How this calculator works
- Step 1Split into five fieldsm h dom mon dowMinute, hour, day of month, month, day of week.
- Step 2Expand each field*, 1-5, */15Ranges, lists and steps become the exact values allowed.
- Step 3Walk the calendarNext 10 runsEvery matching minute, shown in IST and UTC.
Cron is the scheduler built into Linux and many cloud services. A job runs in every minute where all five fields match.
Worked example: weekdays at 9 am
0 9 * * 1-5 means “At 09:00, on Monday to Friday.”
- Expression
0 9 * * 1-5
- Minute0
- Hour9
- Day of month and monthevery
- Day of week (0 = Sunday)1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- Next run after Tue, 27 Oct 2026, 15:30:30 ISTWed, 28 Oct 2026, 09:00:00 IST
The same minute in UTC is Wed, 28 Oct 2026, 03:30:00 UTC. India has no daylight saving, so IST is always five and a half hours ahead of UTC.
Reading the result
- Server set to ISTWed, 28 Oct 2026, 09:00:00 ISTRuns at 9 am in India.
- Server set to UTCWed, 28 Oct 2026, 14:30:00 ISTRuns at 9 am UTC, which is 2:30 pm in India.
- * (any)Every value of the field.
- */15 (step)Every 15th value, starting from the lowest.
- 1-5 and 1,15A range, or a list of values.
- @daily and friendsShortcuts: @hourly, @daily, @weekly, @monthly, @yearly.
Related time tools
A cron schedule runs in one time zone. Converting and reading timestamps are the next questions.
To convert a run time between IST and other zones, use the time zone converter. The Unix timestamp converter reads timestamps in logs.
Common mistakes
Mistake: Writing a 9 am India job as 0 9 * * * on a UTC server.
Instead: Use 30 3 * * *, or set the server to IST.
Mistake: Setting both day of month and day of week, expecting both to apply.
Instead: Cron runs when either matches; check the run list.
Mistake: Pasting a six-field Quartz expression with seconds.
Instead: Drop the seconds field for standard cron.
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