Cron Next Run Calculator
Calculate the next N scheduled execution times for any cron expression. Supports 5 and 6 field formats including seconds, minutes, hours, day, month, and weekday.
Show nextruns
Common schedules
Field Reference
| Field | Range | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | 0–59 | 0, 30, */15, 0-30 |
| Hour | 0–23 | 0, 9, */6, 8-17 |
| Day | 1–31 | 1, 15, */2, 1-7 |
| Month | 1–12 | 1, 6, */3, JAN-JUN |
| Weekday | 0–7 | 1, 1-5, 0, MON-FRI |
* — any value
, — list separator (1,3,5)
- — range (1-5)
/ — step (*/15 = every 15)
How to Use Cron Next Run Calculator
- 1Enter a cron expression (e.g. 0 9 * * 1 for every Monday at 9am).
- 2Choose how many upcoming runs to preview (5–20).
- 3View the next scheduled dates and times in your local timezone.
- 4Use the cheatsheet if you need help with cron field syntax.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is a cron expression?▾
A cron expression is a string of 5 (or 6) fields separated by spaces that defines a schedule for recurring tasks. Standard 5-field format: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week. Each field accepts: specific values (5), ranges (1-5), lists (1,3,5), step values (*/15), and wildcards (*). Example: "0 9 * * 1" means "at 9:00 AM every Monday". Cron originated in Unix and is used in crontab files, CI/CD pipelines, cloud schedulers, and database maintenance.
What do the cron fields mean?▾
Standard 5-field cron: [minute 0-59] [hour 0-23] [day-of-month 1-31] [month 1-12] [day-of-week 0-7 (0 and 7 are Sunday)]. Some systems add a 6th field for seconds at the start. Month names (JAN-DEC) and weekday names (SUN-SAT) are often supported. "?" is used in some systems (Quartz Scheduler) as "no specific value" for day fields to avoid conflicts.
What does */15 mean in cron?▾
*/15 means "every 15 units" — it's step notation. */15 in the minute field means "every 15 minutes" (0, 15, 30, 45). */6 in the hour field means "every 6 hours" (0, 6, 12, 18). 1-5/2 means "1 through 5 stepping by 2" (1, 3, 5). Step notation allows compact expression of repeating intervals without listing each value.
What are common cron expressions?▾
"* * * * *" — every minute. "0 * * * *" — every hour. "0 0 * * *" — every day at midnight. "0 0 * * 0" — every Sunday at midnight. "0 9 * * 1-5" — 9 AM on weekdays. "0 0 1 * *" — first day of every month. "0 0 1 1 *" — once a year (Jan 1 midnight). "*/5 * * * *" — every 5 minutes. "@reboot" — special string for running at system startup.
What is the difference between cron and crontab?▾
Cron is the Unix daemon process that runs scheduled jobs. Crontab (cron table) is the configuration file that stores cron expressions for a user. Each user can have their own crontab, edited with "crontab -e". System-wide jobs are stored in /etc/cron.d/. Modern alternatives include systemd timers (Linux), launchd plists (macOS), Task Scheduler (Windows), and cloud-native schedulers like AWS EventBridge, GCP Cloud Scheduler, and GitHub Actions schedules.