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Cron Expression Explainer

Paste a 5-field cron expression to get a plain-English explanation. Covers common patterns — exotic expressions may not be fully described.




    

About this tool

Translates a 5-field cron expression into a plain-English description of when it runs, plus a field-by-field breakdown — useful for double-checking a schedule before deploying it, since cron syntax is easy to get subtly wrong.

Frequently asked questions

What do the 5 fields in a cron expression mean?

In order: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. A common source of confusion is that both "day of month" and "day of week" exist as separate fields — when both are restricted (not *), most cron implementations treat it as an OR, not an AND.

Does this tool support 6-field cron expressions with seconds?

Not currently — it expects the standard 5-field format. Some schedulers (like Spring's or Quartz's) use a 6th leading seconds field, which would need to be removed before pasting here.