Cron expression for every minute
* * * * *
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Five asterisks — * * * * * — is the most frequent schedule standard cron allows: the job runs once every minute, of every hour, of every day, forever.
In plain English: “Every minute”
Field breakdown
| Minute | * |
| Hour | * |
| Day of month | * |
| Month | * |
| Day of week | * |
Next run times (UTC)
- Mon, Jul 6, 2026 · 3:58 AM UTC in 38 sec
- Mon, Jul 6, 2026 · 3:59 AM UTC in 1 minute
- Mon, Jul 6, 2026 · 4:00 AM UTC in 2 minutes
- Mon, Jul 6, 2026 · 4:01 AM UTC in 3 minutes
- Mon, Jul 6, 2026 · 4:02 AM UTC in 4 minutes
See these in your own timezone.
When to use it
- Heartbeats and health checks that need to be current within a minute.
- Polling a queue, inbox, or webhook backlog when sub-minute latency isn't required.
- Near-real-time sync jobs between two systems.
- During development, to watch a job fire quickly without waiting.
Related schedules
Good to know
- This is the ceiling for classic 5-field cron. For sub-minute intervals you need a scheduler with a seconds field (6-field), such as Quartz or Cronos.
- If the job can take longer than a minute, cron will happily start a second copy on top of the first. Guard long jobs with a lock (e.g. flock) to prevent overlap.