Plain English
Every expression is explained in words, so there's no doubt about when it runs.
Cron Expression Builder
Explain any cron schedule in plain English and preview the next run times.
- Free
- No sign-up
- Runs in your browser
- Developer
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Why use it
Cron expressions are short, but easy to get wrong: is 0 9 * * 1-5 weekdays at nine, or the first five days of the month? Type or pick an expression to see it in plain English with its next six run times, then copy a ready line for the Laravel scheduler, a server crontab or node-cron.
Next run times
See the next six runs in your local time.
Ready snippets
Copy the line for the Laravel scheduler, a server crontab or node-cron.
How to use it
4 quick steps. Going deeper? Read Laravel for WordPress developers: routing, Eloquent, Blade and queues explained.
- 01
Type a five-field expression (minute hour day month weekday) or pick a preset.
- 02
Read the plain-English description and check the next run times in your local time.
- 03
Adjust a field until the schedule matches what you need; errors show which field is wrong.
- 04
Copy the Laravel, crontab or Node.js line for your project.
Who it’s for
Typical situations where this tool saves time.
- Laravel developersCheck custom ->cron() schedules before deploying them.
- Server adminsWrite crontab entries for backups and reports.
- Node.js developersPlan background jobs with node-cron or BullMQ repeatable jobs.
Questions
Short answers about privacy, limits and how the tool works.
What do the five fields mean?
Minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day of the month (1–31), month (1–12 or JAN–DEC) and day of the week (0–7 or SUN–SAT, where both 0 and 7 mean Sunday).
What happens if I set both day of month and day of week?
Standard cron runs the job when either matches. 0 0 1 * 5 runs at midnight on the 1st of every month and on every Friday.
Which time zone does cron use?
The server's time zone unless your scheduler sets one. The run times here use your browser's time zone, so compare them with the server's setting before relying on them.
Need a tool like this inside your product?
I build custom calculators, admin utilities and integrations for WordPress, Laravel and Next.js teams.