What is the cron expression for every friday at midnight?

The cron expression for every friday at midnight is "0 0 * * 5". Runs at 00:00 every Friday.

What should I watch out for when running a cron job every friday at midnight?

Despite the name people give it, 0 0 * * 5 is every Friday. A true “last Friday of the month” needs a date guard — [ $(date +\%d) -gt 24 ] — or a scheduler with L syntax (Quartz: 5L). Standard cron alone cannot say it. Friday at 00:00 is Thursday night, not Friday evening. If you mean “after work on Friday”, that’s 0 18 * * 5 — and if you mean “before Monday”, Saturday 00:00 is 0 0 * * 6.

Cron expression for Every Friday at midnight

0 0 * * 5

Runs at 00:00 every Friday.

Next 5 runs (your local time)

These are shown in your browser’s timezone. The job itself runs in the scheduler’s timezone — often UTC — so the real run time can differ.

What people actually schedule with `0 0 * * 5`

Cutting a weekly release before the weekend
Friday end-of-week data exports for the business team
Pre-weekend cleanup: close stale tickets, expire old branches

Use `0 0 * * 5` on your platform

It’s the same 5-field expression everywhere — what changes is where you put it and which timezone it runs in.

Linux / crontab

0 0 * * 5 /path/to/your-command

Runs in the server’s local timezone — check it with timedatectl. Full field reference: crontab(5) man page.

GitHub Actions

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 0 * * 5"

GitHub Actions always runs scheduled jobs in UTC — there is no timezone setting, and runs can be delayed under load (official docs).

Kubernetes CronJob

spec:
  schedule: "0 0 * * 5"

Defaults to UTC. Set spec.timeZone (Kubernetes 1.27+) for a specific zone — see the CronJob docs.

Quartz / Spring `@Scheduled`

Quartz uses 6 fields (seconds first): 0 0 0 * * 5. Watch out: Quartz day-of-week is 1=SUN … 7=SAT (not 0–6), and day-of-month / day-of-week use ? — double-check if your schedule touches those fields (Quartz cron reference).

Gotchas with every friday at midnight schedules

Despite the name people give it, 0 0 * * 5 is every Friday. A true “last Friday of the month” needs a date guard — [ $(date +\%d) -gt 24 ] — or a scheduler with L syntax (Quartz: 5L). Standard cron alone cannot say it.
Friday at 00:00 is Thursday night, not Friday evening. If you mean “after work on Friday”, that’s 0 18 * * 5 — and if you mean “before Monday”, Saturday 00:00 is 0 0 * * 6.

Will you know if this job silently fails?

Cron jobs fail quietly — a server reboots, a path changes, or an error code is ignored — and nobody notices until the data is missing. A cron monitor (a dead-man’s-switch) alerts you when a scheduled job does not check in on time.

Monitor your cron jobs with UptimeRobot →

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Is `0 0 * * 5` the right schedule?

Deliverables consumed on Monday should be prepped at Sunday midnight instead. True monthly rhythm belongs to the 1st of the month.

Or use the interactive cron generator & explainer, read the complete cron syntax guide, or pick another common schedule: