How do I read a cron expression?

Left to right, the five fields are minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week, and * means every value of its field. 30 9 * * MON-FRI is minute 30, hour 9, every day of the month, every month, Monday through Friday, which the explainer writes as “Runs at 9:30 AM on Monday through Friday.”

Why does my cron job run on the 1st, the 15th and every Friday?

Because both day fields are set. The cronie crontab(5) page says that when both are restricted, “the command will be run when either field matches the current time.” 0 0 1,15 * 5 reads “Runs at 12:00 AM on days 1 and 15 of the month, or on Friday.” To run only on a 1st or 15th that is a Friday, set one field to * and test the day inside the script.

Yes: 0 and 7 both mean Sunday, so 0 0 * * 7 reads “Runs at 12:00 AM on Sunday.” Names work too, as the first three letters in any case (sun, MON-FRI). A full name such as MONDAY is refused with a message.

What do L, 5L and 5#2 mean in a cron expression?

L in the day-of-month field is the last day of the month. In the day-of-week field 5L is the last Friday of the month and 5#2 the 2nd Friday. The explainer reads all three and ? (no restriction on that day field), but the cronie crontab(5) page describes none of them, so check that your cron accepts them. W (nearest weekday) is refused.

Can it explain a cron expression with seconds?

No. It reads the 5-field crontab form and the aliases @yearly, @annually, @monthly, @weekly, @daily, @midnight and @hourly. A sixth field is refused with the message that a seconds field is not supported, and @reboot is refused because it has no repeating schedule.

How is the explainer different from the Crontab Translator?

They share one parser, so the sentence is the same on both pages. Use the explainer to learn what each field of a line means: every field gets a card with the values it allows, eight example buttons load common schedules, and the next 5 or 10 runs can be shown in any of 13 named zones. The Crontab Translator gives the sentence and the next 5 runs without the field cards, and the Cron Job Generator builds a line one field at a time.

Cron Expression Explainer

Paste a 5-field cron expression or an @alias to read it as one sentence, a card per field and its next runs: 0 9 * * 1 runs at 9:00 AM on Monday. How it works

Cron Expression

Five fields: minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week (or an alias such as @daily). Up to 200 characters; a seconds field is not supported.

Plain English

Runs at 9:00 AM on Monday.

Minute

minute 0

Allowed: 0 to 59

Hour

9 AM

Allowed: 0 to 23

Day of month

every day of the month

Allowed: 1 to 31

Month

every month

Allowed: 1 to 12 or JAN to DEC

Day of week

Monday

Allowed: 0 to 7 or SUN to SAT (0 and 7 are Sunday)

Next 5 runs

Calculating the next runs…

Times are worked out in your browser from this computer's clock, in the zone chosen above. A server that runs cron in another zone, or one that skips or repeats an hour when the clocks change, will fire at different moments.

About the Cron Expression Explainer

0 9 * * 1 runs at 9:00 AM every Monday: minute 0, hour 9, any day of the month, any month, day of week 1. The cron expression explainer reads a 5-field crontab line or an alias such as @daily, writes it as one sentence, shows each field on a card with its meaning and the values it allows, and lists the next 5 or 10 run times in your time zone or one of 13 others. A 6-field expression with seconds is refused.

What each field form means

Field	Written	The card says
Minute	*/15	every 15 minutes
Minute	5/10	minutes 5, 15, 25, 35, 45 and 55
Minute	0,30	minutes 0 and 30
Minute	10-40/5	minutes 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40
Hour	9-17	9 AM through 5 PM
Hour	*/6	every 6 hours, starting at 12 AM
Hour	22	10 PM
Day of month	1,15	days 1 and 15 of the month
Day of month	L	the last day of the month
Day of month	?	every day of the month
Month	jan-mar	January through March
Month	*/3	January, April, July and October
Day of week	MON-FRI	Monday through Friday
Day of week	7	Sunday
Day of week	5L	the last Friday of the month
Day of week	5#2	the 2nd Friday of the month

Allowed values: minute 0 to 59, hour 0 to 23, day of month 1 to 31, month 1 to 12 or JAN to DEC, day of week 0 to 7 or SUN to SAT (0 and 7 are Sunday). Names are three letters in any case. 5/10, L, 5L, 5#2 and ? are not in the cronie crontab(5) page, which allows a step only after * or a range (write 5-59/10 there), so check that your cron accepts them.

Mistakes the explainer refuses, and its message

Expression	Message
99 * * * *	Minute: 99 is outside 0 to 59.
0 24 * * *	Hour: 24 is outside 0 to 23.
0 0 * 13 *	Month: 13 is outside 1 to 12.
0 0 * * 8	Day of week: 8 is outside 0 to 7.
/0 * * *	Minute: a step must be at least 1.
0 17-9 * * *	Hour: the range 17-9 runs backwards.
0 0 * * 1,,2	Day of week: a list has an empty item (check for a doubled or trailing comma).
0 0 * * MONDAY	Day of week: "MONDAY" is not a number or a three-letter name.
0 9 * *	A crontab line has exactly 5 fields (minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week) but this has 4.
@every	@every is not a known alias. Known aliases: @yearly, @annually, @monthly, @weekly, @daily, @midnight, @hourly.

Frequently asked questions

How do I read a cron expression?: Left to right, the five fields are minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week, and * means every value of its field. 30 9 * * MON-FRI is minute 30, hour 9, every day of the month, every month, Monday through Friday, which the explainer writes as “Runs at 9:30 AM on Monday through Friday.”
Why does my cron job run on the 1st, the 15th and every Friday?: Because both day fields are set. The cronie crontab(5) page says that when both are restricted, “the command will be run when either field matches the current time.” 0 0 1,15 * 5 reads “Runs at 12:00 AM on days 1 and 15 of the month, or on Friday.” To run only on a 1st or 15th that is a Friday, set one field to * and test the day inside the script.
Is 7 Sunday in cron?: Yes: 0 and 7 both mean Sunday, so 0 0 * * 7 reads “Runs at 12:00 AM on Sunday.” Names work too, as the first three letters in any case (sun, MON-FRI). A full name such as MONDAY is refused with a message.
What do L, 5L and 5#2 mean in a cron expression?: L in the day-of-month field is the last day of the month. In the day-of-week field 5L is the last Friday of the month and 5#2 the 2nd Friday. The explainer reads all three and ? (no restriction on that day field), but the cronie crontab(5) page describes none of them, so check that your cron accepts them. W (nearest weekday) is refused.
Can it explain a cron expression with seconds?: No. It reads the 5-field crontab form and the aliases @yearly, @annually, @monthly, @weekly, @daily, @midnight and @hourly. A sixth field is refused with the message that a seconds field is not supported, and @reboot is refused because it has no repeating schedule.
How is the explainer different from the Crontab Translator?: They share one parser, so the sentence is the same on both pages. Use the explainer to learn what each field of a line means: every field gets a card with the values it allows, eight example buttons load common schedules, and the next 5 or 10 runs can be shown in any of 13 named zones. The Crontab Translator gives the sentence and the next 5 runs without the field cards, and the Cron Job Generator builds a line one field at a time.

Reading a cron line you already have

Paste a schedule from a crontab or a code review and read it back. Each field gets a card with its value, meaning and allowed values. A value out of range is refused with a message naming the field, such as Hour: 24 is outside 0 to 23. To link to an explanation, put the expression in ?cron=; to build a line one field at a time, use the Cron Job Generator.

The next 5 or 10 runs show in your time zone or one of 13 named zones; pick the one your server's cron uses. 0 9 * * 1 in America/New_York runs at 9:00 AM on Monday 26 October 2026 (13:00 UTC) and on 2 November (14:00 UTC): the clocks go back in between.

How the five fields are read

A crontab line is minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week, with the values 0-59, 0-23, 1-31, 1-12 (or jan to dec) and 0-7 (or sun to sat; 0 and 7 are both Sunday).

* means every value, and ? in a day field means the same
1,15 is a list, 1-5 a range, */15 or 10-40/5 a step
L in day of month is the last day; in day of week 5L is the last Friday and 5#2 the second Friday
@yearly, @annually, @monthly, @weekly, @daily, @midnight and @hourly stand for five fields: @weekly is 0 0 * * 0

Example: 30 9 * * MON-FRI reads Runs at 9:30 AM on Monday through Friday.

When both day fields are restricted, cron runs on days that match either one, so 0 0 1,15 * 5 runs on the 1st, the 15th and every Friday. The cronie crontab(5) page counts a field as restricted when it does not contain *, so */2 is not restricted there and both fields must match; this page still uses the either-one rule and notes it. Not read: a sixth (seconds) field, W, @reboot and lines over 200 characters.

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