Cron Expression Generator

Build a cron schedule expression with a visual editor, or explain any existing cron string in plain English.

  • Generators
  • Free
  • No sign-up

Plain English Phrase

Realtime description

Every minute.

Editing: Minute Field 1 of 5
Next run:Calculating…

Free · No sign-up · Runs in your browser

Why use it

  • Plain-English explanation

    See exactly what any cron expression means as you type it.

  • Next runs simulated

    Preview upcoming run times before you ship a schedule.

  • Field-by-field editing

    Jump to minute, hour, day, month or weekday and edit with confidence.

Great for

  • Writing crontab entries on Linux servers
  • Scheduling GitHub Actions, CI jobs and cloud functions
  • Decoding a cron string you found in someone else's config

How to use

  1. Type or paste any cron expression directly into the input.
  2. Read the plain-English description at the top and check the upcoming runs — both update as you type.
  3. Click any of the five field badges below the input to jump to that field.
  4. Copy the expression and use it in your crontab, CI config, or cloud scheduler.

Questions

What is a cron expression?
A cron expression is a five-field string — minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week — that defines a recurring schedule. Each field accepts numbers, ranges (1-5), steps (*/15), and lists (1,3,5), or a star (*) to mean "every".
What do the five fields mean?
From left to right: minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day-of-month (1–31), month (1–12), day-of-week (0–7, where both 0 and 7 mean Sunday).
How do steps like */15 work?
*/15 means "every 15 units". In the minute field it fires at :00, :15, :30, :45. In the hour field it fires at 00:00, 03:00, 06:00… You can also write 10-50/10 to step within a range.
Can I use this for AWS EventBridge or GitHub Actions?
AWS EventBridge cron adds a sixth "year" field and uses ? instead of * for day conflicts — check the AWS docs for those differences. GitHub Actions cron is standard 5-field and works exactly as shown here.
Does anything leave my browser?
No. The expression is built and parsed entirely in JavaScript in your browser — nothing is sent to a server.

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