Cron Every 3 Minutes
The */3 in the minute field means "every 3rd minute." The job runs at minutes 0, 3, 6, 9, … 57 — twenty times per hour.
Cron Expression
*/3 * * * *Field Breakdown
| Field | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | */3 | Every 3rd minute (0, 3, 6, … 57) |
| Hour | * | Every hour (0-23) |
| Day of Month | * | Every day (1-31) |
| Month | * | Every month (1-12) |
| Day of Week | * | Every day of the week (0-6) |
Variations
*/3 * * * *Every 3 minutes, 24/7*/3 9-17 * * *Every 3 minutes during business hours (9 AM – 5 PM)*/3 * * * 1-5Every 3 minutes on weekdays onlyCommon Use Cases
- Polling external APIs that rate-limit longer intervals
- Frequent cache refreshes
- Lightweight status and uptime checks
Tips & Best Practices
Note that */3 resets each hour, so the gap across the top of the hour (57 → 00) is 3 minutes as expected.
Keep the job idempotent in case a run is retried or overlaps.
Every 5 minutes is the more common monitoring default if 3 is not a hard requirement.