Cron job twice a day (midnight and noon)

0 0,12 * * * At 12:00 AM and 12:00 PM

Typical use: backups and syncs twice daily. Try it below — change any field and see the next runs in your timezone.

At 12:00 AM and 12:00 PM

Valid

Next 10 executions

  1. 1Mon, Sep 28, 2026, 12:00 AM
  2. 2Mon, Sep 28, 2026, 12:00 PM
  3. 3Tue, Sep 29, 2026, 12:00 AM
  4. 4Tue, Sep 29, 2026, 12:00 PM
  5. 5Wed, Sep 30, 2026, 12:00 AM
  6. 6Wed, Sep 30, 2026, 12:00 PM
  7. 7Thu, Oct 1, 2026, 12:00 AM
  8. 8Thu, Oct 1, 2026, 12:00 PM
  9. 9Fri, Oct 2, 2026, 12:00 AM
  10. 10Fri, Oct 2, 2026, 12:00 PM

Field by field

FieldValueMeaning
Minute0minute 0
Hour0,12hours 0, 12
Day of month*every day
Month*every month
Day of week*every day

The same schedule on every platform

The five fields mean the same thing everywhere, but each scheduler wraps them differently — and AWS and Quartz number weekdays from 1 (Sunday), not 0.

0 0,12 * * * /path/to/script.sh >> /var/log/job.log 2>&1
spec:
  schedule: "0 0,12 * * *"
GitHub ActionsRuns in UTC.
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0,12 * * *'
AWS EventBridgeEventBridge weekdays are 1–7 (1 = Sunday) and one day field must be ?.
cron(0 0,12 * * ? *)
Quartz (Java)Seconds first; weekdays 1–7 with 1 = Sunday.
0 0 0,12 * * ?
Spring @ScheduledSpring adds a seconds field but keeps Unix weekday numbers.
@Scheduled(cron = "0 0 0,12 * * *")
[TimerTrigger("0 0 0,12 * * *")]

Running a job twice a day (midnight and noon)

What is the cron expression for twice a day (midnight and noon)?
0 0,12 * * *. In plain English: at 12:00 AM and 12:00 PM. It works in standard 5-field cron — Linux crontab, Kubernetes and GitHub Actions.
How do I schedule a job twice a day (midnight and noon) in AWS EventBridge?
Use cron(0 0,12 * * ? *). EventBridge needs six fields (a year at the end), a ? in one of the day fields, and numbers weekdays 1–7 starting on Sunday.
What timezone does "0 0,12 * * *" run in?
Cron uses the server's timezone. Kubernetes CronJobs default to the controller's timezone (set spec.timeZone on 1.27+), GitHub Actions and AWS EventBridge rules always use UTC. Use the timezone picker above to see the next runs in your own time.