The five fields
The fields are minute, hour, day of the month, month and day of the week, in that order. Each accepts a number, a range such as 1-5, a list such as 1,3,5, a step such as */15, or a wildcard.
Day of the week counts from 0 for Sunday to 6 for Saturday, and 7 is also accepted for Sunday.
Worked example
The expression 0 9 * * 1-5 runs at 09:00 UTC on weekdays. Starting from Thursday 29 October 2026 the next runs are Thu 29 Oct 2026 09:00, Fri 30 Oct 2026 09:00 and Mon 02 Nov 2026 09:00.
The weekend is skipped because the day-of-week field is restricted to 1-5.
When both day fields are set
If day of the month and day of the week are both restricted, cron runs the job when either one matches. That surprises people: 0 0 1 * 1 runs on the first of the month and on every Monday, not only on Mondays that fall on the first.
Use one field and leave the other as a wildcard when you want a single condition.
Limits of this calculator
It reads standard five-field expressions only. It does not handle the seconds field, @reboot and other shortcuts, or the extended syntax some schedulers add.
Times are UTC. A server running in another time zone will fire at a different local time, and daylight saving shifts it twice a year.
To convert a scheduled time into a timestamp, use the epoch calculator.
Inputs for the cron calculator
Cron expression
Five space-separated fields: minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week.
Search from this date
The first day the search considers. All times are evaluated in UTC.
CALCULATOR QUESTIONS
Cron calculator questions
Why did my job run on a Monday and the first of the month?
When both day fields are restricted, cron matches either one. Set one of them to * if you meant only the other.
Does this support a seconds field?
No. Standard cron has five fields; a sixth field is a scheduler extension.
What time zone is used?
UTC. Your server's local zone may differ, and daylight saving shifts the local time.
Why is my expression rejected?
A value is probably outside its field range, such as minute 60 or month 13, or a range is written backwards.