Cron Expression Explainer
Explain any 5-field cron expression in plain English and preview its next run times.
Cron Expression
Five fields: minute (0–59) · hour (0–23) · day-of-month (1–31) · month (1–12) · day-of-week (0–6, Sun=0)
Meaning
Runs at minute 0, past hour 9, on Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri.
Next 5 Runs (Local Time)
No upcoming runs found within 4 years.
What Is the Cron Expression Explainer?
The Cron Expression Explainer translates a standard 5-field crontab expression into plain English and shows the next five times it will run in your local time zone. It supports wildcards (*), steps (*/5), ranges (1-5) and lists (1,3,5), and validates each field. Everything is computed locally.
How It Works
Enter a cron expression (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week). The tool describes what it means and lists the next five run times. Invalid fields are flagged with a clear message.
When to Use It
Use it to confirm a crontab entry does what you intend before deploying, to learn cron syntax, or to debug a schedule that isn't firing when expected.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Which cron format is supported?
- The standard 5-field Unix/crontab format. Special strings like @daily and 6-field (seconds) cron aren't parsed.
- What time zone are the run times in?
- Your browser's local time zone.
Last reviewed: 2026-06-27