Cron Expression Parser & Explainer
Decode cron job expressions into plain English schedules.
Human readable
Minute
Hour
Day
Month
Weekday
Next 5 run times (UTC)
About Cron Expression Parser
Paste any cron expression (5-field or 6-field with seconds) and get a plain-English explanation of when it runs, along with the next 5 execution times. Covers standard cron, Quartz, and AWS EventBridge formats.
Use Cases
Understanding inherited cron jobs, debugging wrong schedules, validating cron before deploying, writing cron expressions for CI/CD pipelines, documenting scheduled tasks.
How It Works
Parses each of the 5 fields (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week) and translates each pattern (*, */n, ranges, lists) into human-readable English descriptions. Next run times are computed by iterating through date-time increments.
FAQs
Does it support the @hourly, @daily shortcuts?
Yes. @hourly, @daily, @weekly, @monthly, and @yearly are all recognized and explained.
What is the difference between 5-field and 6-field cron?
5-field cron starts with minute. 6-field (Quartz/Spring) adds a seconds field at the start. Select the format in the tool.