Cron Every 7 Minutes

The cron expression */7 * * * * schedules a task to run at every minute that is divisible by 7, continuously throughout every day.

Field-by-field breakdown:

• */7 (Minute): Every 7th minute, starting from minute 0. The step value /7 causes execution at minutes 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, and 56 within each hour.
• * (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 9 times per hour (at minutes 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56), with a shorter 4-minute gap between minute 56 and the next hour's minute 0. This results in approximately 216 executions per day. Using a prime number like 7 as a step value is a deliberate strategy: it reduces the chance of your task coinciding with other cron jobs that typically use round-number intervals like 5, 10, 15, or 30 minutes. This desynchronization technique can help distribute load more evenly across shared infrastructure. This expression is supported by standard cron on Linux/macOS, as well as cloud services like AWS CloudWatch, Google Cloud Scheduler, and GitHub Actions.