Cron Expression Reference Cheat Sheet
Comprehensive reference guide for Linux, macOS, Kubernetes CronJobs, AWS EventBridge, and systemd timers. Click any cron schedule to view human breakdowns, execution timelines, and crontab commands.
Standard 5-Field Crontab Syntax Breakdown
│ │ │ │ └─ Day of Week (0 - 6) (Sun=0)
Every Minute (* * * * *)
Triggers execution every single minute. Used for real-time queue workers and high-frequency health checks.
Every 5 Minutes (*/5 * * * *)
Executes every 5 minutes. Industry standard for polling background tasks, RSS updates, and API metrics collection.
Every 15 Minutes (*/15 * * * *)
Runs 4 times per hour on the quarter-hour marks (:00, :15, :30, :45). Ideal for periodic email batching.
Every 30 Minutes (*/30 * * * *)
Executes twice every hour (at :00 and :30). Commonly used for cache invalidation and session cleanup.
Every Hour (0 * * * *)
Runs once at the beginning of every hour (:00). Standard for database hourly snapshots and log rotation.
Every 2 Hours (0 */2 * * *)
Runs at midnight, 2:00 AM, 4:00 AM, etc. Suitable for medium-frequency data sync jobs.
Midnight Daily (0 0 * * *)
Runs once a day at 00:00 (Midnight). The standard schedule for full daily backups and analytics summaries.
Daily at 1:00 AM (0 1 * * *)
Runs every morning at 1:00 AM during off-peak system traffic. Preferred for intensive maintenance scripts.
At 9:00 AM Mon-Fri (0 9 * * 1-5)
Triggers at 9:00 AM Monday through Friday. Standard for business morning report dispatches.
Every Sunday at Midnight (0 0 * * 0)
Runs once a week on Sunday at 00:00. Standard schedule for weekly database vacuums and archive creation.
Every Monday at 8:00 AM (0 8 * * 1)
Executes every Monday at 8:00 AM. Perfect for weekly newsletter distributions and sprint task resets.
1st Day of Every Month (0 0 1 * *)
Runs at midnight on the 1st day of each month. Industry standard for monthly billing, invoicing, and storage rollup.
Need a custom cron expression schedule?
Use Teksolvr's visual interactive Cron Builder tool to generate custom schedule syntax with real-time human explanations and execution projections.