Cron Expression Builder
Write it, read it back in plain English, and see when it actually fires.
Every 5 minutes.
Next runs — UTC
- Thu, 30 Jul 2026, 23:40
- Thu, 30 Jul 2026, 23:45
- Thu, 30 Jul 2026, 23:50
- Thu, 30 Jul 2026, 23:55
- Fri, 31 Jul 2026, 00:00
Five fields. Runs in the server's local timezone.
Cron uses the server’s timezone, which is often not yours. Check before you trust a time.
Fields
- minute0–59
- hour0–23
- dom1–31
- month1–12
- dow0–7
Cron every 5 minutes
*/5 * * * *
The slash is a step, not a division: */5 in the minute field means "every 5th minute starting at 0", so the job fires at :00, :05, :10 and so on. Because it is anchored to the top of the hour rather than to when you installed the job, all your servers fire together — which is convenient for reasoning about and inconvenient for anything that hits a shared API.
Frequently asked questions
- What does */5 * * * * mean?
- Run at every 5th minute of every hour, every day. The five fields are minute, hour, day-of-month, month and day-of-week; only the first is restricted.
- What happens if the job takes longer than 5 minutes?
- Cron starts the next run anyway — it does not wait for the previous one. Overlapping runs are the most common surprise with short intervals. Use a lock file, flock, or your job runner's concurrency setting if that matters.
- How do I run every 5 minutes during working hours only?
- Restrict the hour and day-of-week fields too: */5 9-17 * * 1-5 runs every 5 minutes between 09:00 and 17:59, Monday to Friday.