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Published: June 2026•By Web Util Slyce Team•6 min read

Cron Expressions — Schedule Examples & Reference

A comprehensive reference for cron expressions. Build custom schedules with our Cron Expression Generator.

Cron Syntax

┌───────── minute (0 - 59)
│ ┌──────── hour (0 - 23)
│ │ ┌─────── day of month (1 - 31)
│ │ │ ┌────── month (1 - 12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───── day of week (0 - 6, 0=Sunday)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * * <command>

Common Schedule Examples

DescriptionExpression
Every minute* * * * *
Every 5 minutes*/5 * * * *
Every 15 minutes*/15 * * * *
Every 30 minutes*/30 * * * *
Every hour (at minute 0)0 * * * *
Every 2 hours0 */2 * * *
Every 6 hours0 */6 * * *
Daily at midnight0 0 * * *
Daily at 3:00 AM0 3 * * *
Daily at 9:30 AM30 9 * * *
Every Monday at 8:00 AM0 8 * * 1
Every weekday at 6:00 PM0 18 * * 1-5
Every weekend at midnight0 0 * * 0,6
First day of month at midnight0 0 1 * *
Every 15 minutes (Mon-Fri, 9-5)*/15 9-17 * * 1-5
Quarterly (Jan 1, Apr 1, Jul 1, Oct 1)0 0 1 1,4,7,10 *
Every Sunday at 1:00 AM0 1 * * 0
Twice daily (6:00 AM and 6:00 PM)0 6,18 * * *
Every hour during business hours0 9-17 * * 1-5
Every 10 minutes, starting at 9 AM9-59/10 9 * * *

Special Characters

CharacterNameExampleDescription
*Wildcard* in hour fieldMatches any value (every hour)
,List1,3,5 in day-of-weekMatches multiple specific values
-Range9-17 in hourMatches a range of values
/Step*/15 in minuteSkips intervals through the range

Special Keywords

Some cron implementations support these shorthand keywords:

@reboot

Run once at system startup

@yearly→ 0 0 1 1 *

Run once a year at midnight on January 1

@monthly→ 0 0 1 * *

Run once a month at midnight on the 1st

@weekly→ 0 0 * * 0

Run once a week at midnight on Sunday

@daily→ 0 0 * * *

Run once a day at midnight

@hourly→ 0 * * * *

Run once an hour at the start of the hour

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