Cron Generator - Expression Builder & Schedule Preview

Build five-field cron expressions, read what they mean, and preview the next five runs in local time and UTC.

Cron Generator helps you build a five-field cron expression and check when it will match. Choose a frequency for a common schedule, or edit the expression directly for a custom pattern. A built-in cron translator explains the schedule in plain language. The next five runs help you check the timing before you copy the expression into your scheduler. ⏱️ Start with a frequency Choose Daily, Every few minutes, Hourly, Weekly or Monthly. The controls show the time, minute, weekday or day of month needed for that frequency. Daily starts with one run at 09:00, rather than a set of wildcards that would run every minute. For cron every 5 minutes, enter 5 in Every few minutes. Use 10 or 15 for those intervals, or any whole number from 1 to 60. Minute steps restart at minute 0 each hour. An uneven step such as 7 therefore has a shorter gap across the hour boundary; 60 means once at minute 0 of each hour, not a rolling timer. ✏️ Edit a complete cron expression The custom builder separates time from date filters. Work with minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week. Numeric lists, ascending ranges, wildcards and steps let you express patterns such as selected weekdays or multiple times within an hour. For example, 0 9 * * 1-5 means 09:00 every Monday through Friday. You can paste an existing expression and use the builder as a cron editor. A pasted expression keeps its existing values until you change the related field. Invalid or unfinished values clear the old preview and disable Copy until the expression is valid again. 📅 Understand what the date fields change A weekday or day-of-month rule selects eligible dates. It does not automatically make the schedule run once per day: wildcard minute and hour fields still mean every minute on those dates. To get one run on each matching day, set a particular hour and minute. • Day-of-month steps begin on day 1 and restart each month. • A date such as the 31st skips months without that date. The calendar follows Linux-style day-field behavior, including the distinction between wildcard date fields and two explicit date restrictions. Check that your destination scheduler uses the same rules. 🌐 Read local and UTC times together The schedule preview shows the next five occurrences after the current time. Each row has the local date, local time and UTC time for the same instant. If the UTC date differs, it is shown with the UTC value so a midnight crossing is visible. • The expression is evaluated in your computer’s local timezone, which is displayed beside the preview. • UTC is a second display of those occurrences; it does not convert the expression into a different schedule. Match the timezone in the system where you will actually run the job. Daylight-saving behavior can differ between schedulers. 📋 Copy the schedule for your own system Use this crontab generator to prepare the five scheduling fields for an entry, then add the command in your own system. It can help plan recurring maintenance, reports, reminders or other jobs your software already knows how to execute. You can also check an existing cron expression: paste it, read the explanation and upcoming times, and copy the final schedule when it matches your intent. • Supported syntax is numeric five-field cron: minutes 0–59, hours 0–23, days 1–31, months 1–12 and weekdays 0–7, with 0 and 7 both representing Sunday. • Seconds, Quartz extensions and named macros are outside this format. • The extension previews timing locally in Chrome; it does not install crontab entries, connect to a server or execute commands.