Cron Expression Parser

Parse and explain POSIX standard cron expressions. Supports standard 5-field and extended 6-field (with seconds) cron formats. Shows a human-readable description, next 10 execution times in UTC, and a detailed field breakdown. Supports wildcards, ranges, lists, steps, and named values (MON-SUN, JAN-DEC).

Human Readable
Field Breakdown
Field Value Meaning

More about Cron Expressions

Cron Expression Format

A standard cron expression has 5 fields separated by spaces:

minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week

FieldAllowed ValuesSpecial Characters
Minute0-59* , - /
Hour0-23* , - /
Day of Month1-31* , - /
Month1-12 or JAN-DEC* , - /
Day of Week0-7 or SUN-SAT (0 and 7 = Sunday)* , - /
Special Characters
  • * matches all values in the field.
  • , separates a list of values. Example: 1,3,5 in the day-of-week field means Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
  • - defines a range. Example: 9-17 in the hour field means every hour from 9 AM to 5 PM.
  • / defines a step. Example: */15 in the minute field means every 15 minutes. 5/10 means starting at minute 5, then every 10 minutes (5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55).
Common Examples
ExpressionMeaning
0 * * * *Every hour at minute 0
*/5 * * * *Every 5 minutes
0 9 * * 1-59:00 AM every weekday
0 0 1 * *Midnight on the 1st of every month
30 2 * * 02:30 AM every Sunday
0 6,18 * * *6:00 AM and 6:00 PM daily
0 0 * * 1-5Midnight every weekday
15 14 1 * *2:15 PM on the 1st of every month
6-Field Format (with Seconds)

Some systems support an optional seconds field at the beginning:

second minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week

For example, 30 0 * * * * means at 30 seconds past every minute.