Skip to content
en es

Cron Expression Explainer

Paste a cron expression (5 fields, or 6 with seconds) and get a plain-language description, the next 10 times it will run in the time zone you choose, and the equivalent Laravel scheduler call.

Runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

5 fields (minute hour day month weekday) or 6 with seconds first.

Examples

In plain words

Laravel schedule

Use it inside the schedule definition, for example Schedule::command('emails:send')->dailyAt('08:30');

Copied

Next 10 runs

The fields

Field Allowed values
Second (only with 6 fields, first) 0–59
Minute 0–59
Hour 0–23
Day of the month 1–31
Month 1–12 / JAN–DEC
Day of the week 0–7 / SUN–SAT

Special characters: * any, , list, - range, / step.

How to use it

  1. Type or paste the cron expression. Use 5 fields (minute, hour, day, month, weekday) or 6 with seconds first.
  2. Read the description and pick the time zone where the job runs.
  3. Check the next 10 run times, and copy the Laravel schedule method if you use it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the order of the fields?

Minute, hour, day of the month, month, day of the week. With six fields the first one is the seconds, as in Quartz-style and some Node schedulers. Linux cron itself only has five.

Which special characters work?

* for any value, a comma for lists (1,15), a hyphen for ranges (1-5) and a slash for steps (*/10). Months and weekdays accept names (JAN, MON). Both 0 and 7 mean Sunday.

What happens when both the day of the month and the day of the week are set?

Classic cron runs the job when either one matches. This tool follows that rule when it lists the next runs.

Does the time zone matter?

Yes. Cron runs in the time zone of the server (or of the scheduler configuration). Pick the same one here; times that do not exist or repeat when the clocks change are handled by the usual rules.

Why is there a Laravel method?

Laravel’s scheduler has readable helpers such as dailyAt('08:30') or weekdays(). If your expression has no helper, the tool gives the generic ->cron('…') call.

Related tools

Unix Timestamp Converter Convert Unix timestamps (seconds, milliseconds, microseconds) to dates and back: ISO 8601, RFC 2822, relative time and any time zone. Live clock. In your browser. chmod Calculator Tick Unix file permissions and get the chmod octal (755), the symbolic form (rwxr-xr-x) and the command, with setuid, setgid, sticky bit and umask support. Regex Tester Test JavaScript regular expressions live: flags, highlighted matches, capture and named groups and a replace preview. Runs in a worker with a timeout.