Cron Every Minute
Learn how to set up a cron job that runs every minute using the expression * * * * *. Includes field breakdown and real-world use cases.
Cron Expression
* * * * *
Field Breakdown
| Field | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | * | Every minute (0–59) |
| 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 * * * * * schedules a task to run once every single minute, around the clock, every day of the year.
Field-by-field breakdown:
*(Minute): Every minute from 0 through 59. The wildcard means no restriction on which minute.*(Hour): Every hour from 0 through 23. The wildcard means no restriction on which hour.*(Day of Month): Every day from 1 through 31. The wildcard means no restriction on which day of the month.*(Month): Every month from January through December. The wildcard means no restriction on which month.*(Day of Week): Every day of the week from Sunday through Saturday. The wildcard means no restriction on which day of the week.
This means your task will execute 1,440 times per day, once every 60 seconds. Because this is the most frequent schedule possible in standard cron, you should ensure your task completes in well under one minute to avoid overlapping executions. Consider adding a lock mechanism or flock guard to prevent concurrent runs. 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
Ideal for health-check pings that monitor whether a web service or API endpoint is responsive and returning expected status codes.
Try It — Interactive Builder
Every minute
Next 10 Executions
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