Cron expression for every 15 minutes
*/15 * * * * runs a job every fifteen minutes, on the quarter hour: at :00, :15, :30 and :45.
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*/15 * * * *
When it runs next
What it means
Quarter hour schedules suit reports and dashboards, because the runs land on times people already think in. Written out in full the same schedule is 0,15,30,45 * * * *, and some teams prefer that form because it reads without knowing the step syntax.
If many jobs on one machine use */15, they all start together four times an hour. Spread the load by giving each one its own offset, such as 3,18,33,48 for one job and 7,22,37,52 for another.
Common variations
| Expression | Runs |
|---|---|
*/15 9-17 * * 1-5 | Every fifteen minutes in office hours on weekdays |
0,30 * * * * | Every half hour instead |
*/15 * 1 * * | Every fifteen minutes, but only on the first of the month |
As a crontab line
Add the command you want to run after the five fields, then save it with
crontab -e:
*/15 * * * * /path/to/script.sh