Cron Every Quarter (First Day of Quarter)
Cron expression 0 0 1 */3 * means At 12:00 AM, on the 1st.
Cron expression to run a job every quarter on the first day: 0 0 1 */3 *. Runs on January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and October 1st at midnight.
Cron Expression
Common use cases
- Quarterly financial report generation
- Resetting quarterly usage quotas and limits
- Sending quarterly business review summaries
- Archiving previous quarter's data
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 quarter (first day of quarter)
0 0 1 */3 * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/script.php
# Or run a shell script
0 0 1 */3 * /home/user/scripts/job.sh >> /var/log/job.log 2>&1# .github/workflows/scheduled.yml
name: Scheduled Job
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 0 1 */3 *'
jobs:
run:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Run job
run: echo "Running every quarter (first day of quarter)"apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
name: my-scheduled-job
spec:
schedule: "0 0 1 */3 *"
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 quarter (first day of quarter)?
The cron expression is 0 0 1 */3 *. Cron expression to run a job every quarter on the first day: 0 0 1 */3 *. Runs on January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and October 1st at midnight.
How do I schedule a cron job to run every quarter (first day of quarter) in Linux?
Open your crontab with "crontab -e" and add a new line: 0 0 1 */3 * /path/to/your/script.sh — this schedules your script to run every quarter (first day of quarter). Save and exit; the cron daemon picks up the change immediately.
What does the cron expression "0 0 1 */3 *" mean?
Cron expression to run a job every quarter on the first day: 0 0 1 */3 *. Runs on January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and October 1st at midnight.
Can I use "0 0 1 */3 *" in GitHub Actions?
Yes. In your workflow YAML, set the schedule trigger: on: schedule: - cron: '0 0 1 */3 *'. GitHub Actions uses standard 5-field Unix cron syntax, so this expression works as-is.