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Cron Expression Parser

Developer

Free online cron expression parser. Paste any cron schedule and get a human-readable explanation plus the next 5 run times. Validate and debug cron jobs instantly.

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Cron expression -

A cron expression that's already written, and possibly already broken, calls for a different kind of tool than one still being built from scratch, something that takes the existing string as-is and diagnoses it, catching a malformed field, an out-of-range value, or a syntax mistake, with the resulting explanation and upcoming run times serving as evidence for whatever's actually wrong. This tool parses an existing cron expression, validating it for errors while showing a human-readable explanation and the next five run times as supporting detail for debugging it.

See more about the Cron Expression Parser

Useful for pasting in a cron expression someone else wrote to check whether it's actually valid, debugging why a scheduled job hasn't been running when expected, or confirming a schedule's next five run times actually line up with what it was supposed to do.

Key features

  • Clean interface
  • Fast processing
  • No signup required
  • Works offline

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Quick answers for Cron Expression Parser

What does the Cron Expression Parser do?
The Cron Expression Parser takes any 5-field cron expression and shows you what it means in plain English, plus the next five times it will run, so you catch mistakes before you deploy.
What cron syntax does the parser support?
The Cron Expression Parser supports standard 5-field cron (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week) with wildcards, ranges, lists, and step values - the dialect used by vixie-cron, cronie, and most Linux systems.
Why does my cron expression match both a day-of-month AND a day-of-week?
Standard cron OR's the two date fields whenever both are non-wildcard, so `0 9 15 * 1` runs on the 15th OR on Mondays - not "the 15th if it's a Monday". The Cron Expression Parser makes that explicit in the plain-English output.
Is sub-minute scheduling supported?
No - cron's minimum resolution is one minute. For faster cadence you need a systemd timer or a long-running daemon. The Cron Expression Parser flags any expression that tries to fake sub-minute scheduling.
Does the Cron Expression Parser respect timezones?
The parser computes run times in your local timezone so you can sanity-check them, but remember that cron on a server runs in the server's timezone unless you set CRON_TZ at the top of the crontab.