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GitHub Actions cron expression: on the first day of every quarter
To run a GitHub Actions job on the first day of every quarter, use:
0 0 1 1,4,7,10 *At 00:00 UTC, on the 1st of the month, in Jan, Apr, Jul and Oct.
Your week at a glance
Upcoming runs
| # | Local | UTC | From now |
|---|
Copy-ready code
Why use this schedule
January, April, July and October: quarterly reporting and reviews. Finance and compliance teams in particular run on this rhythm, so these jobs tend to be important and rarely run.
- Quarterly business reviews
- Quarterly access recertification
- Quarterly invoices
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 | Thu, 01 Apr 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 3 | Thu, 01 Jul 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 4 | Fri, 01 Oct 2027, 00:00:00 |
| 5 | Sat, 01 Jan 2028, 00:00:00 |
| 6 | Sat, 01 Apr 2028, 00:00:00 |
On the first day of every quarter in every dialect
| System | Expression |
|---|---|
| GitHub Actions (this page) | 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 * |
| Quartz | 0 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 ? |
| Spring | 0 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 * |
| Crontab | 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 * |
| Kubernetes | 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 * |
| AWS EventBridge | 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 ? * |
| Jenkins | H 0 1 1,4,7,10 * |
| node-cron | 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 * |
| Apache Airflow | 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 * |
| Azure Functions | 0 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 * |
| Google Cloud Scheduler | 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 * |
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 1 1,4,7,10 *"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
- If both day fields are set, the workflow runs when either matches.
- 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
There is no */3 shortcut that starts in January. */3 in the month field gives 1,4,7,10 in Unix cron, but an explicit list is clearer and safer across dialects.
Frequently asked questions
How do I run a GitHub Actions job on the first day of every quarter?
Use 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 *. At 00:00 UTC, on the 1st of the month, in Jan, Apr, Jul and Oct.
What is the on the first day of every quarter cron expression in other systems?
Quartz: 0 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 ?; Spring: 0 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 *; Crontab: 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 *. 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.