Cron Translator

One schedule, every format. Convert cron expressions to GitHub Actions, Kubernetes, AWS, systemd, and more.

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

At 9:00 AM, Monday through Friday

Standard Cron (5-field)

Classic crontab format

0 9 * * 1-5

Cron with Seconds (6-field)

Used by Quartz, Spring, some Node.js libraries

0 0 9 * * 1-5

GitHub Actions

For .github/workflows/*.yml

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 9 * * 1-5'

Kubernetes CronJob

YAML manifest snippet

apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
  name: my-cronjob
spec:
  schedule: "0 9 * * 1-5"
  jobTemplate:
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          containers:
          - name: my-job
            image: my-image:latest
          restartPolicy: OnFailure

systemd Timer (OnCalendar)

For .timer unit files

[Timer]
OnCalendar=Mon..Fri *-*-* 09:00:00
Persistent=true

AWS EventBridge / CloudWatch Events

Cron expression for AWS

cron(0 9 ? * MON-FRI *)

Note: AWS uses 6 fields and requires '?' for either day-of-month or day-of-week

Azure Functions Timer Trigger

NCRONTAB format (6 fields with seconds)

0 0 9 * * 1-5

Google Cloud Scheduler

Standard unix-cron format

0 9 * * 1-5

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Format Differences Explained

Standard vs Extended Cron

Standard Unix cron uses 5 fields (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week). Some systems extend this:

  • * 6-field (with seconds): Used by Quartz, Spring, and some Node.js libraries like node-cron
  • * AWS/Jenkins style: Uses 6 fields with year, and requires '?' for unused day fields
  • * systemd OnCalendar: Uses a completely different human-readable format

Day-of-Week Numbering

Be careful! Different systems number days differently:

  • * Standard cron: 0 = Sunday, 6 = Saturday
  • * AWS/Quartz: 1 = Sunday, 7 = Saturday (or use SUN-SAT)
  • * systemd: Uses Mon, Tue, Wed, etc.