Regex and cron

Cron Expression for Every 2 Hours

At minute 0 of every even hour (00:00, 02:00 … 22:00), every day. Copy it, check the next runs in your time zone and grab a snippet for your platform.

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Cron expression

0 */2 * * *
Customize
0minuteMinute: at minute 0 (on the hour)*/2hourHour: every 2 hours: 00:00, 02:00, 04:00 … 22:00*day (month)Day of month: every day of the month*monthMonth: every month*day (week)Day of week: every day of the week

At minute 0 of every even hour (00:00, 02:00 … 22:00), every day.

Time zone
Run times, the week view and the snippets use this zone. It starts as your device's zone.
Show times as 9:00 AM instead of 09:00.

Next runs

Each run in your selected time zone, with the same moment in UTC. Daylight saving changes follow cronie, the cron on most Linux servers.
Copy run times (ISO 8601)

Next 7 days

Each square is one hour of local time in your selected zone. Darker squares have more runs. Daylight saving changes are not drawn.

Use it on your platform

Copy-ready config for each scheduler. Dialects differ: some only run in UTC, some can't do seconds, Cloudflare and AWS number weekdays from 1 = Sunday. The snippet handles the conversion and says what changed.
A line for crontab -e on Linux or macOS (Vixie cron, cronie).on.schedule for a workflow, with the timezone field GitHub added in March 2026 (UTC when omitted).A CronJob manifest with the timeZone field (Kubernetes 1.27+).Cron Triggers in wrangler.toml for a Worker. Runs in UTC and numbers weekdays from 1 = Sunday.crons in vercel.json plus the route it calls. Runs in UTC.EventBridge Scheduler (any time zone, recommended by AWS) and a legacy EventBridge scheduled rule (UTC).A .timer unit with OnCalendar=, the systemd replacement for cron.
Runs as writtenRuns in your time zone
crontab -e
Copy crontab -eDownload my-job.crontab
# ┌───────────── minute (0–59)
# │ ┌─────────── hour (0–23)
# │ │ ┌───────── day of month (1–31)
# │ │ │ ┌─────── month (1–12)
# │ │ │ │ ┌───── day of week (0–6, Sunday = 0)
# │ │ │ │ │
# * * * * *  command
CRON_TZ=UTC
0 */2 * * *  /path/to/my-job.sh >> /var/log/my-job.log 2>&1
  • CRON_TZ=UTC is honored by cronie (Fedora, RHEL, Arch). Other cron daemons ignore it and use the server's time zone, so check timedatectl first.
  • Edit with crontab -e. Cron starts the next run even if the last one is still going; wrap the command in flock -n /tmp/my-job.lock to prevent overlaps.

Need scheduled jobs, queues and monitoring that never miss a run? Talk to our team

Quick answer

The cron expression for every 2 hours is 0 */2 * * *. The 0 fixes the minute, and */2 in the hour field keeps every second hour from 0 to 23, so the job runs at 00:00, 02:00, 04:00 through 22:00: 12 times a day. For odd hours (01:00, 03:00 … 23:00) use 0 1-23/2 * * *.

  • Live next runs
  • Any time zone
  • Field-by-field breakdown
  • Seven platform snippets
  • Daylight saving aware

How to use this schedule

  1. 1Copy 0 */2 * * * with the Copy expression button.
  2. 2Check Next runs in your time zone to confirm it fires when you expect, including around daylight saving changes.
  3. 3Pick your platform under Use it on your platform and copy the ready-made crontab line, workflow, manifest or timer.
  4. 4Need a different time or day? Click Customize to open it in the cron expression generator and change any field.

What does 0 */2 * * * mean?

Two fields do the work. The minute is fixed at 0, so each run happens on the hour. The hour field */2 steps through 0–23 in twos starting at 0, which leaves the even hours. Forget either part and the schedule changes dramatically:

ExpressionWhat actually happens
0 */2 * * *00:00, 02:00 … 22:00, 12 runs a day
0 1-23/2 * * *01:00, 03:00 … 23:00, 12 runs a day
*/2 * * * *Every 2 minutes, 720 runs a day
* */2 * * *Every minute of every even hour, 720 runs a day

The bottom two rows are the most common copy-paste accidents with this schedule. The step has to sit in the second field, with a number in the first.

Does every 2 hours count from when the job starts?

No. Cron has no memory of previous runs; it only matches clock times. The */2 step counts from hour 0 every day, so the runs are always at the same twelve times, whether you installed the job at 09:13 or 22:59. Because 24 divides evenly by 2, the gap from 22:00 to the next midnight is also two hours.

To anchor the rhythm somewhere else, choose the minute and the parity of the hours:

  • 15 */2 * * * runs at 00:15, 02:15 … 22:15
  • 30 1-23/2 * * * runs at 01:30, 03:30 … 23:30, which includes 09:30
  • 0 8-20/2 * * * limits the runs to 08:00 through 20:00

Twelve runs a day is a comfortable cadence for syncing reference data, rebuilding search indexes or rotating reports. If that is still too often, every 3 hours gives eight runs and every 6 hours gives four.

What does each field in 0 */2 * * * mean?

FieldValueAllowedMeaning
Minute00–59at minute 0 (on the hour)
Hour*/20–23every 2 hours: 00:00, 02:00, 04:00 … 22:00
Day of month*1–31every day of the month
Month*1–12, JAN–DECevery month
Day of week*0–7 (0 and 7 are Sunday), SUN–SATevery day of the week

Read together: At minute 0 of every even hour (00:00, 02:00 … 22:00), every day.

How do I adjust 0 */2 * * * to my own schedule?

Small edits to 0 */2 * * * cover most real-world needs:

ExpressionWhat it does
0 1-23/2 * * *Every 2 hours on odd hours (01:00, 03:00 … 23:00)
30 */2 * * *Every 2 hours at half past (00:30, 02:30 … 22:30)
0 8-20/2 * * *Every 2 hours from 08:00 to 20:00
0 */2 * * 1-5Every 2 hours on weekdays only
0 */3 * * *Every 3 hours

Need something else? Click Customize at the top of the page to open this schedule in the cron expression generator and change any field.

Related schedules: Every hour · Every 3 hours · Every 6 hours · Every 2 minutes

Browse all schedules in the cron schedule library.

How do I run 0 */2 * * * in crontab, GitHub Actions, Kubernetes and the cloud?

PlatformWrite it asTime zone
Linux crontab0 */2 * * *Server's time zone; CRON_TZ= in cronie
GitHub Actions- cron: "0 */2 * * *"UTC by default; add timezone: (IANA name)
Kubernetes CronJobschedule: "0 */2 * * *"Set timeZone: (1.27+)
Cloudflare Workers0 */2 * * *UTC only; numbers weekdays from 1 = Sunday, so use names
Vercel Cron Jobs0 */2 * * *UTC only; more than once a day needs Pro (Hobby: once a day)
AWS EventBridge Schedulercron(0 */2 * * ? *)Takes a time zone; legacy scheduled rules are UTC only
systemd timerOnCalendar=*-*-* 0/2:00:00Add a zone after the time, e.g. Europe/London

In a crontab (crontab -e), the full line looks like this:

0 */2 * * *  /path/to/job.sh >> /var/log/job.log 2>&1

The live panel at the top of the page builds complete, copy-ready files for each platform (workflow, CronJob manifest, wrangler.toml, vercel.json, AWS CLI and systemd units) and can shift the schedule to UTC for platforms that need it.

What can go wrong with 0 */2 * * *?

  • */2 * * * * is every 2 minutes, not every 2 hours. The step belongs in the second field, with a fixed minute in the first.
  • Leaving the minute as * (* */2 * * *) runs the job every minute for a whole hour, every other hour: 720 runs a day instead of 12.
  • In America/New_York the spring-forward night has no 02:00, so a local-time 0 */2 * * * job runs 11 times that day. A server on UTC always gets 12.
  • If one run can last longer than two hours, protect it with flock -n /tmp/job.lock your-command so runs don't pile up.
  • In a zone with daylight saving time, a schedule with * in the minute or hour field follows the wall clock: the spring-forward night loses an hour of runs and the fall-back night repeats one. Servers on UTC never see this.

Frequently asked questions

Use 0 1-23/2 * * *. The range starts at 1, so the step of 2 gives 01:00, 03:00, 05:00 and so on through 23:00.
Yes. The step is shorthand for the list 0,2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22 in the hour field, and both run 12 times a day at minute 0.
The step is in the minute field. */2 * * * * means every 2 minutes; move the step to the hour field and fix the minute: 0 */2 * * *.
Yes. Pick the minute and an hour range with the right parity: 30 1-23/2 * * * runs at 01:30, 03:30 and every 2 hours after that, including 09:30. If you only want runs from 09:30 onward each day, use 30 9-23/2 * * *.

Last updated by the Playxoft engineering team.

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