Cron Every 5 Minutes — Expression & Next Runs
Use */5 * * * * for a five-minute cron schedule. Check the minute marks, preview upcoming UTC runs, and avoid seconds-field and overlapping-job mistakes.
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- Fields…
Next runs are shown in UTC. Match your scheduler’s timezone before deploying.
When to use this
- Poll a service on fixed five-minute clock marks.
- Refresh a small cache during a defined workday window.
- Check minute-field steps before putting a schedule into a crontab.
How the result is calculated
The five fields are minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week. */5 in the minute field selects 0, 5, 10 and so on up to 55; the four stars allow every other field. At 12:03 UTC the next matching time is 12:05 UTC, not 12:08. The live parser lists the next five matching times from now.
Worked examples
Five-field crontab examples. This preview uses UTC; your scheduler may use a different timezone or syntax.
| Input | Result | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| */5 * * * * | 00, 05, 10, …, 55 each hour | All hours and all days |
| */5 9-17 * * 1-5 | Every five minutes, 09:00–17:55, Mon–Fri | An inclusive hour range includes the whole 17th hour |
| 1-59/5 * * * * | 01, 06, 11, …, 56 each hour | Offset clock marks; not a completion-based interval |
Practical pitfalls
- A job taking more than five minutes can overlap its next invocation. This tool validates a schedule; it does not supply locks, retries or execution guarantees.
- A seconds-first parser needs 0 */5 * * * *. Traditional user crontabs have five time fields; Quartz and other schedulers can use different syntax.
- Cron is a wall-clock schedule. Your system timezone and daylight-saving behavior may differ from this UTC preview.
References
Last reviewed: 2026-10-11
Task guides with ready-to-use settings
- Cron Weekdays at 9 AM — Monday to Friday
Use 0 9 * * 1-5 for 09:00 Monday through Friday in a five-field crontab. It excludes weekends, but not public holidays. The preview below uses UTC; configure your scheduler's timezone for local 9 AM.
Frequently asked questions
- Does */5 wait five minutes after the last run?
- No. It matches fixed minute marks within each hour, starting at minute zero. Job duration and completion do not reset the schedule.
- Why does my six-field parser run differently?
- Check field order. For a seconds-first six-field parser, use 0 */5 * * * *. Do not append a sixth field to a traditional five-field crontab without checking its syntax.
- Will this prevent two jobs running at once?
- No. Schedule parsing does not execute or serialize jobs. Configure a lock or an equivalent concurrency control in your scheduler if needed.