specific weekday.
Questions people ask
Why did my job run too often? An asterisk means "every," so a stray * in the minute field runs the job every minute. The plain-language readout is there to catch exactly that.
What time zone does cron use? Usually the server's local zone — worth confirming where the job runs.