Cron is the standard way to schedule recurring tasks on servers — backups, reports, cleanup jobs, and more. But cron's compact five-field syntax is famously hard to read. Was that 0 */2 * * * every two hours, or at 2 AM? Our free cron expression parser translates any cron schedule into plain English and shows you the next run times instantly.
What Is a Cron Expression?
A cron expression is a string of five fields that defines when a scheduled task should run. Each field controls a different unit of time:
┌───────────── minute (0–59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0–23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1–31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1–12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0–6, Sunday = 0)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *
An asterisk (*) means "every" value for that field. So * * * * * runs every minute.
Understanding Cron Syntax
Each field accepts several kinds of value:
*— every value (every minute, every hour, etc.)5— a specific value (e.g. minute 5)1-5— a range (Monday to Friday)*/15— a step (every 15 units)1,15,30— a list of specific values
Common Cron Examples
0 * * * *— at the top of every hour0 0 * * *— every day at midnight*/15 * * * *— every 15 minutes0 9 * * 1-5— at 9 AM, Monday through Friday0 0 1 * *— at midnight on the first day of every month
How to Use the Cron Parser
- Enter your cron expression (or start from a common example).
- Read the plain-English description of when it runs.
- See the next scheduled run times so you can confirm the schedule does what you expect.
This removes the guesswork — you see immediately whether your expression fires when you intended.
Why Use a Cron Parser?
Cron mistakes are easy to make and hard to notice — a job that was meant to run nightly might be running every minute, or not at all. Translating the expression to English and previewing upcoming run times lets you verify a schedule before you deploy it, avoiding missed backups or runaway jobs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the cron parser free? Yes — it is free, requires no sign-up, and runs entirely in your browser.
What do the five fields mean?
In order: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. Each can be a specific value, a range, a step, a list, or * for every value.
Can it show the next run times? Yes. The parser previews the upcoming scheduled times so you can confirm the expression behaves as intended.
What does */5 mean in cron?
It means "every 5 units" of that field — for example, */5 in the minute field runs every five minutes.
Not sure when your cron job will run? Paste the expression and read it in plain English instantly.