What cron format does this support?

Standard 5-field Unix cron (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week) and 6-field Quartz-style with seconds. Supports ranges (1-5), steps (*/5), lists (1,3,5), and named months/days (JAN, MON).

Are the next-run times in UTC or my local timezone?

Local timezone — they're computed from your browser's current time. If you need UTC, run the same cron against a UTC clock (most servers default to UTC, so schedule accordingly).

Why does '0 0 31 2 *' never run?

February never has a 31st day, so that expression has no valid firing times. The tool will parse it successfully but show no upcoming runs. Common gotcha when combining day-of-month with specific months.

What's the difference between '0 0 * * 0' and '0 0 * * 7'?

Both represent Sunday in standard cron (0 and 7 both mean Sunday). The tool handles either. Different cron implementations disagree — when in doubt, use the named form 'SUN'.

Cron Explainer

Translate cron expressions into plain English and see exactly when the next 5 runs will fire in your local timezone. Supports standard 5-field cron and 6-field Quartz-style cron with seconds. Uses cronstrue for the English translation and cron-parser for next-run calculation. Helpful example shortcuts are built in.

Cron Expression (5 or 6 fields)11 / 100,000

Plain English

Every 5 minutes

Next 5 runs (local time)

Wed Jul 22 2026 19:30:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Wed Jul 22 2026 19:35:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Wed Jul 22 2026 19:40:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Wed Jul 22 2026 19:45:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Wed Jul 22 2026 19:50:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Frequently Asked Questions

What cron format does this support?: Standard 5-field Unix cron (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week) and 6-field Quartz-style with seconds. Supports ranges (1-5), steps (*/5), lists (1,3,5), and named months/days (JAN, MON).
Are the next-run times in UTC or my local timezone?: Local timezone — they're computed from your browser's current time. If you need UTC, run the same cron against a UTC clock (most servers default to UTC, so schedule accordingly).
Why does '0 0 31 2 *' never run?: February never has a 31st day, so that expression has no valid firing times. The tool will parse it successfully but show no upcoming runs. Common gotcha when combining day-of-month with specific months.
What's the difference between '0 0 * * 0' and '0 0 * * 7'?: Both represent Sunday in standard cron (0 and 7 both mean Sunday). The tool handles either. Different cron implementations disagree — when in doubt, use the named form 'SUN'.

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About Cron Explainer

Paste any cron expression and get a plain-English translation plus the next 5 scheduled run times. Supports 5-field and 6-field (seconds) cron. This tool runs entirely in your browser, so your content is not sent to a server. MarkdownMe provides free, fast, and reliable Markdown tools for developers, writers, and anyone who works with Markdown.