Cron Expression Parser — Explain & Preview Runs
Explain any cron expression in plain English and preview the next run times. Supports 5-field crontab, 6-field, and @hourly/@daily/@weekly shortcuts. Free, no signup.
In English
On the hour, every 6 hours
Next 5 run times (UTC)
- 2026-06-19T12:00:00.000Z
- 2026-06-19T18:00:00.000Z
- 2026-06-20T00:00:00.000Z
- 2026-06-20T06:00:00.000Z
- 2026-06-20T12:00:00.000Z
How to use the cron expression parser — explain & preview runs
Type a cron expression in standard 5-field form. The English description and the next 5 run times appear instantly. Both the cronstrue and cron-parser libraries support the common extensions (lists, ranges, steps).
Formula & explanation
Five fields: minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day of month (1–31), month (1–12), day of week (0–7, where 0 and 7 are Sunday). Special characters: * (any), , (list), - (range), / (step).
Examples
0 */6 * * * = every 6 hours. 0 9 * * 1-5 = 9 am Monday–Friday. */15 9-17 * * * = every 15 minutes from 9 am to 5 pm.
Frequently asked questions
- Does this support 6-field (with seconds)?
- We use the 5-field standard. Some flavors (Quartz, Spring) add a leading seconds field — drop it before pasting.
- What timezone?
- Next-run times are shown in UTC. Convert to your local timezone in your scheduler config.
Related developer tools tools
- Regex TesterTest JavaScript regular expressions live with instant match highlighting. Supports all JS regex flags (g, i, m, s, u) and shows match groups, indices, and global matches.
- JWT DecoderDecode JSON Web Tokens and inspect the header, payload, and signature. Paste any JWT to see claims, expiry, issuer, and algorithm — no secret key needed to decode.
- URL ParserDecompose any URL into its components — protocol, host, port, path, query parameters, and fragment. Great for debugging redirect chains, API endpoints, and UTM parameters.
- HTML EditorWrite HTML with live preview side-by-side. Syntax-highlighted editor with formatted source view — useful for testing snippets, email templates, or quick mockups in your browser.
- JSON FormatterPretty-print, minify, and validate JSON. Detects syntax errors with line numbers and supports nested structures of any depth.
- JSON DiffCompare two JSON values semantically. Ignores key order; shows added, removed, and changed fields with their JSONPath — great for diffing API responses and config files.