Cron Expression
0 0 * * 1-5
Cron Expression: Cron Every Weekday
Learn how to create a cron expression for 'cron every weekday'. Runs Monday through Friday at midnight, skipping weekends.
Expression Breakdown
0
Minute(0-59)
0
Hour(0-23)
*
Day(1-31)
*
Month(1-12)
1-5
Weekday(0-6)
| Field | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | 0 | At minute 0 |
| Hour | 0 | At hour 0 |
| Day of Month | * | Any day |
| Month | * | Any month |
| Day of Week | 1-5 | Monday to Friday (Weekdays) |
This cron expression represents: cron every weekday
Cron Expression
0 0 * * 1-5
What This Expression Does
Runs at midnight Monday through Friday and skips Saturday and Sunday entirely. The 1-5 range in the day-of-week field covers Monday (1) to Friday (5).
Use Cases
Weekday-only schedules fit anything tied to business activity:
- Business-day reports and metrics rollups
- Syncing CRM or ERP data that only changes during work hours
- Office-hours reminders and standup prompts
- Batch jobs you don’t want burning weekend compute
How to Use
- Copy the cron expression above
- Open your crontab with
crontab -e - Add a new line with:
0 0 * * 1-5 /path/to/your/script.sh - Save and exit
Gotcha: Don’t Combine Day-of-Month with Day-of-Week
If you set both the day-of-month and day-of-week fields to non-wildcards (e.g. 0 0 1 * 1-5), classic cron runs when either matches — the 1st of the month or any weekday — not both. Keep day-of-month as * for a pure weekday schedule.
Alternative Formats
-
Weekdays at 9am:
0 9 * * 1-5 -
By name:
0 0 * * MON-FRI /path/to/script.sh -
Weekends instead:
0 0 * * 0,6 /path/to/script.sh