What is the cron expression for every hour?

The expression is 0 * * * *. The 0 sets it to run at minute 0 (top of the hour), and the wildcards mean every hour, every day.

What is the difference between 0 * * * * and * * * * *?

0 * * * * runs once per hour (at :00). * * * * * runs every minute. The minute field 0 means "only at minute zero."

Cron Every Hour

0 * * * *

Every hour

Next 10 Executions

Times shown in UTC

Mon, May 18, 202609:00
Mon, May 18, 202610:00
Mon, May 18, 202611:00
Mon, May 18, 202612:00
Mon, May 18, 202613:00
Mon, May 18, 202614:00
Mon, May 18, 202615:00
Mon, May 18, 202616:00
Mon, May 18, 202617:00
Mon, May 18, 202618:00

Field Breakdown

0

Minute

*

Hour

Every hour

*

Day of Month

Every day

*

Month

Every month

*

Day of Week

Every day of week

About This Schedule

The cron expression 0 * * * * runs a job at the top of every hour — at 12:00 AM, 1:00 AM, 2:00 AM, and so on. The 0 in the minute field means "at minute zero," and the wildcards in all other fields mean every hour, every day.

Hourly jobs are among the most common cron schedules. Typical use cases include log rotation, hourly reports, cache clearing, API data syncing, and metric aggregation.

If you need the job to run at a different minute within the hour, change the first field: 30 * * * * runs at the bottom of every hour (:30).