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Cron schedule

Cron every Sunday

The cron expression for every Sunday is 0 0 * * 0: 00:00 at the start of Sunday. In cronie, Debian cron, node-cron and Spring, 0 0 * * 7 and 0 0 * * SUN mean the same.

Every Sunday
Expression0 0 * * 0
Runs52 times in 2027
systemd OnCalendarSun *-*-* 00:00:00

How it works

Sunday has two numbers in standard cron. crontab(5) documents the day-of-week range as 0-7, with both 0 and 7 as Sunday. Kubernetes and Vercel document 0-6 only, so 0 is the one every implementation accepts.

This is the schedule behind @weekly, which crontab(5) and the Kubernetes docs both define as 0 0 * * 0. The every-week page covers the macro; this page is about the day itself.

00:00 on Sunday is Saturday night turning into Sunday. People who say “Sunday night” usually mean the end of Sunday, which in cron is 0 0 * * 1 (the midnight that starts Monday) or 59 23 * * 0.

Field-by-field breakdown
FieldValueMeaning
Minute0minute 0 (on the hour)
Hour0hour 0 (12 AM)
Day of month*every day of the month
Month*every month
Day of week0Sunday

Next runs

Scheduler clock

As on GitHub Actions without timezone, Vercel, Cloudflare and Kubernetes with timeZone "Etc/UTC".

Next run times, computed in your browser from the current time
RunYour timeUTC
1Calculating… 
2  
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5  

Ready-to-paste versions

The same schedule for each scheduler, with what differs on each one.

crontab (Linux, macOS, BSD)

crontab -e
# m h dom mon dow  command
0 0 * * 0 /usr/local/bin/job.sh >> /var/log/job.log 2>&1
  • cron uses the server’s time zone. On cronie (Fedora, RHEL), a CRON_TZ=Europe/London line above the entry changes the zone for the entries below it.

GitHub Actions

.github/workflows/scheduled.yml
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * 0'
      # timezone: 'America/New_York'  # optional; UTC when omitted
  workflow_dispatch: {}
  • Runs in UTC unless you set timezone, and only on the default branch. GitHub’s docs warn that scheduled runs can be delayed at busy times and that schedules in public repositories are disabled after 60 days without activity.
  • The start of every hour is GitHub’s busiest slot. If the exact minute doesn’t matter, move the 0 to something like 17 to get picked up sooner.
  • With a timezone that observes DST, a time skipped by the spring-forward change advances to the next valid time (the docs’ example: 2:30 AM becomes 3:00 AM).

Kubernetes CronJob

cronjob.yaml
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
  name: scheduled-job
spec:
  schedule: "0 0 * * 0"
  timeZone: "Etc/UTC"
  concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
  jobTemplate:
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          restartPolicy: OnFailure
          containers:
            - name: job
              image: busybox:1.36
              command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "date; echo running"]
  • spec.timeZone is stable since Kubernetes 1.27; without it, the kube-controller-manager’s zone applies. concurrencyPolicy: Forbid skips a run while the previous Job is still active.

Vercel Cron Jobs

vercel.json
{
  "crons": [
    { "path": "/api/cron", "schedule": "0 0 * * 0" }
  ]
}
  • Vercel always uses UTC, doesn’t accept names like MON or JAN, and won’t let you set both day of month and day of week.
  • This fits the Hobby plan, but Hobby precision is per hour: the invocation can land anywhere within the scheduled hour.

Cloudflare Workers

wrangler.toml
[triggers]
crons = ["0 0 * * SUN"]
  • Cron Triggers run on UTC. Changes can take up to 15 minutes to propagate across Cloudflare’s network.
  • Cloudflare numbers weekdays 1 = Sunday to 7 = Saturday, unlike standard cron, so the example uses names (MON, SUN), which are unambiguous.

node-cron (Node.js)

scheduler.js
import cron from 'node-cron';

// 6 fields: the first one (seconds) is optional
cron.schedule('0 0 0 * * 0', async () => {
  await runJob();
}, { timezone: 'UTC', noOverlap: true });
  • The schedule lives inside the Node process: if it’s down, nothing runs, and three replicas run the job three times. noOverlap skips a tick while the previous run is still going.

systemd timer

job.timer + job.service
# /etc/systemd/system/job.timer
[Unit]
Description=Run job.service every Sunday at midnight

[Timer]
OnCalendar=Sun *-*-* 00:00:00
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

# /etc/systemd/system/job.service
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/job.sh

# systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl enable --now job.timer
  • Check it with systemd-analyze calendar 'Sun *-*-* 00:00:00', which prints the normalized form and the next elapse. AccuracySec defaults to 1min, so the start can drift by up to a minute.
  • Persistent=true runs the job at boot if the machine was off at the scheduled time, which plain cron doesn’t do.

Spring @Scheduled and Quartz

Java
@Scheduled(cron = "0 0 0 * * 0", zone = "UTC")
public void runJob() {
    // ...
}

// Quartz CronTrigger:
CronScheduleBuilder.cronSchedule("0 0 0 ? * SUN")
  • In Spring, the first of the 6 fields is seconds; the rest follow standard cron (0 or 7 = Sunday).
  • In Quartz, one of the two day fields must be ?, and weekdays run 1 = Sunday to 7 = Saturday, which is why the example uses names.

Pitfalls

7 isn’t accepted everywhere

Kubernetes and Vercel document day of week as 0-6, and on Cloudflare 7 means Saturday. 0 is the portable number, and SUN is clearer where names are allowed (not on Vercel).

Quartz and Cloudflare count Sunday as 1

In Quartz and Cloudflare Cron Triggers, 0 0 * * 1-style numbering starts with 1 = Sunday. Copying a standard 0 or 7 across gives an error or the wrong day. Use SUN.

“Sunday midnight” is ambiguous

Some people mean the midnight at the start of Sunday, others the one at the end. Pick the expression that matches, and write the intended local time in a comment next to it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cron expression for every Sunday?
0 0 * * 0 runs at midnight every Sunday. 0 0 * * SUN is equivalent where names are supported.
Is Sunday 0 or 7 in cron?
Both, in cronie, Debian cron, node-cron and Spring. 0 is accepted everywhere, including Kubernetes and Vercel, which document 0-6.
How do I run a cron job every Sunday at 2 AM?
0 2 * * 0. If the server uses a zone with DST, 2 AM is inside the window that DST can skip or repeat; 3 or 4 AM is safer.
How do I run every Sunday night at 11 PM?
0 23 * * 0 runs at 23:00 on Sunday.

Last reviewed by Arielton Oberek.