Cron Expression Explainer
Translate a cron expression into plain English and see when it next runs.
Nothing explained yet
Paste a cron expression — five fields, or an @alias such as @daily — to get a plain-English description, a field-by-field breakdown and the next ten runs.
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What is the Cron Expression Explainer?
The opposite problem: you have found a cron expression in a repository and need to know what it does before changing it. Reading "0 3 * * 0" correctly is easy to get almost right, and almost right means a job runs at the wrong time in production.
Paste the expression and get a plain-English description, a field-by-field breakdown showing exactly which values each field matches, and the next occurrences in your chosen time zone. Out-of-range and malformed fields are flagged with the reason.
How to use it
- Paste the cron expression.
- Read the one-line summary, then the per-field table for the details.
- Set a time zone to see the next run times where the job actually runs.
- Use Explain another to check the schedule you are replacing it with.
Example
Reading an expression found in a repository.
*/15 2-4 * * 6,0
Every 15 minutes, between 02:00 and 04:59, on Saturday and Sunday. minute 0, 15, 30, 45 hour 2, 3, 4 day of month every day month every month day of week Saturday, Sunday
Features
- Plain-English summary of any standard five-field expression
- Per-field breakdown of matched values
- Next ten run times in any time zone
- Support for @hourly, @daily, @weekly, @monthly and @yearly aliases
- Named months and weekdays (JAN, MON) as well as numbers
- Validation with specific errors for out-of-range and malformed fields