How do I use the Cron Expression Parser?

Enter your cron expression in the 5-field format: minute, hour, day, month, weekday. Or pick one of the presets like @daily or @hourly if you're setting up something standard. You'll see it translated into plain English and the next 5 times it will run. The quick examples at the bottom are handy for learning common patterns.

Is the Cron Expression Parser free?

Yes, the Cron Expression Parser on ToolHaven is completely free to use. No signup or registration is required.

Cron Expression Parser

Paste a cron expression and get a plain-English explanation of what it does, plus the next 5 scheduled run times. If you've ever stared at something like '0 9 * * 1-5' wondering what it means, this is for you.

Cron Expression

Format: minute (0–59) hour (0–23) day (1–31) month (1–12) weekday (0–7)

Quick examples:

How to use

Enter your cron expression in the 5-field format: minute, hour, day, month, weekday.
Or pick one of the presets like @daily or @hourly if you're setting up something standard.
You'll see it translated into plain English and the next 5 times it will run.
The quick examples at the bottom are handy for learning common patterns.

Related tools:

A cron expression is a compact string that schedules recurring tasks on Unix systems. The format is five fields: minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week. So '0 9 * * 1-5' runs at 9:00 AM every weekday. '30 */4 * * *' runs every 4 hours at the 30-minute mark. The expressions can get complex quickly with step values, ranges, and wildcards.

Reading a cron expression that someone else wrote is often harder than writing one from scratch. This parser translates any cron expression into plain English and shows the next few scheduled run times. Useful for verifying a cron before deploying, or understanding what a scheduled job in an existing codebase actually does.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does * mean in a cron expression?

An asterisk means every possible value for that field. * in the hour field means every hour; * in the day-of-month field means every day. '* * * * *' runs every minute of every day.

What is the difference between the 5-field and 6-field cron formats?

Standard cron has 5 fields (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week). Some systems like Quartz Scheduler add a seconds field at the start making it 6 fields. AWS EventBridge and some modern tools use the 6-field format. This parser primarily handles the standard 5-field format.

How do I run a job every 15 minutes?

Use */15 in the minute field: '*/15 * * * *'. This runs at :00, :15, :30, and :45 every hour. To run only during business hours: '*/15 9-17 * * 1-5'.