Cron Expression 0 18 * * 1-5 Daily at 6 PM Weekdays Meaning (2026)
Cron expression 0 18 * * 1-5 means At 6:00 PM, Monday through Friday.
Cron expression 0 18 * * 1-5 means 6 PM on weekdays. This 2026 explainer shows exactly how Monday-Friday scheduling works and how to run it safely.
Cron Expression
Common use cases
- End-of-day weekday reconciliation jobs
- Business-day partner exports that skip weekends
- Weekday-only summary and digest workflows
- Post-close reporting for next-morning review
How to use this cron schedule
Cron expression `0 18 * * 1-5` daily at 6 PM weekdays means minute 0, hour 18, and weekday range 1 through 5. In standard cron semantics this is Monday through Friday at 6:00 PM. If your search intent is cron expression 0 18 * * 1-5 daily at 6pm weekdays meaning, this is the exact mapping. In 2026, it is a common schedule for day-end automation because it captures complete business-day activity and naturally skips weekend runs that often add cost without adding operational value.
Even though the expression is short, platform behavior still needs verification. Confirm weekday numbering and timezone interpretation in your scheduler before attaching side effects like exports or billing updates. Most tools treat `1-5` as Monday-Friday, but validating next-run previews prevents avoidable incidents. Add retries with clear upper bounds and record output counts so teams can quickly verify job completeness. If this cron feeds dashboards used next morning, publish a completion marker immediately so stakeholders know whether numbers are safe to use.
For reliable operations in 2026, keep this 6 PM weekday schedule focused on one outcome, then chain follow-up jobs with explicit handoffs. Narrow scope improves observability and speeds up recovery when one step fails. Track last-success timestamp, run duration, and error streaks in your monitoring system. If weekend support becomes necessary later, add a dedicated weekend expression instead of overloading this weekday job with conditional logic. That approach keeps cron behavior transparent and easier to maintain across engineering and operations teams.
Want to customize this schedule?
Open it in the visual builder to tweak the expression interactively.
Open in BuilderNeed to monitor this cron job?
Cronhub tracks your scheduled jobs and alerts you if they fail or run late.
Platform usage examples
# Edit your crontab
crontab -e
# Add this line to run expression 0 18 * * 1-5 daily at 6 pm weekdays meaning (2026)
0 18 * * 1-5 /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/script.php
# Or run a shell script
0 18 * * 1-5 /home/user/scripts/job.sh >> /var/log/job.log 2>&1# .github/workflows/scheduled.yml
name: Scheduled Job
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 18 * * 1-5'
jobs:
run:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Run job
run: echo "Running expression 0 18 * * 1-5 daily at 6 pm weekdays meaning (2026)"apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
name: my-scheduled-job
spec:
schedule: "0 18 * * 1-5"
jobTemplate:
spec:
template:
spec:
containers:
- name: job
image: my-image:latest
restartPolicy: OnFailureRelated developer tools
More free tools for engineering workflows that pair with scheduled jobs:
Frequently asked questions
What is the cron expression for expression 0 18 * * 1-5 daily at 6 pm weekdays meaning (2026)?
The cron expression is 0 18 * * 1-5. Cron expression 0 18 * * 1-5 means 6 PM on weekdays. This 2026 explainer shows exactly how Monday-Friday scheduling works and how to run it safely.
How do I schedule a cron job to run expression 0 18 * * 1-5 daily at 6 pm weekdays meaning (2026) in Linux?
Open your crontab with "crontab -e" and add a new line: 0 18 * * 1-5 /path/to/your/script.sh — this schedules your script to run expression 0 18 * * 1-5 daily at 6 pm weekdays meaning (2026). Save and exit; the cron daemon picks up the change immediately.
What does the cron expression "0 18 * * 1-5" mean?
Cron expression 0 18 * * 1-5 means 6 PM on weekdays. This 2026 explainer shows exactly how Monday-Friday scheduling works and how to run it safely.
Can I use "0 18 * * 1-5" in GitHub Actions?
Yes. In your workflow YAML, set the schedule trigger: on: schedule: - cron: '0 18 * * 1-5'. GitHub Actions uses standard 5-field Unix cron syntax, so this expression works as-is.