Cron Every 5 Minutes
Configure a cron job to run every 5 minutes using */5 * * * *. Detailed field breakdown, use cases, and tips for this common schedule.
Cron Expression
*/5 * * * *
Field Breakdown
| Field | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | */5 | Every 5th minute |
| Hour | * | Every hour (0–23) |
| Day of Month | * | Every day of the month (1–31) |
| Month | * | Every month (1–12) |
| Day of Week | * | Every day of the week (Sun–Sat) |
Detailed Explanation
The cron expression */5 * * * * schedules a task to run once every five minutes, all day, every day of the year.
Field-by-field breakdown:
*/5(Minute): Every 5th minute, starting from minute 0. The step value/5triggers execution at minutes 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, and 55.*(Hour): Every hour from 0 through 23. No restriction on which hour.*(Day of Month): Every day from 1 through 31. No restriction on the day of the month.*(Month): Every month from January through December. No restriction on the month.*(Day of Week): Every day of the week from Sunday through Saturday. No restriction on the day.
This means your task will execute 288 times per day, or 12 times per hour. This is one of the most commonly used cron schedules because five minutes strikes a good balance between timeliness and resource usage. It is widely used for cache refreshes, metrics collection, and queue processing. This expression is supported by standard cron on Linux/macOS, as well as cloud services like AWS CloudWatch, Google Cloud Scheduler, and GitHub Actions.
Use Case
Great for refreshing a dashboard cache or aggregating metrics from multiple microservices into a central monitoring database.
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Every 5 minutes
Next 10 Executions
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