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Cron every 10 minutes

The cron expression for every 10 minutes is */10 * * * *. When it runs, how to offset it or limit it to working hours, and the GitHub Actions, Kubernetes and AWS forms.

Cron expression
*/10 * * * *
See the next run times

The expression

*/10 * * * *

Runs at minute 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 of every hour, every day: 6 times an hour, 144 times a day.

Field Value Meaning
Minute */10 every 10th minute, starting at 0
Hour * every hour
Day of month * every day
Month * every month
Day of week * every day of the week

*/10 is shorthand for the list 0,10,20,30,40,50. Runs line up with the clock (14:00, 14:10, 14:20), no matter when the crontab was installed, and the gap stays 10 minutes across the hour because 60 divides evenly by 10.

Variants

Schedule Expression
Every 10 minutes, offset by 3 (12:03, 12:13…) 3-59/10 * * * *
Every 10 minutes from 9:00 to 17:50 */10 9-17 * * *
Every 10 minutes on weekdays */10 * * * 1-5
Every 10 minutes, 9 to 5 on weekdays */10 9-17 * * 1-5
Every 5 minutes */5 * * * *
Every 15 minutes */15 * * * *
Every 30 minutes */30 * * * *

The offset form is useful when many jobs on one machine use */10: spreading them over minutes 1-9 avoids a load spike every ten minutes.

Where to write it

  • crontab (Linux, macOS): */10 * * * * /usr/local/bin/report.sh in crontab -e. Times follow the server's time zone; CRON_TZ= at the top of the crontab changes it where supported (cronie).
  • GitHub Actions: on: schedule: - cron: '*/10 * * * *'. Runs in UTC; 5 minutes is the shortest interval allowed, so 10 is fine, but busy periods (especially the top of the hour) can delay or drop runs.
  • Kubernetes CronJob: schedule: "*/10 * * * *", plus timeZone: "Europe/Berlin" (or similar) when you add hour limits. startingDeadlineSeconds controls whether a missed run is still started late.
  • AWS EventBridge: six fields with a year and ? in one day field: cron(0/10 * * * ? *). Or rate(10 minutes), which counts from when the rule was created, not from the clock.

Common mistakes

  • 10 * * * * is hourly, at ten past each hour, not every 10 minutes.
  • */10 9-17 * * * ends at 17:50, not 17:00. The hour field 9-17 includes the whole 17:00 hour.
  • */7 and other steps that don't divide 60 give an uneven gap: */7 runs at 0, 7 … 56 and then 0 again, only 4 minutes later.
  • Overlap and silence. Use flock -n for jobs that can run long, and redirect output to a log you actually read.

Paste any expression into the Cron Expression Parser to see it in words and its next run times.