cron expression · plain english
Cron every 15 minutes, business hours only
Fires every 15 minutes (4 times per hour), but only between 09:00 and 17:00 Monday-Friday. 36 fires per business day; 0 on weekends and after-hours.
intermediate
POSIX / Jenkins / Quartz / AWS
*/15 9-17 * * 1-5
cron every 15 minutes, business hours only.
Next 5 fire times
Computed live in your local timezone. The cron expression itself is timezone-agnostic — these times reflect your browser clock.
Cross-system syntax variants
Same intent, different schedulers. Use this table when migrating between systems.
| System | Expression | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Standard cron (POSIX) | */15 9-17 * * 1-5 | minute step + hour range + DOW range |
| Cron (named DOW) | */15 9-17 * * MON-FRI | readable form |
| Jenkins | H/15 9-17 * * MON-FRI | H spreads load |
| Quartz (Java) | 0 0/15 9-17 ? * MON-FRI | 6-field |
| AWS EventBridge | cron(0/15 9-17 ? * MON-FRI *) | Quartz-flavor |
Common pitfalls
- Last fire is 17:45, NOT 17:00 — `*/15 9-17` means 'minute */15 in hour range 9-17'. So 09:00, 09:15, ... 17:45.
- Adding `0` to the hour range (`9-17`) does NOT exclude minute 0. To exclude top-of-hour, use `15,30,45 9-17 * * 1-5`.
- 144 fires in 5 days = 720/week. If each fires 1 GB log → 700+ GB/week. Plan retention.
Use cases
- Live customer-support queue rebalancing
- Inventory level checks during peak hours
- Real-time alerting threshold scans
- Sales dashboard refresh
Translate any cron expression
cronwtf takes any cron string and returns plain-English description plus the next 5 fire times in your timezone. Standard 5-field, Jenkins H, Quartz 6-field — all supported.
Open cronwtf
Related cron schedules
cron every sunday at 2 am (weekly maintenance) · cron: every 2 hours · cron every friday at 5 pm (end of work week) · cron every quarter (jan, apr, jul, oct 1st)