Cron Expression Explainer

Type a cron expression and see what it means in plain English.

What a cron expression is

It's the standard Unix/Linux notation for scheduling recurring tasks, with 5 space-separated fields: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. For example, 0 3 * * 1 means "every Monday at 3 AM".

When to use it

Useful for double-checking that a cron expression you wrote (for a crontab, a GitHub Actions workflow, a scheduled job) really represents the schedule you intended, without needing to memorize the syntax.

Frequently asked questions

Does this tool support 6-field expressions (with seconds)?

The focus is the standard 5-field Unix/Linux cron format; some systems use a 6-field variant with seconds, which may not be parsed correctly here.

What does the asterisk (*) mean?

It means "any value" in that field — for example, an asterisk in the month field means "every month".