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Cron Expression

Free Cron Expression calculator with clear step-by-step results.

About Cron Expression

Turns a cron interval into execution counts and the compute time they consume, and flags the failure mode that catches most schedules out: a job whose average duration exceeds its interval will start again before the previous run finishes unless it holds a lock.

Formulas

Executions per day

Runs = active hours x 60 / interval minutes

Annual compute

Hours = runs per year x average duration seconds / 3600

Worked example

With the default values below, Cron Expression returns Executions per active day of 96.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Run everyaccepts 1–10,080 min
15 min
Hours per day the schedule is activeaccepts 0.25–24 h
24 h
Days per week activeaccepts 1–7
7
Average job durationminimum 0 s
40 s

Results

Executions per active day
96.00
Executions per year
35,040
Compute time consumed per year
389.33 h
Overlapping executions
No - job finishes before the next trigger

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Executions per day
  3. 3Annual compute
  4. 4Executions per active day= 96.00
  5. 5Executions per year= 35,040
  6. 6Compute time consumed per year= 389.33 h
  7. 7Overlapping executions= No - job finishes before the next trigger

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does execution count matter?

Serverless and CI platforms bill per invocation and per second of runtime, so a five-minute cron is 105,000 invocations a year - a very different bill from an hourly one.

How do I stop overlapping runs?

Take an advisory lock or use a scheduler with concurrency limits. Cron itself has no notion of a previous run still being in progress.

Related Calculators

Cron Expression – Calculate Executions per active day