Cron expression explainerValidators

Cron expression explainer. Plain English and the next five runs.

Type a five-field cron expression and get one sentence that says when it runs, a breakdown of each field and the next five run times. Works for crontab, Kubernetes CronJobs and GitHub Actions schedules.

Cost to you

Free

Runs in your browser. No signup, no API call, no limit per hour.

browser
runs in
none
API calls
none
account

Use it now

Use the Cron expression explainer here

It runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, there is no signup and no limit.

Loading the tool.

Run it from your agent

Copy one prompt, give it to your agent.

Fill in the placeholder, paste it, and the agent runs the same job with current data on your looot account and shows the cost.

  • You give it: a five-field cron expression or an @ shortcut.
  • Billed per call, nothing while your agent is idle.
  • The agent shows the price before it calls.
Prompt: Cron expression explainer
Use looot to plan a recurring data job: [what to pull] on this schedule: [cron expression]. 1. Set up https://looot.ai/skill.md. 2. Search the catalog for the endpoint and check its price per call. 3. Explain the cron expression in plain English and list the next five runs in UTC. 4. Work out how many runs a month that is and the monthly cost at that price.

Give this to your agent
Setup command
set up looot - https://looot.ai/skill.md

What comes back

What your agent gets from cron expression explainer

Field names as the providers return them. The exact set varies by endpoint, and your agent reads it from the catalog.

  • plain English description
  • values of each field
  • next five run times
  • errors that name the field

Use it for

What people do with cron expression explainer

  • Read a crontab

    Understand an inherited schedule before you change it.

  • Catch mistakes

    See that 0 0 30 2 * never runs before it reaches production.

  • CI schedules

    Check a GitHub Actions or Kubernetes CronJob schedule in UTC.

  • Count the runs

    See how often a job fires so you can size its cost.

Set up once

Three steps. Your agent does the rest.

Keep going

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FAQ

Questions about cron expression explainer

In order: minute (0 to 59), hour (0 to 23), day of month (1 to 31), month (1 to 12 or JAN to DEC) and day of week (0 to 7 or SUN to SAT, where 0 and 7 are Sunday).

Every 15th value of that field, starting from the lowest. In the minute field, */15 runs at minutes 0, 15, 30 and 45.

Use 0 9 * * 1-5. That is minute 0, hour 9, any day of month, any month, Monday through Friday.

The server's time zone for classic crontab. GitHub Actions schedules run in UTC, and Kubernetes CronJobs use the controller's zone unless the spec sets timeZone. Switch the run list between UTC and your zone to compare.

Standard cron runs the job when either one matches. 0 12 1 * MON runs on the first of the month and on every Monday. The page points this out when it applies.

Yes: @yearly, @annually, @monthly, @weekly, @daily, @midnight and @hourly. @reboot has no schedule, so the page says that instead of guessing.

No. A six-field expression, L, W and # are Quartz or Spring extensions. The page flags them rather than explaining them wrongly.
For agents
tool
Cron expression explainer
category
Validators
input
A five-field cron expression or an @ shortcut
output
plain English description, values of each field, next five run times, errors that name the field
price
per call, read live from the catalog on the web page
web tool
runs in the visitor's browser, no API call, free and unlimited
schedule
on demand
setup
https://looot.ai/skill.md
llms.txt
https://looot.ai/llms.txt
updated
2026-10-14
markdown /free-tools/cron-expression-explainer.md

Run cron expression explainer from your own agent.

Start your workspace, top up, and paste the prompt into the agent you already use. It runs the job with live data and shows the cost first.

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