Cron Expression Explainer

Paste a cron expression and read it in plain English, with a field-by-field breakdown. Free, private and in your browser.

Try one:

In plain English

Field-by-field

How to use

  1. Type or paste a cron expression — for example 0 9 * * 1-5 — into the box, or tap one of the examples to fill it in.
  2. Read the plain-English sentence that appears live as you type, so you always know exactly when the job will run.
  3. Check the field-by-field table to see each part (minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week), then copy the explanation.

FAQ

What is a cron expression?

A cron expression is a short schedule used by Unix-like systems and many task schedulers to say when a job should run. It is made of five fields — minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week — separated by spaces, so 0 9 * * 1-5 means “at 9:00am, Monday to Friday”.

Does it support seconds and special characters?

Yes. If your expression starts with a sixth field, it is read as seconds. Common operators all work: * (every), ranges like 1-5, lists like 1,15, steps like */15, and shorthand such as @daily.

Is anything sent to a server?

No. The explanation is generated entirely in your browser by a small self-hosted library, so nothing you type is uploaded. The tool works offline once the page has loaded and keeps your schedules private.