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Crontab cron expression: every hour
To run a Crontab job every hour, use:
0 * * * *At minute 0.
Your week at a glance
Upcoming runs
| # | Local | UTC | From now |
|---|
Copy-ready code
Why use this schedule
One run at the top of each hour, twenty-four a day. This is the classic maintenance cadence: frequent enough to keep data fresh, slow enough that even a heavier job finishes comfortably before the next one starts.
- Rotating or compressing logs
- Hourly aggregation of events
- Refreshing materialised views
First runs, as an example
Starting from 1 January 2027, evaluated in UTC:
| # | Date and time (UTC) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 2 | Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 01:00:00 |
| 3 | Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 02:00:00 |
| 4 | Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 03:00:00 |
| 5 | Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 04:00:00 |
| 6 | Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 05:00:00 |
Every hour in every dialect
| System | Expression |
|---|---|
| Crontab (this page) | 0 * * * * |
| Quartz | 0 0 * * * ? |
| Spring | 0 0 * * * * |
| Kubernetes | 0 * * * * |
| AWS EventBridge | 0 * * * ? * |
| Jenkins | H * * * * |
| GitHub Actions | 0 * * * * |
| node-cron | 0 * * * * |
| Apache Airflow | 0 * * * * |
| Azure Functions | 0 0 * * * * |
| Google Cloud Scheduler | 0 * * * * |
Need to translate a different expression? Use the cron converter.
Ready-to-use Crontab config
Drop this into your project. The expression is the one above.
0 * * * * /path/to/command >> /var/log/job.log 2>&1The Crontab fields, in order: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day-of-month (1-31), month (1-12), day-of-week (0-7, 0 and 7 = Sunday).
Things to watch out for in Crontab
- Fields are minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week. There is no seconds field, so one minute is the finest resolution.
- Cron runs in the server's local time zone. Check it with the date command, or put CRON_TZ=Asia/Kolkata above the line on cronie-based systems.
The common mistake with this schedule
Many teams start everything at minute 0, which creates a thundering herd on shared systems. Offset heavy jobs, for example to minute 7 or 23, or use H in Jenkins.
Frequently asked questions
How do I run a Crontab job every hour?
Use 0 * * * *. At minute 0.
What is the every hour cron expression in other systems?
Quartz: 0 0 * * * ?; Spring: 0 0 * * * *; Kubernetes: 0 * * * *. The table on this page lists every dialect.
Which time zone does Crontab use for this schedule?
Cron runs in the server's local time zone. Check it with the date command, or put CRON_TZ=Asia/Kolkata above the line on cronie-based systems.