Cron Cheatsheet

Quick reference for cron expression syntax — field ranges, special characters, common patterns, and dialect differences in one page.

Field Reference

Standard 5-field cron expression: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week

Position	Field	Range	Notes
1	Minute	0–59	0 = top of the hour
2	Hour	0–23	24-hour clock, UTC recommended
3	Day-of-Month	1–31	Months with fewer days skip higher values
4	Month	1–12	JAN–DEC abbreviations accepted
5	Day-of-Week	0–7	0 and 7 both = Sunday; SUN–SAT accepted

Special Characters

Char	Name	Example	Meaning
*	Wildcard	* * * * *	Matches every value in the field
/	Step	/15 * * *	Every 15 minutes (0, 15, 30, 45)
-	Range	0 9-17 * * *	Every hour from 9 AM through 5 PM
,	List	0 0 1,15 * *	1st and 15th of every month
?	No specific value	0 0 0 ? * MON	Quartz/EventBridge: skip DOM, use DOW
L	Last	0 0 0 L * ?	Last day of the month (Quartz/EventBridge)
W	Nearest weekday	0 0 0 15W * ?	Nearest weekday to the 15th (Quartz)
#	Nth weekday	0 0 0 ? * 2#1	First Monday of the month (Quartz)
H	Hash	H/15 * * * *	Stable hash offset every 15 min (Jenkins)

Common Patterns

Expression	Meaning
* * * * *	Every minute
/5 * * *	Every 5 minutes
0 * * * *	Every hour (at minute 0)
0 0 * * *	Daily at midnight
0 2 * * *	Daily at 2:00 AM
0 9 * * 1-5	Weekdays at 9:00 AM
0 0 1 * *	First day of every month at midnight
0 0 * * 1	Every Monday at midnight
/15 * * *	Every 15 minutes
0 0 L * *	Last day of every month at midnight

Dialect Comparison

Feature	Standard	Quartz	Jenkins	EventBridge
Fields	5	6–7	5	6
Seconds	No	Yes (field 1)	No	No
Year	No	Optional (field 7)	No	Required (field 6)
? char	No	Yes	No	Yes
L char	No	Yes	No	Yes
W char	No	Yes	No	Yes
# char	No	Yes	No	Yes
H char	No	No	Yes	No