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Crontab cron expression: every minute
To run a Crontab job every minute, use:
* * * * *Every minute.
Your week at a glance
Upcoming runs
| # | Local | UTC | From now |
|---|
Copy-ready code
Why use this schedule
The fastest schedule most cron systems allow. It suits near-real-time polling where waiting five minutes is too slow.
- Polling a queue or an inbox for new work
- Heartbeat pings to an uptime monitor
- Flushing a small in-memory buffer to disk
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, 00:01:00 |
| 3 | Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 00:02:00 |
| 4 | Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 00:03:00 |
| 5 | Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 00:04:00 |
| 6 | Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 00:05:00 |
Every minute in every dialect
| System | Expression |
|---|---|
| Crontab (this page) | * * * * * |
| Quartz | 0 * * * * ? |
| Spring | 0 * * * * * |
| Kubernetes | * * * * * |
| AWS EventBridge | * * * * ? * |
| Jenkins | * * * * * |
| node-cron | * * * * * |
| Apache Airflow | * * * * * |
| Azure Functions | 0 * * * * * |
| Google Cloud Scheduler | * * * * * |
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.
* * * * * /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
- A step such as */15 restarts at the top of each unit, so it only gives even gaps when the step divides 60 (minutes) or 24 (hours).
- 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
A job that takes longer than one minute will overlap with the next run. Guard against it with a lock, Quartz @DisallowConcurrentExecution, or concurrencyPolicy: Forbid in Kubernetes.
Frequently asked questions
How do I run a Crontab job every minute?
Use * * * * *. Every minute.
What is the every minute cron expression in other systems?
Quartz: 0 * * * * ?; Spring: 0 * * * * *; Kubernetes: * * * * *. 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.