Jenkins cron expression: every 12 hours

Use H 0,12 * * *. At a hashed minute (Jenkins picks it from the job name), during hours 00, 12.

To run a Jenkins job every 12 hours, use:

H 0,12 * * *

At a hashed minute (Jenkins picks it from the job name), during hours 00, 12.

Jenkins (H syntax) expression

Schedule time zone

Your week at a glance

fewer more runs

Upcoming runs

#	Local	UTC	From now

Twice a day, at midnight and noon. Written as a list, which is clearer than */12.

Starting from 1 January 2027, evaluated in UTC (the hashed H offset is shown as its range start):

Need to translate a different expression? Use the cron converter.

Drop this into your project. The expression is the one above.

Declarative pipeline

pipeline {
    agent any
    triggers { cron('H 0,12 * * *') }
    stages {
        stage('Build') { steps { echo 'Scheduled build' } }
    }
}

The Jenkins 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).

Use H instead of a fixed minute to spread load. H 2 * * * means "once during the 2 AM hour", at a stable per-job minute.
Jenkins uses the controller's time zone. Put TZ=Asia/Kolkata on its own first line of the trigger to override it.

In UTC, midnight and noon fall at odd local times. For India, 00:00 and 12:00 UTC are 05:30 and 17:30 IST.

How do I run a Jenkins job every 12 hours?

Use H 0,12 * * *. At a hashed minute (Jenkins picks it from the job name), during hours 00, 12.

What is the every 12 hours cron expression in other systems?

Quartz: 0 0 0,12 * * ?; Spring: 0 0 0,12 * * *; Crontab: 0 0,12 * * *. The table on this page lists every dialect.

Which time zone does Jenkins use for this schedule?

Jenkins uses the controller's time zone. Put TZ=Asia/Kolkata on its own first line of the trigger to override it.