*/15 * * * *
Cron reads this as: every 15th minute.
Next 5 runs
Computed in your browser's local time zone. Cron itself evaluates against the server's zone, which on most cloud hosts is UTC — see time zones & DST if that distinction matters here.
- Calculating…
When to use this schedule
Four runs an hour on the quarter — :00, :15, :30 and :45. This is the standard cadence for batch work that is too heavy to run every five minutes but too time-sensitive to leave until the hour: report aggregation, billing reconciliation, moderate-sized data pulls.
What to watch out for
*/15 * * * * and 0,15,30,45 * * * * are identical; use whichever your team reads faster. If you want this only during working hours, */15 9-17 * * 1-5 is the usual form — but note the hour range covers the whole of the 17:00 hour, so the last run is 17:45, not 17:00.
The crontab line
*/15 * * * * /usr/local/bin/your-job.sh >> /var/log/your-job.log 2>&1Redirect the output somewhere you will actually read it — by default cron mails it, and on a host with no mail transport that means it is discarded. See the crontab guide for the surrounding syntax.
Related schedules
| Expression | Schedule |
|---|---|
0,15,30,45 * * * * | Same schedule, written as a list |
*/15 9-17 * * 1-5 | Every 15 min in business hours |
*/30 * * * * | Every 30 minutes |
Build your own
Need something this page does not cover? Compose it field by field in the visual builder, or paste an expression you already have into the explainer for a per-field breakdown. The examples library collects sixty schedules in one place, and the guides cover crontab syntax, time zones, troubleshooting and production practices.