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Cron schedule

Cron every weekend

The cron expression for every weekend is 0 0 * * 0,6: 00:00 on Sunday (0) and Saturday (6). If you want one run per weekend rather than two, pick a single day, such as 0 0 * * 6.

Every weekend
Expression0 0 * * 0,6
Runs104 times in 2027
systemd OnCalendarSat,Sun *-*-* 00:00:00

How it works

Sunday is 0 and Saturday is 6, so the weekend sits at the two ends of the range. A list, 0,6, is the portable way to name both. The order in the list doesn’t matter; 6,0 is the same.

Weekend runs are the usual slot for heavy maintenance: full backups, index rebuilds, vacuuming large tables, re-crawls. Two runs cover both nights, and often the better plan is one long job on Saturday night: 0 1 * * 6 for 01:00 Saturday, or 0 22 * * 6 for Saturday evening.

Names read better where they’re supported: 0 0 * * SAT,SUN in cronie, GitHub Actions and Kubernetes. Vercel rejects names, and on Cloudflare names are the only unambiguous choice.

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 week0,6Sunday and Saturday

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  
3  
4  
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 * * 0,6 /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 * * 0,6'
      # 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 * * 0,6"
  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 * * 0,6" }
  ]
}
  • 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,SAT"]
  • 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 * * 0,6', 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 at midnight on Saturday and Sunday

[Timer]
OnCalendar=Sat,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 'Sat,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 * * 0,6", zone = "UTC")
public void runJob() {
    // ...
}

// Quartz CronTrigger:
CronScheduleBuilder.cronSchedule("0 0 0 ? * SUN,SAT")
  • 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

6-0 is a backwards range

Ranges must go from low to high. Most parsers reject 6-0 (cronie happens to read it as 6-7). Use the list 0,6.

6-7 only works where 7 means Sunday

cronie, node-cron and Spring accept 7 as Sunday, so 6-7 works there. Kubernetes and Vercel document the range as 0-6, and on Cloudflare 6-7 means Friday and Saturday. 0,6 or SAT,SUN avoids both problems.

Weekend in UTC isn’t your weekend

Saturday 00:00 UTC is Friday 21:00 in São Paulo. A maintenance window that must not start during Friday business hours in Asia or the Americas needs its hour set with the scheduler’s zone in mind.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cron expression for weekends only?
Use 0,6 in the day-of-week field. 0 0 * * 0,6 runs at midnight on Saturday and Sunday.
How do I run a cron job once every weekend?
Pick one day: 0 0 * * 6 runs once, at 00:00 on Saturday.
Can I write SAT,SUN instead of 0,6?
Yes in cronie, GitHub Actions, Kubernetes, node-cron, Spring and Cloudflare. Not on Vercel, which doesn’t support names.
How do I run every hour on weekends?
0 * * * 0,6 runs on the hour, all day Saturday and Sunday.

Last reviewed by Arielton Oberek.