Decode cron schedules before they surprise you
Cron syntax is compact and easy to get subtly wrong — a misplaced field can mean 3 AM daily instead of Monday at 3. Paste an expression and get a plain-English reading plus the next five actual run times, with quick presets for the common schedules.
Frequently asked questions
What do the five fields mean?
In order: minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day of month (1–31), month (1–12 or JAN–DEC), and day of week (0–7 or SUN–SAT, where both 0 and 7 are Sunday).
What do *, /, - and , do?
* means every value; 1-5 is a range; */15 means every 15th value; 1,15 is a list. They combine, so 0 9-17/2 * * 1-5 runs at 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17 o'clock on weekdays.
Why don't the next runs match my server?
The preview uses your local time zone; your server probably runs cron in UTC or its own zone. The schedule logic is identical — only the clock differs.