GitHub Actions Cron Helper
Build and understand the cron schedule expression used by GitHub Actions' scheduled workflows.
Build a cron expression for your workflow's `schedule` trigger, or paste an existing one to see what it means and when it will next run.
GitHub Actions schedules run in UTC and on a best-effort basis - during high load, a scheduled run can be delayed by several minutes.
What Is a GitHub Actions Cron Schedule?
GitHub Actions' schedule trigger uses standard 5-field cron syntax (minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week) to define when a workflow runs automatically, similar to a Unix cron job.
Why Use This Tool?
Cron syntax is compact but easy to get subtly wrong - it's simple to mix up whether a field means "every N" or "at N", or to schedule something more or less often than intended. This tool explains a schedule in plain English and shows upcoming run times so you can sanity-check it.
How to Use It
- Build a schedule using the minute/hour/day fields, or paste an existing cron expression.
- Review the plain-English explanation of when it will run.
- Check the next several calculated run times (in UTC, matching how GitHub Actions schedules work).
Limitations
GitHub explicitly documents that scheduled workflows run on a best-effort basis and may be delayed during periods of high load - the calculated times here show when the schedule is defined to trigger, not a guarantee of exact execution time.