Cron Expression Explainer

What is Cron Expression Explainer?

A cron expression explainer that reads a crontab schedule and tells you, in plain words, exactly when it will run. Type or paste an expression such as */5 * * * * and it produces a human-readable description (for example, "Every 5 minutes") plus a list of the next five run times calculated from the current moment in your local timezone. It understands the standard five-field cron syntax (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week), ranges, lists, steps, named days and months, and shorthand macros like @hourly, @daily, @weekly, @monthly and @yearly. Developers, DevOps and SRE engineers, and sysadmins use it to sanity-check a crontab entry, a CI schedule, or a scheduled task before deploying it, and to confirm that a tricky expression actually fires when they expect.

How to use Cron Expression Explainer

1. Type or paste a cron expression into the input field (for example, 0 9 * * 1-5 for 9am on weekdays).
2. Read the plain-language description below the input — it spells out the schedule in words.
3. Check the Next runs list to see the next five times the expression would fire, shown in your local timezone.
4. If the expression is invalid, read the error message and fix the field that's wrong.
5. Use the copy button to copy the description, or wire the output into another tool in the workspace.

Examples

*/5 * * * *

Every 5 minutes

0 9 * * 1-5

At 09:00 AM, Monday through Friday

@daily

At 12:00 AM

Frequently asked questions

Which cron syntax does it support?

The standard five-field crontab format (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week), including ranges (1-5), lists (1,3,5), steps (*/15), and named days and months (MON, JAN). Shorthand macros such as @hourly, @daily, @weekly, @monthly and @yearly are supported too.

What timezone are the next run times in?

The next five run times are computed from the current moment and formatted in your browser's local timezone, so they reflect when the schedule fires for you.

Why does it say the expression is invalid?

An error appears when the expression has the wrong number of fields or a value outside the allowed range (for example minute 0-59, hour 0-23). The message describes what failed so you can correct the offending field.

Why only five upcoming runs?

Five is enough to confirm the cadence and spot a mistake at a glance — for instance seeing runs land every 5 minutes, or only on weekdays. The description above already states the full recurring rule.

Is my cron expression sent anywhere?

No. Parsing the expression, generating the description, and computing the next run times all happen locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded to any server, so it works offline and keeps your schedules private.