Cron Every 5 Minutes During Business Hours
Cron expression */5 9-17 * * 1-5 means Every 5 minutes, between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday.
Cron expression to run a job every 5 minutes during business hours (9 AM–5 PM, Mon–Fri): */5 9-17 * * 1-5. Ideal for frequent polling that only needs to happen while the team is working.
Cron Expression
Common use cases
- Checking for new support tickets during business hours only
- Polling internal APIs at high frequency without running overnight
- Sending real-time alerts only during active hours
- Refreshing SLA dashboards throughout the business day
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 every 5 minutes during business hours
*/5 9-17 * * 1-5 /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/script.php
# Or run a shell script
*/5 9-17 * * 1-5 /home/user/scripts/job.sh >> /var/log/job.log 2>&1# .github/workflows/scheduled.yml
name: Scheduled Job
on:
schedule:
- cron: '*/5 9-17 * * 1-5'
jobs:
run:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Run job
run: echo "Running every 5 minutes during business hours"apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
name: my-scheduled-job
spec:
schedule: "*/5 9-17 * * 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 every 5 minutes during business hours?
The cron expression is */5 9-17 * * 1-5. Cron expression to run a job every 5 minutes during business hours (9 AM–5 PM, Mon–Fri): */5 9-17 * * 1-5. Ideal for frequent polling that only needs to happen while the team is working.
How do I schedule a cron job to run every 5 minutes during business hours in Linux?
Open your crontab with "crontab -e" and add a new line: */5 9-17 * * 1-5 /path/to/your/script.sh — this schedules your script to run every 5 minutes during business hours. Save and exit; the cron daemon picks up the change immediately.
What does the cron expression "*/5 9-17 * * 1-5" mean?
Cron expression to run a job every 5 minutes during business hours (9 AM–5 PM, Mon–Fri): */5 9-17 * * 1-5. Ideal for frequent polling that only needs to happen while the team is working.
Can I use "*/5 9-17 * * 1-5" in GitHub Actions?
Yes. In your workflow YAML, set the schedule trigger: on: schedule: - cron: '*/5 9-17 * * 1-5'. GitHub Actions uses standard 5-field Unix cron syntax, so this expression works as-is.