Home โบ Kubernetes โบ On the first day of every quarter
Kubernetes cron expression: on the first day of every quarter
To run a Kubernetes 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 |
|---|---|
| Kubernetes (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 * |
| AWS EventBridge | 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 ? * |
| Jenkins | H 0 1 1,4,7,10 * |
| GitHub Actions | 0 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 Kubernetes config
Drop this into your project. The expression is the one above.
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
name: my-job
spec:
schedule: "0 0 1 1,4,7,10 *"
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
- If both day fields are set, the job runs when either matches. This is standard cron behaviour.
- A CronJob creates a new Job object each run. Set concurrencyPolicy and startingDeadlineSeconds so missed runs behave as you expect.
- Set spec.timeZone (Kubernetes 1.27+) to a name like Asia/Kolkata. Without it the schedule follows the controller's time zone, usually UTC.
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 Kubernetes 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 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.