CronTool
Cron expression editor & debugger
Question

I want to execute a task every 20 minutes, starting at 5 past the hour, is it possible to achieve this with Cron?

Answer

Yes it is. You can use the following cron expression:


5-59/20 * * * *

An asterisk (*) in the minute field is equivalent to 0-59/1, where 0-59 represents the range and 1 is the step. The command will execute at the initial minute of the range (5), then at each subsequent minute that is separated by the step (20), up until the final minute (59).

Why this matters

The start-end/step syntax is the most flexible way to write “every N minutes starting at M”. It expands to: 5, 25, 45 in this case (next would be 65, which is out of range, so the field terminates). Without the explicit start (*/20), the expression would fire at 0, 20, and 40 — not what you asked for.


Two pitfalls worth knowing: 1) the step does not wrap, so 50-10/20 is invalid — wrap it manually with a list: 50,10,30. 2) not every divisor produces evenly-spaced runs across hours. 5-59/20 fires three times one hour and two the next depending on whether 65 (=05 next hour) is in range. Use the calendar view in CronTool to verify before relying on it for SLA-sensitive jobs.


For the strictly-every-20-minutes pattern (with a 0/20/40 cadence at the top of every hour), see the every-15-minutes guide for the same idea applied to other intervals.

Read the dedicated guide: Cron every 15 minutes.

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Related cron questions

Other answers and worked examples for the most confusing cron expressions.

QuestionHow do I set a cron script for every 5 minutes without using the minutes divisible by 5?
QuestionI am trying to add a crontab entry to execute a script every 30 minutes, on the hour and 30 minutes past the hour or something similar. How can I do this?
QuestionIs it possible to use cron to accomplish the following particular use case? I desire for the scheduler to trigger every five minutes from a specific start time, such as 1:00 PM to 5:45 PM.
QuestionCan I set up a cron job to run every 15 minutes throughout the day, except for 3:00 AM? I have another task that I want to run at 3:00 AM and don't want these two conflicting.

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Permalink: https://tool.crontap.com/help/cron-job-expression-every-number-of-minutes

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