Cron Expression Explainer
Paste a 5-field cron expression to see what it means in plain English and when it will next run.
Last updated
About this tool
This tool reads the standard 5-field cron format — minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week — supporting *, single values, ranges (1-5), steps (*/15, 1-31/2), comma-separated lists, and month/weekday names (JAN, MON). It also recognizes the common nonstandard shortcuts @yearly, @monthly, @weekly, @daily, @hourly, and @reboot. The 6-field format with a leading seconds column (used by some non-standard schedulers, like Quartz) is not supported.
When both day-of-month and day-of-week are restricted (neither is *), standard cron treats them as an OR, not an AND — a run happens when either condition matches. The "next 5 run times" list is computed by walking forward minute-by-minute in your browser's own local time zone, so it's the authoritative answer if the plain-English description ever seems ambiguous. Nothing you enter is sent to a server — the entire tool runs as JavaScript in your browser tab.