Cron Expression Parser
Parse cron expressions into plain English. See field breakdowns, next execution times, and use common presets.
Features
Everything you need to understand and test cron schedules.
Human-Readable Output
Instantly translates complex cron expressions into plain English descriptions that anyone can understand.
Next Execution Times
Shows the next 10 scheduled run times calculated from the current date and time so you can verify your schedule.
Common Presets
Quickly load popular cron schedules like every 5 minutes, daily at midnight, or weekdays at 9 AM.
Common Presets
Start from popular presets like hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly and customize from there.
How It Works
Three simple steps to understand any cron expression.
Enter a Cron Expression
Type a standard 5-field cron expression or select one of the common presets from the dropdown.
Read the Explanation
The tool instantly parses your expression and shows a human-readable description along with each field's meaning.
Check Execution Times
Review the next 10 scheduled execution times to verify the cron expression matches your intended schedule.
Related Tools
More developer utilities for working with data and schedules.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about cron expressions and scheduling.
A standard cron expression has 5 fields separated by spaces: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-7, where both 0 and 7 represent Sunday). Each field can contain a specific value, a range (1-5), a list (1,3,5), a step (*/5), or a wildcard (*) meaning every possible value.
The */5 syntax means "every 5th value" starting from the minimum. In the minute field, */5 means every 5 minutes (0, 5, 10, 15, ..., 55). In the hour field, */5 means every 5 hours (0, 5, 10, 15, 20). You can use any step value, like */2 for every other, */10 for every 10th, etc.
Use 1-5 in the day-of-week field (the 5th field). For example, "0 9 * * 1-5" runs at 9:00 AM Monday through Friday. Day 1 is Monday and day 5 is Friday. You can also use specific days like "0 9 * * 1,3,5" for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday only.
This tool supports the standard 5-field cron format used by most Unix/Linux cron daemons, crontab, and scheduling libraries. Some systems like Quartz Scheduler use 6 or 7 fields (adding seconds and/or year). If you have a 6+ field expression, remove the extra fields to use this parser.