Cron Builder

Build cron expressions visually with a human-readable description.

Minute (0–59)

Hour (0–23)

Day of Month (1–31)

Month (1–12)

Day of Week (0=Sun, 6=Sat)

* * * * *

Runs every minute

About this tool

Generate cron expressions visually without memorising the cron syntax. Set the schedule using dropdowns and toggles for minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week - the tool writes the cron string for you and shows the next 10 scheduled run times in plain English. Works for standard cron, AWS EventBridge, GitHub Actions, and Kubernetes CronJobs.

How to Build a Cron Expression

1Use the dropdowns to set the minute, hour, day, month, and weekday fields.
2Toggle between 'Every X' and 'Specific values' for each field.
3The generated cron expression updates as you change each field.
4Review the next scheduled run times shown below the expression.
5Copy the cron string and paste it into your scheduler, crontab, or workflow config.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a cron expression look like?+

A standard cron expression has 5 fields: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week. For example, '0 9 * * 1' means 'every Monday at 9:00 AM'. Some systems add a 6th field for seconds.

What does the asterisk (*) mean in cron?+

An asterisk means 'every' - so * in the hour field means 'every hour', and * in the minute field means 'every minute'. '*/5' in the minute field means 'every 5 minutes'.

How do I run a job every 15 minutes?+

Use the expression: */15 * * * *. This runs at minutes 0, 15, 30, and 45 of every hour, every day.

Is cron timezone-aware?+

Standard Unix cron runs in the server's local timezone. AWS EventBridge and some other systems support explicit timezone configuration. Always document what timezone your cron jobs run in.

Looking for a deeper guide on this topic? Browse the Searchlight blog.

Visit the blog →

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