Cron Expression Cheat Sheet 2026: Syntax, 20+ Examples and a Free Generator

Every developer and sysadmin eventually meets a line like */15 9-17 * * 1-5 and has to decode it under pressure — usually while a job is misfiring in production. Cron is fifty years old, everywhere, and still the backbone of scheduled work: backups, reports, cleanups, syncs, notifications. This cron expression cheat sheet gives you the full syntax, a copy-paste library of examples, and a free tool to build and manage scheduled jobs without memorizing anything.

Cron Syntax: The Five Fields

A cron expression is five fields separated by spaces:

* * * * *
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ └── day of week  (0–7, where 0 and 7 are Sunday)
│ │ │ └──── month        (1–12)
│ │ └────── day of month (1–31)
│ └──────── hour         (0–23)
└────────── minute       (0–59)

Each field accepts:

• A value — 30 means exactly 30.
• A range — 9-17 means from 9 through 17.
• A list — 1,15,30 means any of those values.
• A step — */10 means every 10 units; 1-10/2 means 1, 3, 5, 7, 9.
• A wildcard — * means every possible value.

Special shortcuts

Most cron implementations also accept these shorthand strings:

| Shortcut | Equivalent | Meaning | | --- | --- | --- | | @hourly | 0 * * * * | Once an hour | | @daily / @midnight | 0 0 * * * | Once a day at midnight | | @weekly | 0 0 * * 0 | Once a week on Sunday | | @monthly | 0 0 1 * * | First day of the month | | @yearly / @annually | 0 0 1 1 * | Once a year |

20+ Copy-Paste Cron Examples

Every N minutes and hours

*/5 * * * *      every 5 minutes
*/10 * * * *     every 10 minutes
*/15 * * * *     every 15 minutes
0 */2 * * *      every 2 hours, on the hour
0 0 * * *        every day at midnight

Daily schedules

0 9 * * *        every day at 9:00 AM
30 8 * * *       every day at 8:30 AM
0 22 * * *       every day at 10:00 PM
0 6 * * *        every day at 6:00 AM

Weekdays and weekends

0 9 * * 1-5      9:00 AM on weekdays only
0 10 * * 6,0     10:00 AM on Saturday and Sunday
30 17 * * 1-5    5:30 PM every weekday (end-of-day reports)

Weekly, monthly, yearly

0 9 * * 1        every Monday at 9:00 AM
0 0 1 * *        first day of every month
0 12 15 * *      on the 15th of each month at noon
0 0 1 1 *        once a year on January 1st
0 9 * 12 25      every December 25th at 9:00 AM

Business-hours patterns

*/30 9-17 * * 1-5   every 30 minutes during weekday business hours
0 9,13,17 * * *     at 9:00, 13:00 and 17:00 daily
0 9-17/2 * * *      every 2 hours between 9 AM and 5 PM

Cleanup-style jobs

0 3 * * *        nightly 3:00 AM maintenance window
0 4 1 * *        monthly cleanup at 4:00 AM on the 1st
0 * * * *        once every hour

Common Cron Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

1. "Every 5 minutes" written as 5 * * * * — that runs at minute 5 of every hour, not every 5 minutes. The correct form is */5 * * * *.
2. Forgetting the timezone — cron runs in the server's timezone, which may not be yours. A "9 AM" job on a UTC server fires at 2:30 PM in India. Always check the server clock.
3. Day-of-month AND day-of-week confusion — when both fields are restricted (not *), most cron implementations run the job when either matches, not both. 0 0 13 * 5 is not "Friday the 13th" — it is the 13th of every month and every Friday.
4. Reboot gaps — a job scheduled during downtime does not run later. If a missed run matters, have the job check the last-run timestamp itself.
5. Assuming seconds — classic cron has no seconds field. Expressions with six fields belong to quartz-style schedulers, not standard crontab.

Build and Manage Cron Jobs Without the Syntax

Reading a cheat sheet is one thing; trusting your expression is another. The free Cron Job Creator removes the guesswork:

1. Describe the schedule visually — pick intervals, times and days; the tool generates the correct expression for you.
2. Test it — see upcoming run times so you can confirm the job fires when you actually expect it.
3. Manage jobs — create, edit, pause and monitor scheduled jobs from one dashboard, without editing crontab files by hand.

Because it is browser-based, it works on any device and requires no signup.

Debugging a Misbehaving Cron Job

When a scheduled job misfires, check in this order:

• Is the expression right? Paste it into the cron job creator and read back the next run times — the mismatch is usually obvious in seconds.
• Is the server timezone what you assumed? Compare date output on the server with your local time.
• Did the job run at all? Check cron logs (/var/log/syslog or /var/log/cron) for the execution line.
• Did it run but fail silently? Cron discards output; add logging or redirection inside the command itself.
• Environment differences — cron runs with a minimal environment. Scripts that work in your shell can fail under cron because a path or variable is missing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does */5 * * * * mean?

It runs a job every 5 minutes of every hour, every day. The */5 step syntax means "every 5 units" in the minute field.

How do I schedule a job for weekdays only?

Use 1-5 in the day-of-week field — for example 0 9 * * 1-5 runs at 9:00 AM Monday through Friday.

Is there a free cron expression generator?

Yes. The Cron Job Creator generates, tests and manages cron schedules for free, with no signup.

Why did my cron job not run?

The usual suspects: wrong timezone, an expression that means something different than you assumed, the server being down at the scheduled time, or the job failing silently because cron discards output. Verify the expression and check the cron logs first.

What is the difference between * and */1?

Functionally none — both mean "every unit". */1 just makes the "every one" intent explicit, which some teams prefer for readability.

The Bottom Line

Cron stops being intimidating once the five fields click: minute, hour, day, month, weekday — with ranges, lists and steps doing the heavy lifting. Keep this cheat sheet bookmarked for the copy-paste examples, and use the free Cron Job Creator whenever you need a schedule built, verified or debugged. Your future 3 AM jobs will thank you.