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Cron Expression Generator
العربية

Hangfire cron format

Hangfire Cron Expression Generator

Build and check cron expressions for RecurringJob.AddOrUpdate in Hangfire, or for the Cronos library in any C# or .NET app. Hangfire reads five fields, or six with seconds first, and understands L, W and #. Two rules catch people out: a job runs only on days that match both day fields, and schedules run in UTC unless you pass a time zone.

Cron expression translator and generator

Format
Valid

5 fields, or 6 with seconds first (Cronos). Both day fields must match, L W # work, and 22-2 wraps past midnight.

English

At 8:00 AM, Monday through Friday.

العربية

في تمام الساعة 8:00 ص، من الإثنين إلى الجمعة.

    Quick presets

    Visual cron generator

    Pick options for each field — the expression above updates instantly.

    Next 5 executions

    Local time:

      Cheat sheet

      *
      Any value
      ,
      List — 1,15,30
      -
      Range — 1-5
      /
      Step — */10
      ?
      No specific value (day fields)
      @daily
      Macro for 0 0 * * *
      L
      Last day of the month, or last weekday — 6L
      W
      Nearest Monday–Friday — 15W
      #
      Nth weekday — 6#3
      22-2
      Range that wraps past the end — 10 PM to 2 AM

      Hangfire cron format

      Hangfire parses schedules with Cronos and picks the format from the number of fields: five for minute to day-of-week, or six with a seconds field in front.

      FieldAllowed valuesSpecial characters
      Second0–59 (optional, comes first), - * /
      Minute0–59, - * /
      Hour0–23, - * /
      Day of month1–31, - * ? / L W
      Month1–12 or JAN–DEC, - * /
      Day of week0–7 or SUN–SAT (0 and 7 = Sunday), - * ? / L #

      Special characters

      SymbolMeaning
      LLast. In day-of-month, L is the last day of the month and L-2 two days before it. In day-of-week, 5L or FRIL is the last Friday of the month; L on its own is not allowed there.
      WThe weekday (Monday to Friday) nearest to a date, without leaving the month: 15W. LW is the last weekday of the month, and L-3W the weekday nearest to three days before the end.
      #The nth weekday of the month: 1#1 is the first Monday, FRI#3 the third Friday.
      ?Same as *. It is optional, so a six-field Quartz-style expression such as 0 0 12 ? * MON still parses.
      -Ranges, which may wrap around: 22-2 in the hour field runs from 22:00 to 02:59, and FRI-MON from Friday to Monday.
      @Macros: @every_second, @every_minute, @hourly, @daily, @weekly, @monthly and @yearly.

      Hangfire cron examples

      Click an expression to load it into the generator above.

      ExpressionSchedule
      Every 5 minutes.
      Every 30 seconds.
      At 8:00 AM, Monday through Friday.
      Every 15 minutes, between 10:00 PM and 2:59 AM.
      At 12:00 AM, on the last day of the month.
      At 6:00 PM, on the last weekday (Monday to Friday) of the month.
      At 9:00 AM, on the first Monday of the month.
      At 5:00 PM, on the last Friday of the month.
      At 12:00 AM, on day 13 of the month, but only if that day is a Friday.
      At 12:00 AM.

      How Hangfire cron differs from Unix cron

      Use it in C#

      Register the job once at startup. Pass the time zone in RecurringJobOptions; without it, Hangfire uses UTC:

      RecurringJob.AddOrUpdate<ReportService>(
    "weekday-report",
    service => service.SendDailyReport(),
    "0 8 * * 1-5",
    new RecurringJobOptions
    {
        TimeZone = TimeZoneInfo.FindSystemTimeZoneById("Asia/Riyadh")
    });

      The same syntax works without Hangfire through the Cronos package:

      using Cronos;

var expression = CronExpression.Parse("*/30 * * * * *", CronFormat.IncludeSeconds);
DateTime? next = expression.GetNextOccurrence(DateTime.UtcNow); // in UTC

      The Cron helper class writes common expressions for you: Cron.Daily(2, 30) returns 30 2 * * *, Cron.Weekly(DayOfWeek.Monday, 9) returns 0 9 * * 1, and Cron.Never() returns 0 0 31 2 *, which keeps a job registered without ever running it.

      Frequently asked questions

      Does Hangfire support seconds in cron expressions?

      Yes. Hangfire counts the fields: five means minute to day-of-week, and six adds seconds at the start, so */30 * * * * * runs every 30 seconds. The recurring job scheduler checks every 15 seconds by default, so lower SchedulePollingInterval in BackgroundJobServerOptions if shorter intervals have to be kept.

      Which time zone does a Hangfire recurring job use?

      UTC, unless you set one: new RecurringJobOptions { TimeZone = TimeZoneInfo.FindSystemTimeZoneById("Asia/Dubai") }. Hangfire then follows that zone, including its daylight saving time changes if it has any.

      Why does 0 0 13 * 5 run less often in Hangfire than in crontab?

      Cronos, the parser behind Hangfire, requires both day fields to match, so the job runs only on a Friday the 13th. Linux cron runs it on every 13th and every Friday. To get the crontab behaviour, register two recurring jobs: 0 0 13 * * and 0 0 * * 5.

      Is a Hangfire cron expression the same as a Quartz.NET one?

      No. Quartz.NET puts seconds first, counts Sunday as 1, needs ? in one of the day fields and allows a year. Hangfire takes standard five-field cron with optional seconds. For Quartz.NET triggers, use the Quartz generator linked below.

      Can I use this cron syntax without Hangfire?

      Yes. Install the Cronos package from NuGet and call CronExpression.Parse("0 8 * * 1-5"), adding CronFormat.IncludeSeconds for six fields. GetNextOccurrence(DateTime.UtcNow) returns the next run in UTC.

      Cron generators for other platforms

      Unix / Linux cron generator */15 8-18 * * 1-5 Quartz Cron Expression Generator 0 0 8 ? * MON-FRI Spring Cron Expression Generator 0 0 8 * * MON-FRI AWS Cron Expression Generator 0 8 ? * MON-FRI * Jenkins Cron Expression Generator H 2 * * 1-5 Salesforce Cron Expression Generator 0 0 8 ? * MON-FRI Airflow Cron Expression Generator 0 6 * * 1-5 node-cron Expression Generator 0 30 8 * * 1-5

      Browse all cron expression examples →