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

Use 5-59/20 * * * *: the minute range starts at 5 and steps by 20, so it runs at :05, :25 and :45 every hour. A bare */20 would run at :00, :20 and :40 instead.

I 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?

Use 0,30 * * * * to run on the hour and at half past (48 runs a day), or 30 * * * * for half past only (24 runs). Cron matches clock minutes, not elapsed time.

Is 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.

Use two lines: */5 13-16 * * * covers 13:00-16:55 and 0-45/5 17 * * * covers 17:00-17:45. One minute field applies to every hour, so the last hour is split off.

How do I set a cron script for every 5 minutes without us… - Cron answer & example

Q: How do I set a cron script for every 5 minutes without using the minutes divisible by 5?

Use 2-59/5 * * * *: it runs at :02, :07, :12 … :57, the same 5-minute cadence as */5 shifted by two minutes. In general m-59/n starts at m and steps by n.

Question

How do I set a cron script for every 5 minutes without using the minutes divisible by 5?

Answer

Use 2-59/5 * * * * to run at minutes 2, 7, 12, 17, and every five minutes after that through minute 57 of each hour. This keeps a five-minute cadence without using the minutes divisible by five. After the :57 run, the next hour's :02 run is five minutes later, so the spacing stays consistent across the hour boundary.

crontab

# every 5 minutes, offset 2 minutes from the usual cadence
2-59/5 * * * *

Read the five fields as minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. In the minute field, 2-59/5 means begin at minute 2, remain within the range ending at minute 59, and advance in steps of 5. That expands to 2, 7, 12, 17, and so on through 57; the next value, 62, is outside the valid range and is omitted. The wildcard hour repeats this pattern every hour, and the remaining wildcards match every day of the month, every month, and every day of the week. More generally, m-59/n * * * * runs every n minutes starting at minute m, but the spacing only stays even across the hour boundary when n divides 60 (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, or 30).

Run 2-59/5 * * * * on Crontap

Why this matters

An offset can prevent many jobs from firing together at :00, :05, :10, and the other common five-minute marks. Moving this task to :02, :07, :12, and so on spreads demand away from that shared cadence. Not every start value and step preserve equal spacing across an hour boundary, though: compare the final run in one hour with the first run in the next. For this expression, :57 to :02 is exactly five minutes, so no short or long gap appears. For the unshifted cadence, see cron every 5 minutes.

Read the dedicated guide: Cron every 5 minutes.

Cron schedule used

What it does

2-59/5 * * * *

Every 5 minutes, minutes 2 through 59 past the hour, every hour, every day.

Run in Crontap Cheatsheet

Calendar

View future cron matches in a calendar

September 2026 · UTC

0 runs

See this cron expression on the calendar view example

Cron every 5 minutes with a 2-minute offset

What it does

Calendar

Point Crontap at any URL. Pick any cron. Done.

What it does

Calendar

Related questions

How do I set a cron script for every 5 minutes without using the minutes divisible by 5?

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

I 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?

Is 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.

Related cron questions

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

I 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?

Is 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.

I am looking to have a script run every 5 minutes, beginning at 13:02, and another script to run every 5 minutes starting at 13:04, so the second script runs two minutes after the start of the first job. How can I accomplish this?

Point Crontap at any URL. Pick any cron. Done.