Explain a 5-field or 6-field cron expression in plain language, inspect each field, and preview upcoming runs computed in UTC — without scheduling anything.
| Accepted input | Five-field expressions, or six-field expressions with a leading seconds field |
|---|---|
| Upcoming runs | Plain-language description plus a preview of upcoming runs, all computed in UTC |
| Scheduling | Parsing only: no job is created or scheduled |
| Max input size | 10 KB |
| Execution deadline | 2 s |
| Processing location | Browser-only: pasted input is not uploaded |
Input
*/5 * * * *Example output
Description: "Every 5 minutes"
--- Expression Breakdown ---
Minute: */5
Hour: *
Day of Month: *
Month: *
Day of Week: *
--- Next 5 Scheduled Executions (UTC) ---
1. 2026-01-01 00:05:00 UTC (in 4m 0s)
2. 2026-01-01 00:10:00 UTC (in 9m 0s)
3. 2026-01-01 00:15:00 UTC (in 14m 0s)
4. 2026-01-01 00:20:00 UTC (in 19m 0s)
5. 2026-01-01 00:25:00 UTC (in 24m 0s)With six fields the first field is seconds, followed by minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week.
Malformed fields or unknown tokens fail with an INVALID_INPUT error from either the description step or the schedule compiler; no partial schedule is returned.
Next runs are relative to the moment of the run; the published example is computed against a fixed reference clock so it stays reproducible.
Timestamp Converter
Convert Unix timestamps and date strings between epoch seconds, milliseconds, ISO 8601, UTC representations, and selected display timezones.
JSON Formatter
Prettify, indent, and format JSON strings with customizable indentation and key sorting.
Text Diff / Compare
Compare two text files, code snippets, or configuration payloads line-by-line, word-by-word, or as a unified patch.
Five fields mean minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week, in that order. A six-field expression adds a leading seconds field. The tool lists each field with its raw value in the breakdown section.
The expression */5 * * * * means every minute divisible by five: at :00, :05, :10, and so on past every hour. From 2026-01-01T00:01:00Z the next run is 2026-01-01T00:05:00Z.
Yes. Five fields are minute through day of week; six fields add a leading seconds field. Other tokens and macro spellings are untested, so verify unusual expressions against the actual parser output rather than assuming compatibility.
Upcoming runs are always computed in UTC, so the preview is independent of the machine timezone. There is no timezone selector; convert the UTC times yourself if you schedule in another zone.
No. It only explains the expression and forecasts run times. No scheduler is started and nothing executes; paste the expression into your own scheduler to run it.
The tool accepts the five- and six-field shapes above through its two parsing libraries, but dialect tokens vary across cron implementations. Treat the supported dialect as exactly what the tool parses successfully — do not assume Linux, Quartz, or other vendor compatibility.