Cron Expression Explainer
Explain any 5-field cron expression in plain English and preview its next run times.
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.
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