Cron Presets
Cron expression examples and presets. Copy-paste ready cron expressions for common schedules. Every minute, daily, weekly, monthly—cron cheat sheet.
⏱️
Every X Minutes
5* * * * * Every minute */5 * * * * Every 5 minutes */10 * * * * Every 10 minutes */15 * * * * Every 15 minutes */30 * * * * Every 30 minutes 🕐
Hourly
50 * * * * Every hour (at :00) 30 * * * * Every hour (at :30) 0 */2 * * * Every 2 hours 0 */4 * * * Every 4 hours 0 */6 * * * Every 6 hours 📅
Daily
60 0 * * * Daily at midnight 0 6 * * * Daily at 6:00 AM 0 9 * * * Daily at 9:00 AM 0 12 * * * Daily at noon 0 18 * * * Daily at 6:00 PM 0 23 * * * Daily at 11:00 PM 💼
Weekdays
50 9 * * 1-5 Weekdays at 9:00 AM 0 8 * * 1-5 Weekdays at 8:00 AM 0 17 * * 1-5 Weekdays at 5:00 PM 0 9,17 * * 1-5 Weekdays at 9 AM and 5 PM 0 0 * * 1-5 Weekdays at midnight 🌴
Weekend
40 9 * * 0,6 Weekends at 9:00 AM 0 10 * * 0,6 Weekends at 10:00 AM 0 0 * * 0 Sunday at midnight 0 0 * * 6 Saturday at midnight 📆
Weekly
40 0 * * 0 Weekly on Sunday at midnight 0 0 * * 1 Weekly on Monday at midnight 0 9 * * 1 Weekly on Monday at 9:00 AM 0 17 * * 5 Weekly on Friday at 5:00 PM 🗓️
Monthly
50 0 1 * * 1st day of month at midnight 0 9 1 * * 1st day of month at 9:00 AM 0 0 15 * * 15th day of month at midnight 0 0 1,15 * * 1st and 15th at midnight 0 0 L * * Last day of month (if supported) 🎆
Yearly
40 0 1 1 * January 1st at midnight 0 0 1 1,7 * Jan 1 and Jul 1 at midnight 0 9 1 1 * January 1st at 9:00 AM 0 0 25 12 * Christmas Day at midnight Cron Format
┌───────────── minute (0-59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0-23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1-12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0-6, Sun=0)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *Features
- Copypaste-ready list of the most commonly used cron patterns
- Categorized by frequency (Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly)
- Includes standard predefined macros (e.g., @daily, @hourly)
- One-click clipboard copy functionality
- Short descriptions explaining the exact execution conditions
Common Use Cases
- Quickly grabbing a standard script trigger without opening a manual generator
- Finding inspiration for how to structure a complex schedule
- Standardizing the recurrence notation across your DevOps team
- Learning cron syntax by studying canonical examples
Cron Macros (Non-Standard Extensions)
Many modern cron daemons support special shortcut strings (macros) in place of the 5-part numeric string. These make code highly readable but aren't supported by every single CI engine.
Common Macros:
@hourly: Run once an hour (Equivalent to0 * * * *)@daily/@midnight: Run once a day at midnight (Equivalent to0 0 * * *)@weekly: Run once a week at midnight on Sunday (Equivalent to0 0 * * 0)@monthly: Run once a month, on the first day (Equivalent to0 0 1 * *)@yearly/@annually: Run once a year on Jan 1st (Equivalent to0 0 1 1 *)
Examples
Valid - Office Hours Only
0 9-17 * * 1-5 Valid - Bi-Hourly
0 */2 * * * Valid - First Day of Month
0 0 1 * *Frequently Asked Questions
Are presets universally supported?
Numeric 5-field presets are universally supported across Linux, Unix, Kubernetes, and Serverless platforms. Text Macros like `@daily` are not universally supported (e.g., GitHub Actions does not allow them).
How do I run a job at a random time to prevent server lag?
Avoid preset "round" numbers like `0 0 * * *`. Instead, pick a random minute and hour offset like `17 3 * * *` (3:17 AM). Jenkins specifically supports an `H` flag (`H H * * *`) to automatically hash a random offset, but this is exclusive to Jenkins.
Can I do "every other week"?
Cron does not natively understand bi-weekly spans very well. You generally have to schedule it weekly, but add a bash conditional script inside the job to check if the current week number is even/odd before executing.
💡 Tips
- Start with a preset that roughly matches your needs, copy it to the Generator tool, and then finetune the minutes/hours.
- If a cron task takes longer to execute than the interval between occurrences, instances will overlap and potentially crash your server.