Cronjob.de › Crontab reference › Hourly
Once an hour is written 0 * * * * in the crontab: at minute 0 of every hour. The shorthand @hourly means the same but is not understood everywhere.
Meaning
The first field sets the minute, here 0. The second field is the hour and is *, so every hour. Together that makes 24 runs a day, at 0:00, 1:00, 2:00 and so on.
The minute does not have to be 0. 15 * * * * runs just as hourly, only at quarter past each time. That is often even the better choice, see below.
The next runs
Calculated in German time when this page was loaded.
Variants
15 * * * * |
Hourly at quarter past, away from the full hour. | Adjust |
0 */2 * * * |
Every two hours, on the hour: 0, 2, 4 … 22. | Adjust |
0 8-18 * * * |
Hourly from 8:00 to 18:00, eleven runs a day. | Adjust |
0 8-18 * * 1-5 |
Hourly during office hours, weekdays only. | Adjust |
0,30 * * * * |
Twice an hour, on the hour and at half past. | Adjust |
Watch out for
* 1 * * * is not "once at 1 o'clock"With an asterisk in the minute field, the job runs in every minute of the given hour, 60 times between 1:00 and 1:59. If you mean one run in that hour, set the minute: 0 1 * * *.
A great many cronjobs worldwide start at minute 0. On shared servers and with third-party APIs things get tight then, and calls are more likely to hit time limits. If it does not matter when within the hour your job runs, pick another minute, such as 15 or 35.
On the night clocks go forward, the hour from 2 to 3 is missing; when they go back, it happens twice. An hourly job therefore runs once less or once more that night. For most tasks that does not matter, for billing it does.
Own server
Open with crontab -e and add one line. The first starts a PHP script directly, the second calls an address. Replace paths and address with your own.
0 * * * * /usr/bin/php /pfad/zu/skript.php >/dev/null 2>&1
@hourly curl -fsS https://ihre-domain.de/cron.php >/dev/null
Without your own server
No command-line access needed: you enter the address of your script and click the schedule together. You can also type the expression above directly, or describe the interval in one sentence and have it suggested. Cronjob.de uses German time.
Five cronjobs are free forever, on the five-minute grid. One-minute intervals start with Plus. How to prepare a script on shared web space for this is explained in the web space guide.
FAQ
0 * * * * and @hourly?@hourly is a shorthand understood by the Linux cron. Some schedulers and interfaces do not know it; the written-out expression works everywhere.20 * * * * runs every hour at twenty past. On the free Cronjob.de plan the minute has to be divisible by five.Create an account, enter the address, click the schedule. Five cronjobs are free forever, the first 14 days run on the Unlimited plan.
Start for free To the crontab generator