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Kubernetes cron

Kubernetes cron expression: hourly during business hours on weekdays

To run a Kubernetes job hourly during business hours on weekdays, use:

0 9-17 * * 1-5

At minute 0, during hours 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, on Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu and Fri.

Your week at a glance
fewer more runs

Upcoming runs

#LocalUTCFrom now

Copy-ready code

Why use this schedule

Hourly, but only from 9 to 17 on weekdays, so nothing runs overnight or at weekends.

First runs, as an example

Starting from 1 January 2027, evaluated in UTC:

#Date and time (UTC)
1Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 09:00:00
2Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 10:00:00
3Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 11:00:00
4Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 12:00:00
5Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 13:00:00
6Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 14:00:00

Hourly during business hours on weekdays in every dialect

SystemExpression
Kubernetes (this page)0 9-17 * * 1-5
Quartz0 0 9-17 ? * 2-6
Spring0 0 9-17 * * 1-5
Crontab0 9-17 * * 1-5
AWS EventBridge0 9-17 ? * 2-6 *
JenkinsH 9-17 * * 1-5
GitHub Actions0 9-17 * * 1-5
node-cron0 9-17 * * 1-5
Apache Airflow0 9-17 * * 1-5
Azure Functions0 0 9-17 * * 1-5
Google Cloud Scheduler0 9-17 * * 1-5

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

Ready-to-use Kubernetes config

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

CronJob manifest
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
  name: my-job
spec:
  schedule: "0 9-17 * * 1-5"
  timeZone: "Etc/UTC"
  concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
  jobTemplate:
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          restartPolicy: OnFailure
          containers:
            - name: job
              image: busybox
              command: ["sh", "-c", "date"]

The Kubernetes 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 Kubernetes

The common mistake with this schedule

9-17 includes hour 17, so the last run is at 17:00, not 16:00. The range is inclusive.

Frequently asked questions

How do I run a Kubernetes job hourly during business hours on weekdays?

Use 0 9-17 * * 1-5. At minute 0, during hours 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, on Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu and Fri.

What is the hourly during business hours on weekdays cron expression in other systems?

Quartz: 0 0 9-17 ? * 2-6; Spring: 0 0 9-17 * * 1-5; Crontab: 0 9-17 * * 1-5. The table on this page lists every dialect.

Which time zone does Kubernetes use for this schedule?

Set spec.timeZone (Kubernetes 1.27+) to a name like Asia/Kolkata. Without it the schedule follows the controller's time zone, usually UTC.

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