Which cron syntax is supported?

This tool supports standard five-field minute, hour, day-of-month, month, and day-of-week syntax with wildcards, steps, lists, and ranges.

Does this tool execute cron commands?

No. It only parses schedule text and calculates matching local times. There is no command or shell execution.

Cron Expression Parser – Explain Cron Schedules

What is a cron expression?

A cron expression describes recurring calendar matches. This parser supports the standard five-field order: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. It explains and previews schedules but never executes a command.

Cron field order

minute  hour  day-of-month  month  day-of-week
 */5     *         *          *         *

The example means every five minutes. A star matches every allowed value, while a star-slash step advances through the field in fixed increments.

Ranges and lists

A range such as 1-5 includes every value from one through five. A list such as 0,15,30,45 selects specific values. Steps can follow a star or range. The visualizer shows the values selected by each valid field.

Common cron examples

0 9 * * 1-5 — weekdays at 9:00 AM.
0 0 1 * * — midnight on the first day of each month.
0 * * * * — every hour on the hour.
0 0 * * 1 — every Monday at midnight.

Why cron syntax differs

Some systems add a seconds or year field, support names, or use different day matching rules. This tool deliberately accepts numeric standard five-field syntax and reports six fields instead of silently reinterpreting them. Upcoming runs use the browser’s local timezone.

Frequently asked questions

Does this execute cron commands?

No. Expressions are plain text. There is no command field, shell, or execution path.

How are day-of-month and weekday combined?

Following common Unix cron behavior, when both fields are restricted a date matches either one; when one is a star, the restricted field controls the match.