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Understand and build cron expressions in plain English — see the next run times and verify your schedule before deploying.
Cron Expression Parser
Parse and explain crontab expressions.
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Why use our Cron Parser?
Plain English Explanation
Paste any cron expression and instantly see a human-readable description of what it does — no guesswork.
Next Run Times
See the next N scheduled execution times so you can verify your cron is set up correctly before deploying.
Visual Builder
Build cron expressions visually by selecting fields — no need to memorize the 5-field cron syntax.
Fully Private
All parsing happens in your browser. Your cron schedules are never sent to any server.
What is a Cron Expression?
How to Use the Cron Parser
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a cron expression?
A cron expression is a string of 5 (or 6) space-separated fields that define a recurring schedule: minute, hour, day-of-month, month, and day-of-week. For example, '0 9 * * 1' means every Monday at 9:00 AM.
What does * mean in a cron expression?
An asterisk (*) means 'every' for that field. '* * * * *' means 'every minute of every hour of every day'.
How do I run a job every 15 minutes?
Use '*/15 * * * *'. The */ syntax means 'every N units'. Similarly, '*/5 * * * *' runs every 5 minutes.
What's the difference between 5-field and 6-field cron?
Standard Unix cron uses 5 fields (minute through day-of-week). Some tools like AWS and Kubernetes add a 6th field for seconds at the start, or a year field at the end.
Why is my cron job not running?
Common reasons include: the cron daemon is not running, incorrect file permissions on your script (needs to be executable), environment variables not being set (cron runs in a limited environment), or specifying a user that doesn't exist. Always use absolute paths in your cron scripts.
How to check cron logs in Ubuntu?
You can check the syslog for cron executions using the command: `grep CRON /var/log/syslog`. If you want to enable a dedicated cron log, uncomment the `#cron.* /var/log/cron.log` line in `/etc/rsyslog.d/50-default.conf` and restart rsyslog.