Cron every month

copy-ready in 7 dialects · next runs in your time zone

0 0 1 * * — Midnight on the 1st of every month, twelve runs a year. @monthly is the shorthand in Linux cron, Kubernetes and Spring.

Cron expression

Dialect Time zone

Runs

Try one

The same schedule in every dialect

Where	Expression
Linux / Unix crontab, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions	0 0 1 * *	explain
Quartz Scheduler	0 0 0 1 * ?	explain
AWS EventBridge	cron(0 0 1 * ? *)	explain
Spring `@Scheduled`	0 0 0 1 * *	explain
Jenkins	0 0 1 * *	H calculator
systemd timer `OnCalendar=`	monthly	test

Things to know

Day 31 is skipped in the five months that do not have one — cron does not move it to the last day. Quartz, AWS and Spring have L for "last day of the month"; Linux cron needs a guard in the command: 0 0 28-31 * * [ "$(date -d tomorrow +\%d)" = 01 ] && … (GNU date; the % must be escaped in a crontab).
Jenkins' @monthly is H H H * * — a per-job day between the 1st and 28th, not the 1st.

Variations

Expression	Runs
0 9 1 * *	the 1st of every month at 09:00
0 0 1,15 * *	the 1st and 15th
0 0 1 /3	quarterly: 1 January, April, July, October

How to use this schedule

Open your crontab with crontab -e (or the scheduler's config file).
Add a line with the expression followed by the command: 0 0 1 * * /usr/local/bin/job.sh. Use absolute paths — cron runs with a minimal PATH.
Save. cron picks the change up automatically; check the next run times above, in the time zone your server uses.
Redirect output if you want to keep it: append >> /var/log/job.log 2>&1. The crontab line builder assembles the whole line.

FAQ

Is "0 0 1 * *" the same on every server?

The five-field form means the same thing in Linux cron, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions and most libraries. The clock it follows differs: a Linux server uses its own time zone (or CRON_TZ on cronie), GitHub Actions and AWS EventBridge rules use UTC unless a time zone is configured, and Kubernetes uses the controller's zone unless .spec.timeZone is set.

Why do Quartz and AWS need a "?"

Both require exactly one of day-of-month and day-of-week to be ?, meaning "no specific value"; they refuse an expression that restricts both, or leaves both as *.

How do I check it will run when I expect?

The widget above lists the next runs in the time zone you choose, and flags any run that lands in a daylight-saving gap or a repeated hour. For a whole crontab, paste it into the crontab viewer.