Cron Schedule Calculator
Parse and explain a cron expression, showing the resulting execution schedule.
About Cron Schedule Calculator
A cron expression has 5 fields — minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week — each of which may be a wildcard (*), a single value, a range (a-b), a list (a,b,c) or a step (*/n). This calculator parses each field into its set of matching values, then walks forward minute by minute from the current time to find the next occurrences that satisfy all fields simultaneously, following the standard cron rule that if both day-of-month and day-of-week are restricted (not wildcards), a match on either field is sufficient.
Formula
Cron field expansion
step: */n expands to every nth value in [min..max]; range: a-b expands to all integers [a..b]
- n
- step divisor
- min
- field minimum (e.g. 0 for minute)
- max
- field maximum (e.g. 59 for minute)
Worked example
With the default values below, Cron Schedule Calculator returns Next Run Times of Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 09:00 AM Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 09:15 AM Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 09:30 AM Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 09:45 AM Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 10:00 AM. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Cron Expression
- */15 9-17 * * 1-5
- Number of Upcoming Runs to Showaccepts 1–20
- 5
Results
- Parsed Schedule
- minute=*/15 hour=9-17 dom=* month=* dow=1-5
- Next Run Times
- Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 09:00 AM Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 09:15 AM Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 09:30 AM Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 09:45 AM Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 10:00 AM
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Cron field expansion
- 3Next Run Times= Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 09:00 AM Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 09:15 AM Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 09:30 AM Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 09:45 AM Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 10:00 AM
- 4Parsed Schedule= minute=*/15 hour=9-17 dom=* month=* dow=1-5
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 2 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.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do the 5 fields in a cron expression mean?
In order: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day-of-month (1-31), month (1-12), and day-of-week (0-6, where 0 is Sunday). A job runs when the current time matches all applicable fields.
What does */15 mean in the minute field?
It means 'every 15th value starting from 0', i.e. minutes 0, 15, 30 and 45 — the step syntax divides the field's full range by the given step size.
What happens if both day-of-month and day-of-week are set to specific values?
Standard cron (including Vixie cron used on most Linux distributions) treats this as an OR: the job runs if either the day-of-month or the day-of-week condition is satisfied, not only when both match simultaneously.