Cron · Weekdays · Monday to Friday
Cron Job on Weekdays Only (Monday–Friday)
Updated: May 2026
Plenty of jobs should only run on business days: sending morning reports, syncing with office systems, or skipping weekend processing. The key is the day-of-week field, where 1-5 means Monday through Friday.
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The expression
0 9 * * 1-5 /path/to/commandThis runs at 9:00am, but only when the day of the week is 1 to 5 (Monday to Friday). The day-of-month and month fields stay as *, so the only restriction is the weekday range. Saturday and Sunday are skipped entirely.
Day-of-week numbering
| Number | Day | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 0 (or 7) | Sunday | SUN |
| 1 | Monday | MON |
| 2 | Tuesday | TUE |
| 3 | Wednesday | WED |
| 4 | Thursday | THU |
| 5 | Friday | FRI |
| 6 | Saturday | SAT |
Because Sunday is both 0 and 7, weekends can be written as 0,6 or 6,7. Most cron versions also accept names, so MON-FRI is interchangeable with 1-5.
Useful weekday variations
*/15 9-17 * * 1-5— every 15 minutes during business hours on weekdays.0 8 * * 1— every Monday at 8am (start-of-week tasks).0 18 * * 5— every Friday at 6pm (end-of-week wrap-up).0 0 * * 0,6— midnight on weekends only.
The day-of-month trap
Be careful when you restrict both the day-of-month and day-of-week fields. Standard cron runs the job when either matches, not both. So 0 9 1 * 1-5 does not mean "the 1st if it is a weekday" — it means "every weekday and the 1st of the month, whichever applies". To run on a weekday only, leave day-of-month as *. The generator's plain-English description makes this behaviour obvious, so check it whenever both fields are set.
Frequently asked questions
How do I exclude only Sundays?
Use 1-6 for Monday through Saturday, which skips Sunday (0).
Does 1-5 account for public holidays?
No. Cron has no concept of holidays; it only knows weekdays. Add a guard in your script that checks a holiday list if you need to skip those days.
Is 7 a valid value for Sunday?
Yes on most implementations. Both 0 and 7 represent Sunday, though 0 is the more common convention.