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GitHub Actions cron expression: every day at midnight
To run a GitHub Actions job every day at midnight, use:
0 0 * * *At 00:00 UTC.
Your week at a glance
Upcoming runs
| # | Local | UTC | From now |
|---|
Copy-ready code
Why use this schedule
The default nightly slot. Everything that can wait until the day is over runs here.
- Daily reports for the previous day
- Archiving old records
- Resetting daily counters or quotas
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 | Sat, 02 Jan 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 3 | Sun, 03 Jan 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 4 | Mon, 04 Jan 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 5 | Tue, 05 Jan 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 6 | Wed, 06 Jan 2027, 00:00:00 |
Every day at midnight in every dialect
| System | Expression |
|---|---|
| GitHub Actions (this page) | 0 0 * * * |
| Quartz | 0 0 0 * * ? |
| Spring | 0 0 0 * * * |
| Crontab | 0 0 * * * |
| Kubernetes | 0 0 * * * |
| AWS EventBridge | 0 0 * * ? * |
| Jenkins | H 0 * * * |
| node-cron | 0 0 * * * |
| Apache Airflow | 0 0 * * * |
| Azure Functions | 0 0 0 * * * |
| Google Cloud Scheduler | 0 0 * * * |
Need to translate a different expression? Use the cron converter.
Ready-to-use GitHub Actions config
Drop this into your project. The expression is the one above.
on:
schedule:
- cron: "0 0 * * *"The GitHub Actions fields, in order: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day-of-month (1-31), month (1-12), day-of-week (0-6, 0 = Sunday).
Things to watch out for in GitHub Actions
- Scheduled workflows only run on the default branch, and public repos pause them after 60 days without activity.
- GitHub Actions schedules are always UTC. Convert your local time to UTC before writing the expression.
The common mistake with this schedule
Midnight is the busiest minute on many shared systems. If your job is not time-critical, run it at 02:17 instead of 00:00.
Frequently asked questions
How do I run a GitHub Actions job every day at midnight?
Use 0 0 * * *. At 00:00 UTC.
What is the every day at midnight cron expression in other systems?
Quartz: 0 0 0 * * ?; Spring: 0 0 0 * * *; Crontab: 0 0 * * *. The table on this page lists every dialect.
Which time zone does GitHub Actions use for this schedule?
GitHub Actions schedules are always UTC. Convert your local time to UTC before writing the expression.