Curated cron expression
Every 5 Minutes Cron Expression: */5 * * * *
Understand the */5 * * * * cron expression, its exact minute marks, timezone and DST behavior, production cautions, platform compatibility, and next-run preview.
Meaning at a glance
*/5 * * * *
Run every five minutes
Twelve times per hour and 288 nominal runs per 24-hour day.
Next-run example: At 10:07, the next nominal runs are 10:10, 10:15, 10:20, and 10:25.
How */5 * * * * works
The step value */5 in the minute field selects every fifth minute starting at minute 0. It fires at :00, :05, :10, and so on through :55 in every hour.
This is a common polling and health-check cadence. It is also the shortest interval accepted by GitHub Actions, although that platform can delay scheduled workflow starts under load.
| Field | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | */5 | Minutes 0, 5, 10, …, 55 |
| Hour | * | Every hour |
| Day of month | * | Every calendar day |
| Month | * | Every month |
| Day of week | * | Every weekday |
Good use cases
- External health checks
- Queue backlog sampling
- Cache warming
- Short data synchronization
Timezone and daylight-saving behavior
The five-minute interval itself is timezone-neutral. Use timezone-aware logs to correlate work across systems.
A sub-hour cadence continues across offset changes, but repeated local clock labels can make naive timestamp-based deduplication unsafe.
The expression does not contain a timezone. The scheduler supplies that context. Use the next-run preview above in the same IANA timezone as production, then confirm the target platform's own timezone rules.
Platform compatibility and converted expressions
The source expression is five-field Unix cron. Use the exact equivalent below rather than adding or removing fields by sight.
| Platform | Status | Expression | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unix crontab | Ready | */5 * * * * | Use directly in a normal five-field user crontab. |
| Kubernetes CronJob | Ready | */5 * * * * | Use as spec.schedule; set spec.timeZone when local wall-clock behavior matters. |
| GitHub Actions | Ready | */5 * * * * | Use under on.schedule; UTC is the default and an IANA timezone may be specified. |
| Vercel Cron Jobs | Plan / behavior limit | */5 * * * * | Valid for plans that allow this frequency; Hobby is limited to once per day. |
| AWS EventBridge Scheduler | Convert | cron(0/5 * * * ? *) | Convert to AWS minute-first cron(...), add the required year, and use ? in one day field. |
| Spring @Scheduled | Convert | 0 */5 * * * * | Use Spring’s six fields by prepending seconds and set zone explicitly when needed. |
| systemd timer | Convert | *-*-* *:00/5:00 | Use OnCalendar syntax and validate it with systemd-analyze calendar on the target host. |
Edge cases to check before deployment
- */5 starts at minute 0; it does not mean five minutes after deployment.
- The schedule can overlap if a run lasts more than five minutes.
- All replicas or hosts can start together unless the job adds jitter or coordination.
Frequently asked questions
What does the cron expression */5 * * * * mean?
*/5 * * * * means “run every five minutes.” Twelve times per hour and 288 nominal runs per 24-hour day.
What are the next run times for */5 * * * *?
At 10:07, the next nominal runs are 10:10, 10:15, 10:20, and 10:25. Exact timestamps depend on the scheduler timezone and the current time.
What timezone does */5 * * * * use?
The five-minute interval itself is timezone-neutral. Use timezone-aware logs to correlate work across systems.
Can I use */5 * * * * on every scheduling platform?
No. It is a five-field Unix expression. Some platforms accept it directly, while AWS EventBridge Scheduler, Spring, and systemd require the converted form shown in the compatibility table.