AI Cron Expression Generator
Describe your schedule in plain English. We'll generate a valid cron expression.
What is a cron expression?
A cron expression is a compact string that defines a recurring schedule. It is used bycron, the time-based job scheduler on Unix-like systems, as well as by many modern platforms — CI/CD pipelines, serverless schedulers, Kubernetes CronJobs, and cloud task runners. A standard cron expression has five fields, separated by spaces:
minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week
Cron field reference
Each of the five fields accepts a number (or special character) within a fixed range:
| Field | Allowed values | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | 0–59 | Minute of the hour |
| Hour | 0–23 | 24-hour clock |
| Day of month | 1–31 | Day number |
| Month | 1–12 | Or JAN–DEC |
| Day of week | 0–6 | 0 = Sunday (or SUN–SAT) |
Special characters
*— every value (e.g. every minute, every day).,— a list of values (e.g.1,15,30).-— a range of values (e.g.1-5for Monday to Friday)./— step values (e.g.*/15for every 15 units).
Common cron expression examples
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
* * * * * | Every minute |
*/15 * * * * | Every 15 minutes |
0 * * * * | Every hour, on the hour |
0 9 * * 1-5 | Every weekday at 9:00 AM |
0 0 * * * | Every day at midnight |
0 0 * * 0 | Every Sunday at midnight |
0 0 1 * * | First day of every month at midnight |
30 2 1 1 * | At 2:30 AM on January 1st |
0 */6 * * * | Every 6 hours |
Common use cases
- Backups — run a database backup every night at 2 AM.
- Reports — email a summary every Monday morning.
- Cleanup jobs — purge temporary files every hour.
- Cache warming — refresh caches every 15 minutes.
- CI/CD — trigger scheduled builds or nightly test runs.
Why use Forgly's AI cron generator?
Writing cron by hand is error-prone — it is easy to mix up the day-of-month and day-of-week fields, or to get step syntax wrong. Forgly uses AI to translate plain English like "every Monday at 8am" into a correct expression in one click, and explains what the result does so you can verify it.
Browse common cron schedules
Looking for a ready-made schedule? See our cron expression examples cheat sheet — every 5 minutes, hourly, daily at midnight, every weekday, and more, each with a one-click copy and a field-by-field explanation.
Frequently asked questions
Does this support seconds (6-field cron)?
This tool generates the standard 5-field cron format used by most schedulers. Some systems (like Quartz or certain libraries) use a 6-field format that adds a leading seconds field.
What timezone does cron use?
Cron expressions themselves have no timezone — they run in the timezone of the server or scheduler. If you need a specific timezone, set it in your scheduler's configuration.
Is it free?
Yes — free to use: 5 AI generations a day anonymously, or 10 a day when signed in (free). Pro removes the daily limit.