What timezone do GitHub Actions cron schedules use?

Always UTC. There is no way to configure a different timezone in the workflow file.

Do scheduled workflows run on pull request branches?

No. Scheduled workflows only run on the repository default branch (usually main or master).

GitHub Actions Cron Daily

0 0 * * *

Every day at 12:00 AM

Next 10 Executions

Times shown in UTC

Tue, May 19, 202600:00
Wed, May 20, 202600:00
Thu, May 21, 202600:00
Fri, May 22, 202600:00
Sat, May 23, 202600:00
Sun, May 24, 202600:00
Mon, May 25, 202600:00
Tue, May 26, 202600:00
Wed, May 27, 202600:00
Thu, May 28, 202600:00

Field Breakdown

0

Minute

0

Hour

*

Day of Month

Every day

*

Month

Every month

*

Day of Week

Every day of week

About This Schedule

To run a GitHub Actions workflow daily at midnight UTC, add this to your workflow file:


GitHub Actions cron schedules always run in UTC. There's no timezone configuration. If you need to run at midnight in your local timezone, calculate the UTC equivalent: midnight US Eastern is `0 5 * * *` (EST) or `0 4 * * *` (EDT).

Daily scheduled workflows are the most common pattern for CI/CD automation: nightly builds, daily test suite runs, dependency update checks (like Dependabot), daily security scans, and documentation site rebuilds. Remember that scheduled workflows only run on the default branch (usually `main`).