Cron Expression for Every 5 Minutes (and Other Common Intervals)

To run a job every 5 minutes, use this cron expression:

*/5 * * * *

It runs at minute 0, 5, 10, 15 and so on through 55 of every hour, every day. You can paste it into the Cron Expression Generator to see a plain-English explanation and the next run times in your timezone.

How the five fields work

A standard cron expression has five fields separated by spaces: minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week. A * means "every value", and */5 in the minute field means "every 5th minute, starting at 0".

┌───────────── minute (0-59)
│ ┌─────────── hour (0-23)
│ │ ┌───────── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ ┌─────── month (1-12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───── day of week (0-6, Sunday = 0)
│ │ │ │ │
*/5 * * * *

Other common intervals

• */10 * * * * — every 10 minutes
• */15 * * * * — every 15 minutes (at :00, :15, :30 and :45)
• */30 * * * * — every 30 minutes (at :00 and :30)
• 0 * * * * — every hour, on the hour
• 0 */2 * * * — every 2 hours, on the hour

Every 5 minutes, but only during business hours

Combine a step value in the minute field with ranges in the hour and day-of-week fields:

*/5 9-17 * * 1-5

This runs every 5 minutes from 9:00 through 17:55, Monday to Friday. Note that the hour range 9-17 includes the whole 17:00 hour, so the last run of the day is at 17:55, not 17:00.

Starting at a different minute

*/5 always starts at minute 0. If many jobs run on the same 5-minute boundary, you can spread the load by starting at another minute with a range-plus-step:

2-59/5 * * * *

This runs at minute 2, 7, 12 and so on through 57 of every hour.

Watch out for intervals that don't divide 60

A step value restarts at the top of every hour. */7 * * * * runs at minutes 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49 and 56 — and then again at minute 0 of the next hour, only 4 minutes later. If you need a truly even interval, pick a step that divides 60 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20 or 30).

FAQ

Can cron run a job every 5 seconds?

Standard 5-field cron has a resolution of one minute, so it cannot schedule anything more often than once a minute. For sub-minute schedules, use a scheduler that supports seconds or a long-running process with its own timer.

Which timezone does cron use?

That depends on the scheduler. Classic cron uses the server's system timezone, while many hosted schedulers use UTC. Check your scheduler's documentation, especially around daylight saving time changes.

Will a job run exactly on time?

Not always. Hosted schedulers can delay runs when they are busy, and a job that takes longer than 5 minutes may overlap with the next run unless you add locking.