What is Minute Field?

Definition

The minute field is the first of five fields in a standard cron expression. It accepts values from 0 to 59 and determines at which minute(s) within each matched hour the job will execute. It supports wildcards (*), ranges (0-30), lists (0,15,30,45), and step values (*/5 for every 5 minutes).

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Simple Analogy

Like the minute hand on a clock — it tells cron exactly which tick marks on the clock face to trigger the job.

Why It Matters

The minute field is the most granular scheduling control. Getting it wrong is the most common cron mistake: writing * instead of 0 turns a hourly job into one that runs every minute (60 times per hour). Always double-check this field first when debugging unexpected execution frequency.

How to Verify

Use CronJobPro's Cron Explainer to verify your expression. Look at the "next 5 runs" preview — if you see runs separated by 1 minute when you expected hourly, your minute field is likely set to * instead of a specific value like 0.

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Common Mistakes

Using * when you mean 0 — this is the #1 cron mistake. Writing "* 9 * * *" runs every minute from 9:00 to 9:59, not once at 9:00 AM. The correct expression for "at 9 AM" is "0 9 * * *". Also, confusing */15 (every 15 minutes: 0,15,30,45) with 15 (only at minute 15).

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Best Practices

For hourly jobs, always set the minute field to a specific value (like 0 or 30) rather than *. For interval-based jobs, use step values (*/5, */10, */15). Stagger jobs across different minutes to avoid all jobs hitting at :00.

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