How to Read a Cron Expression — Free Online Parser (2026)

Cron expressions schedule recurring tasks on Unix systems, but their five-field syntax is notoriously hard to read at a glance. The brevio Cron Expression Parser translates any cron expression into plain English, breaks down each field, and shows the next five scheduled run times — free, in your browser, no login needed.

Whether you are debugging a cron job on a server, reviewing a GitHub Actions workflow schedule, or setting up a database backup, this tool saves you from counting fields mentally and checking documentation every time.

How to use the parser

1. Paste or type the cron expression into the input field. The tool accepts both the standard five-field format (minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week) and macro aliases like @daily or @weekly.
2. Use a preset to jump straight to common schedules: every 15 minutes, every weekday at 9 AM, the first of every month, and so on.
3. Click Parse Expression. The tool returns three outputs: a plain-English summary of the schedule, a breakdown of each field with its meaning, and the next five times the job would run.

Understanding the five fields

A standard cron expression has five fields separated by spaces, read left to right:

1. Minute (0–59) — which minute within each hour.
2. Hour (0–23) — which hour of the day, in 24-hour format.
3. Day of month (1–31) — which calendar day.
4. Month (1–12) — which month of the year.
5. Day of week (0–6, Sunday = 0) — which day of the week.

A * in any field means "every value" for that field. So * * * * * runs every single minute. The expression 0 9 * * 1-5 runs at 9:00 AM every Monday through Friday.

Special syntax

Step values (/)

*/15 in the minute field means "every 15 minutes." 0/2 in the hour field means "every 2 hours starting from midnight."

Ranges (-)

1-5 in the day-of-week field means Monday through Friday.

Lists (,)

0,30 in the minute field means at minute 0 and minute 30 — twice an hour.

Macros

@daily is equivalent to 0 0 * * *. @weekly = 0 0 * * 0. @monthly = 0 0 1 * *. @hourly = 0 * * * *. @yearly = 0 0 1 1 *.

Where cron expressions appear

You will find cron syntax in crontab files (crontab -e), GitHub Actions workflows (on.schedule.cron), AWS EventBridge rules, Kubernetes CronJob specs, and many CI/CD platforms. The syntax is nearly identical across all of these — the parser handles them all.

Common mistakes to avoid

The most frequent error is confusing day-of-month and day-of-week behaviour. When both fields are set to non-wildcard values, most cron implementations run the job when either condition is true, not both. If you want "the first Monday of each month," you need application-level logic rather than a single cron expression.

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