What are the 5 fields in a cron expression?

Minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-6, where 0 is Sunday), in that order.

Does this tool show the next actual run times?

Not currently — it focuses on explaining what the expression means, since computing exact upcoming run times reliably requires careful handling of real calendar edge cases. It's a reasonable future addition.

What does */15 mean in a cron expression?

The */N syntax means "every Nth value" for that field. In the minute field, */15 means every 15 minutes.

Cron Expression Parser — Free Plain-English Tool

Cron Expression Parser

Explain a standard 5-field cron expression in plain English.

Cron Expression:

Enter a cron expression above to see its plain-English explanation.

What This Tool Does

A cron expression is a compact, five-field syntax used to schedule recurring jobs on Unix-like systems and countless CI/CD, cloud, and job-scheduling platforms. This tool parses a standard 5-field expression and explains exactly when it runs in plain English, so you don't have to mentally decode the syntax field by field.

How to Use It

Type a 5-field cron expression into the box, or click one of the example buttons to try it instantly. The plain-English explanation updates as you type. This tool focuses on explaining what a cron expression means — it deliberately does not attempt to compute actual upcoming run times (a reasonable future addition, but real calendar math has genuine edge cases around month-end dates and leap years that deserve a well-tested approach rather than a rushed one, so it's scoped out here in favor of getting the explanation right).

The Formula: Cron Syntax Structure

A standard cron expression has exactly 5 space-separated fields, in this order:

Minute (0–59)
Hour (0–23)
Day of month (1–31)
Month (1–12)
Day of week (0–6, where 0 is Sunday)

Each field supports a wildcard (*, meaning "every value"), a step (*/N, meaning "every Nth value"), a range (a-b), a comma-separated list (a,b,c), or a single number.

Common Example Expressions

0 9 * * 1-5— At 9:00 AM, Monday through Friday. A typical "weekday morning" job.
*/15 * * * * — Every 15 minutes, all day, every day. A common polling or health-check interval.
0 0 1 * * — At midnight, on the 1st of every month. A typical monthly billing or report job.

FAQ

What are the 5 fields in a cron expression?: Minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-6, where 0 is Sunday), in that order.
Does this tool show the next actual run times?: Not currently — it focuses on explaining what the expression means, since computing exact upcoming run times reliably requires careful handling of real calendar edge cases. It's a reasonable future addition.
What does */15 mean in a cron expression?: The */N syntax means "every Nth value" for that field. In the minute field, */15 means every 15 minutes.