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Kubernetes cron

Kubernetes cron expression: every Friday at 5:00 PM

To run a Kubernetes job every Friday at 5:00 PM, use:

0 17 * * 5

At 17:00 UTC, on Fri.

Your week at a glance
fewer more runs

Upcoming runs

#LocalUTCFrom now

Copy-ready code

Why use this schedule

An end-of-week run on Friday evening. It closes out the working week, which makes it a natural time for weekly invoices, summaries, and backups before the quiet weekend hours.

First runs, as an example

Starting from 1 January 2027, evaluated in UTC:

#Date and time (UTC)
1Fri, 01 Jan 2027, 17:00:00
2Fri, 08 Jan 2027, 17:00:00
3Fri, 15 Jan 2027, 17:00:00
4Fri, 22 Jan 2027, 17:00:00
5Fri, 29 Jan 2027, 17:00:00
6Fri, 05 Feb 2027, 17:00:00

Every Friday at 5:00 PM in every dialect

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

Friday is 5 in Unix and 6 in Quartz. A direct copy between them shifts the job by a day.

Frequently asked questions

How do I run a Kubernetes job every Friday at 5:00 PM?

Use 0 17 * * 5. At 17:00 UTC, on Fri.

What is the every Friday at 5:00 PM cron expression in other systems?

Quartz: 0 0 17 ? * 6; Spring: 0 0 17 * * 5; Crontab: 0 17 * * 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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