Home/CRON Expression Parser

CRON Expression Parser

Parse cron expressions into human-readable descriptions with next scheduled run times.

minutehourdaymonthweekday

How to Parse CRON Expressions

  1. 1Enter a standard 5-field cron expression (minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week) in the input field.
  2. 2Click "Parse" or select a preset to instantly analyze the expression.
  3. 3Read the human-readable description to understand the schedule at a glance.
  4. 4Review the field breakdown to see how each part of the expression is interpreted.
  5. 5Check the next 5 scheduled run times to verify the schedule works as expected.

Features

●Parse any standard 5-field cron expression
●Human-readable description of the schedule
●Next 5 scheduled run times calculated from now
●Visual breakdown of each cron field
●Common presets for quick entry
●Supports ranges, steps, lists, and named values
●Copy the description to clipboard
●Runs entirely in your browser with no server calls

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a cron expression?▼
A cron expression is a string of five fields separated by spaces that defines a schedule. The fields represent minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-6, where 0 is Sunday). Cron is widely used in Unix/Linux systems, CI/CD pipelines, and task schedulers.
What do the special characters mean in cron?▼
The asterisk (*) means "every" value. A slash (/) defines step intervals (e.g., */5 means every 5). A hyphen (-) defines ranges (e.g., 1-5). A comma (,) separates individual values in a list (e.g., 1,3,5). These can be combined for complex schedules.
Can I use day and month names instead of numbers?▼
Yes. For the day-of-week field, you can use three-letter abbreviations like MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI, SAT, SUN. For the month field, you can use JAN, FEB, MAR, APR, MAY, JUN, JUL, AUG, SEP, OCT, NOV, DEC. Names are case-insensitive.
What is the difference between 5-field and 6-field cron?▼
Standard cron uses 5 fields: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. Some systems (like Quartz scheduler or Spring) add a 6th field for seconds at the beginning. This tool supports the standard 5-field format used by crontab, GitHub Actions, and most schedulers.
How does '*/5 * * * *' differ from '0/5 * * * *'?▼
In standard cron, */5 and 0/5 in the minute field produce the same result: minutes 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55. The * in */5 expands to the full range, and 0 in 0/5 starts from 0. However, 2/5 would give minutes 2, 7, 12, 17, etc.

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