Quick Reference
Below are the most common patterns. Click into the matching section for details, or head straight to the Cron Expression Generator to paste and validate.
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
* * * * * | Every minute |
*/5 * * * * | Every 5 minutes |
0 * * * * | Every hour, on the hour |
0 */2 * * * | Every 2 hours |
0 0 * * * | Every day at midnight |
0 3 * * * | Every day at 3 AM |
0 9 * * 1 | Every Monday at 9 AM |
0 0 1 * * | The 1st of every month |
0 18 * * 1-5 | Weekdays at 6 PM |
30 2 * * 0 | Every Sunday at 2:30 AM |
By Minute
Run every minute: * * * * *
Run every 5 minutes: */5 * * * * (commonly used for health checks)
Run every 30 minutes: */30 * * * *
At minutes 15 and 45 of every hour: 15,45 * * * *
By Hour
Run every hour on the hour: 0 * * * *
Run every 2 hours: 0 */2 * * *
Run every hour from 9 AM to 6 PM: 0 9-18 * * * (good for polling during work hours)
By Day
Every day at midnight: 0 0 * * *
Every day at 3 AM (commonly used for backups): 0 3 * * *
Every day at 12:30 PM: 30 12 * * *
By Week
Every Monday at 9 AM: 0 9 * * 1
Every Sunday at 2:30 AM: 30 2 * * 0
Weekdays (Monday to Friday) at 6 PM: 0 18 * * 1-5
Every weekend (Saturday and Sunday) at 10 AM: 0 10 * * 6,0
By Month
The 1st of every month at midnight: 0 0 1 * *
The last day of the month needs special handling: standard cron does not support “the last day.” A common approach is to run a script at midnight every day and have the script check whether it’s the end of the month.
Combined Scenarios
Weekdays, 9 AM to 6 PM, every 10 minutes: */10 9-18 * * 1-5
The first day of each quarter (the 1st of January, April, July, October) at midnight: 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 *
Not Sure About an Expression? Validate First
Paste any of these into the Cron Expression Generator to see a plain-language explanation and future run times, avoiding the “thought it was daily but it runs every minute” mistake. If you’re unclear on what the fields mean, start with What Is Cron; to learn how to write them systematically, see How to Write a Cron Expression.