Runs every 5 minutes. Minute */5 every 5 minutes Hour * every hour Day of month * every day-of-month Month * every month Day of week * every weekday
About Cron Expression Parser — Crontab to English
Cron expressions schedule recurring jobs on Unix-like systems and in many CI/CD and cloud platforms. The five fields — minute, hour, day-of-month, month, and day-of-week — are powerful but easy to misread, and a wrong field can run a job far more (or less) often than intended.
This free cron parser explains any expression in plain English and breaks down each field, so you can confirm a schedule at a glance. It understands ranges (1-5), lists (1,3,5), step values (*/15), and named days and months (MON, JAN), and expands macro shortcuts like @daily and @hourly to their equivalent expressions. It runs entirely in your browser.
Features
- Plain-English summary of any 5-field cron expression
- Per-field breakdown (minute, hour, day, month, weekday)
- Understands ranges, lists, steps (*/5), and named days and months
- Expands @daily, @hourly, and other macro shortcuts
- Clear error when an expression is malformed
- Works completely offline
How to use
- Enter a cron expression such as */5 * * * *.
- Read the plain-English summary and the per-field explanation.
- Adjust fields until the schedule matches what you intend.
Frequently asked questions
What do the five fields mean?
In order: minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day of month (1–31), month (1–12), and day of week (0–6, Sunday = 0). "*" means "every".
What does */5 mean?
A step value. In the minute field, */5 means "every 5 minutes". You can use steps in any field, e.g. 0 */2 * * * runs every 2 hours on the hour.
Does it support special strings like @daily?
This parser focuses on the standard 5-field syntax. Macro shortcuts like @daily map to equivalent expressions (e.g. 0 0 * * *) which it explains directly.
What does 0 0 * * * mean?
0 0 * * * runs once a day at midnight — minute 0 of hour 0, every day of every month and every weekday. It is the same schedule as the @daily macro. Paste it above to see the per-field breakdown.
How do I run a cron job every Sunday?
Set the day-of-week field (the fifth field) to 0, which is Sunday. For example, 0 9 * * 0 runs at 09:00 every Sunday. Change the minute and hour fields to pick the exact time.
Related tools
Everything runs locally in your browser — your input is never uploaded.