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GitHub Actions cron expression: every Sunday at midnight
To run a GitHub Actions job every Sunday at midnight, use:
0 0 * * 0At 00:00 UTC, on Sun.
Your week at a glance
Upcoming runs
| # | Local | UTC | From now |
|---|
Copy-ready code
Why use this schedule
The traditional weekly maintenance slot, at the very start of Sunday. It sits in the quietest part of the week for most business systems, so heavy clean-up jobs rarely disturb anyone.
- Weekly log rotation
- Weekly vacuum or optimise
- Weekly data exports
First runs, as an example
Starting from 1 January 2027, evaluated in UTC:
| # | Date and time (UTC) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sun, 03 Jan 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 2 | Sun, 10 Jan 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 3 | Sun, 17 Jan 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 4 | Sun, 24 Jan 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 5 | Sun, 31 Jan 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 6 | Sun, 07 Feb 2027, 00:00:00 |
Every Sunday at midnight in every dialect
| System | Expression |
|---|---|
| GitHub Actions (this page) | 0 0 * * 0 |
| Quartz | 0 0 0 ? * 1 |
| Spring | 0 0 0 * * 0 |
| Crontab | 0 0 * * 0 |
| Kubernetes | 0 0 * * 0 |
| AWS EventBridge | 0 0 ? * 1 * |
| Jenkins | H 0 * * 0 |
| node-cron | 0 0 * * 0 |
| Apache Airflow | 0 0 * * 0 |
| Azure Functions | 0 0 0 * * 0 |
| Google Cloud Scheduler | 0 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 * * 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
- GitHub uses POSIX cron: day-of-week is 0-6 with Sunday as 0.
- 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
Sunday as 0 works in Unix cron but not in Quartz, where the range is 1-7. Use 1 or SUN there.
Frequently asked questions
How do I run a GitHub Actions job every Sunday at midnight?
Use 0 0 * * 0. At 00:00 UTC, on Sun.
What is the every Sunday at midnight cron expression in other systems?
Quartz: 0 0 0 ? * 1; Spring: 0 0 0 * * 0; Crontab: 0 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.