HTTPfy

Every 7 minutes

At minute 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49 and 56 of every hour, then again at :00: the last gap of every hour is 4 minutes.

*/7 * * * * Open in Crontab Generator
78,840runs in the next 365 days
1,512runs per week
4 min / 7 minshortest / longest gap between runs
02:28next run, Wed 11 Nov UTC

What it is used for

Odd intervals are sometimes chosen to spread load, but they do not divide 60, so the spacing is uneven.

Field by field

FieldValueMatches
Minute*/70, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56
Hour*every value
Day of month*every value
Month*every value
Day of week*every value
 
*/7 * * * * /path/to/job

Next 10 run times

Computed when this page loaded (2026-11-11 02:24 UTC), assuming the scheduler runs in UTC.

#UTCYour local time
1Wed 2026-11-11 02:28
2Wed 2026-11-11 02:35
3Wed 2026-11-11 02:42
4Wed 2026-11-11 02:49
5Wed 2026-11-11 02:56
6Wed 2026-11-11 03:00
7Wed 2026-11-11 03:07
8Wed 2026-11-11 03:14
9Wed 2026-11-11 03:21
10Wed 2026-11-11 03:28

Things to watch with this schedule

  • Only step values that divide 60 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30) give even spacing in the minute field.
  • The minute step /7 does not divide 60: the count restarts at the top of every hour, so the last gap each hour is 4 minutes instead of 7.

Kubernetes CronJob

Kubernetes uses the same five fields. Set spec.timeZone (stable since Kubernetes 1.27), otherwise the schedule follows the time zone of kube-controller-manager.

apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
  name: every-7-minutes
spec:
  schedule: "*/7 * * * *"
  timeZone: "Etc/UTC"
  concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
  startingDeadlineSeconds: 300
  jobTemplate:
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          restartPolicy: OnFailure
          containers:
            - name: job
              image: debian:bookworm-slim
              command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "/app/run-job.sh"]

GitHub Actions

Workflow schedules use five-field cron in UTC and run only from the default branch. GitHub's shortest interval is 5 minutes, so runs closer together than that are not honoured; this schedule will fire less often than written. Runs at minute 0 are the most likely to be delayed or dropped when GitHub is busy; an odd minute such as 7 or 23 starts more reliably.

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '*/7 * * * *'   # UTC

jobs:
  run:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: ./run-job.sh

systemd timer

The equivalent OnCalendar= value is *-*-* *:00/7:00. Check it with systemd-analyze calendar '*-*-* *:00/7:00', which prints the next elapse time. Persistent=true runs a missed job after downtime, which classic cron never does.

[Unit]
Description=Every 7 minutes

[Timer]
OnCalendar=*-*-* *:00/7:00
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

AWS EventBridge

EventBridge rules take six fields (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week, year) in UTC; EventBridge Scheduler can use a time zone. One of day-of-month and day-of-week must be ?, and day-of-week runs 1-7 from Sunday, so names are used here.

cron(0/7 * * * ? *)

Quartz Scheduler (Java)

Quartz adds a leading seconds field and needs ? in either day field; days of the week are 1 (SUN) to 7 (SAT).

0 0/7 * * * ?

Spring's @Scheduled(cron = ...) also uses six fields, but numbers days of the week 0-7 with Sunday as 0 or 7, like Unix cron; the names shown above work in both.

Related schedules