Cron Expression for Every 5 Minutes

The expression is */5 * * * *

On a standard Unix crontab (five fields: minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week), run a job every five minutes with:

*/5 * * * *

Confirm the next run times in your timezone with the Cron Expression Generator. Production cron uses the server’s timezone (often UTC), not necessarily your laptop’s.

What each field does

*/5 is a step from the start of the minute range (0–59). The other four fields stay *, so the schedule is not limited to a particular hour, date, month, or weekday.

Every N minutes (same pattern)

Change only the step. These are still five-field Unix expressions, not Quartz (which adds a seconds field).

Not the same as “at minute 5”

5 * * * * runs once per hour, at minute 5 (01:05, 02:05, …). That is not “every five minutes.” If a job fires 12 times an hour when you expected once, you used a step; if it fires once an hour when you expected 12 times, you used a single minute value.

# every 5 minutes
*/5 * * * *

# once per hour at minute 5
5 * * * *

# at 00:05, 00:10, 00:15 only
5,10,15 0 * * *

Weekdays or a single hour

Keep */5 in the minute field and restrict other fields when the product requirement is narrower.

• */5 9-17 * * 1-5 — every 5 minutes, 09:00–17:59, Monday–Friday
• */5 0 * * * — every 5 minutes during midnight hour only (00:00–00:55)
• 0 */5 * * * — every 5 hours at minute 0, not every 5 minutes

Quartz and six-field cron

Java Quartz and some CI systems use six or seven fields and put seconds first. 0 */5 * * * * in Quartz means “second 0, every 5 minutes.” On Linux crontab, the same string is invalid or parsed as a different schedule because Unix cron has no seconds field.

If a generator shows six numbers, you are not looking at Vixie/Linux crontab. Toolshelf’s cron generator uses the classic five-field format.

Timezone and next-run surprises

Cron does not store a timezone inside */5 * * * *. The daemon interprets fields in the host timezone. A job that looks correct on your laptop can run four and a half hours off on a UTC server.

When you debug “it didn’t run,” check the machine clock and timezone before rewriting the expression. For converting an epoch from logs, use the Unix Timestamp Converter.

Common mistakes

These changes look small and completely change the schedule.

• Writing */5 in the hour field (* */5 * * *) — that is every 5 hours, every minute of those hours.
• Using 5/5 when you meant */5. Step syntax is start/step in some parsers; */5 is the portable “every 5 minutes from 0.”
• Copying a Kubernetes CronJob schedule that includes seconds.
• Assuming day-of-month and day-of-week both restricted means AND. On many crons it means OR. Leave one of them as * unless you have verified the daemon’s rules.

Build and explain the schedule

Paste */5 * * * * into the Cron Expression Generator to read a plain-English explanation and the next local run times. Adjust a field, copy the line, then confirm the timezone on the server that will actually run it.