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Kubernetes cron

Kubernetes cron expression: every 10 minutes

To run a Kubernetes job every 10 minutes, use:

*/10 * * * *

Every 10 minutes.

Your week at a glance
fewer more runs

Upcoming runs

#LocalUTCFrom now

Copy-ready code

Why use this schedule

Six runs an hour. Good for work that is worth doing often but not constantly, such as pulling metrics or checking for stale records.

First runs, as an example

Starting from 1 January 2027, evaluated in UTC:

#Date and time (UTC)
1Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 00:00:00
2Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 00:10:00
3Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 00:20:00
4Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 00:30:00
5Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 00:40:00
6Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 00:50:00

Every 10 minutes in every dialect

SystemExpression
Kubernetes (this page)*/10 * * * *
Quartz0 */10 * * * ?
Spring0 */10 * * * *
Crontab*/10 * * * *
AWS EventBridge*/10 * * * ? *
JenkinsH/10 * * * *
GitHub Actions*/10 * * * *
node-cron*/10 * * * *
Apache Airflow*/10 * * * *
Azure Functions0 */10 * * * *
Google Cloud Scheduler*/10 * * * *

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: "*/10 * * * *"
  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

Because 10 divides 60 evenly the gaps are always exactly ten minutes. That is not true for steps like 7 or 25, which restart at the top of every hour.

Frequently asked questions

How do I run a Kubernetes job every 10 minutes?

Use */10 * * * *. Every 10 minutes.

What is the every 10 minutes cron expression in other systems?

Quartz: 0 */10 * * * ?; Spring: 0 */10 * * * *; Crontab: */10 * * * *. 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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