Cron Expression Parser
Decode any cron expression into a plain English description and calculate the next 5 run times.
Cron is the standard Unix/Linux job scheduler. Cron expressions define when scheduled tasks run, using five fields: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. They appear in server configurations, CI/CD pipelines, cloud schedulers (AWS EventBridge, Google Cloud Scheduler), and database maintenance jobs. Reading them fluently is a practical skill for anyone working with backend systems or DevOps.
Special characters: * means "every", */N means "every N units", a-b means a range, a,b means a list. Example: "0 9 * * 1-5" means "at 9:00 AM, Monday through Friday".
Frequently asked questions
Is day-of-week 0 Sunday or Monday?
In standard cron, 0 is Sunday and 6 is Saturday. Some implementations also accept 7 as Sunday. Monday is 1. The range 1-5 covers Monday through Friday.