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Run Cron Job Every Day at 1 AM (0 1 * * *)
Early Morning • Off-Peak Maintenance

Run Cron Job Every Day at 1 AM (0 1 * * *)

Configure daily cron jobs executing at 1:00 AM (0 1 * * *). Visual syntax breakdown, upcoming run timetable, and production maintenance scripts.

Direct Answer Definition

To run a cron job daily at 1:00 AM in Linux, use the expression 0 1 * * *. The 0 in the minute field specifies minute zero, while 1 in the hour field designates 1:00 AM in 24-hour time. This schedule fires once every 24 hours.

POSIX Cron Expression (5-Field)
Valid Syntax
Natural Language Schedule

At 01:00, every day

Standard Schedule PresetsClick to load

Interactive 5-Field Workbench

Adjust individual cron segments in real time with instant two-way synchronization.

1. Minute0
0 – 59
2. Hour1
0 – 23 (24h)
3. Day of Month*
1 – 31
4. Month*
1 – 12 (Jan – Dec)
Select Month
5. Day of Week*
0 – 6 (Sun – Sat)
Select Day

Next 5 Scheduled Executions

Real-time schedule timetable projected forward from current timestamp.

12026-10-08 19:00:00 UTC
in 9h 57m
22026-10-09 19:00:00 UTC
in 1d 9h
32026-10-10 19:00:00 UTC
in 2d 9h
42026-10-11 19:00:00 UTC
in 3d 9h
52026-10-12 19:00:00 UTC
in 4d 9h

Crontab Command Snippet

Enter your executable command or script path to generate the full crontab configuration line.

Ready to paste in `crontab -e`0 1 * * * curl -fsS https://example.com/cron-job
Runs in system timezone or explicit TZ variablePOSIX Spec
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Cron Field Syntax Mapping

Field-by-Field Breakdown of `0 1 * * *`

PositionField NameAllowed ValuesValue in `0 1 * * *`Evaluation Meaning
1Minute0 – 5900 (At minute 0)
2Hour0 – 2311 (At 1:00 AM / 01:00)
3Day of Month1 – 31** (Every day of the month: 1-31)
4Month1 – 12** (Every month: 1-12)
5Day of Week0 – 6 (Sun-Sat)** (Every day of the week: 0-6)
Technical Engineering Analysis

Off-Peak 1 AM Batch Processing

Scheduling daily maintenance at 1:00 AM (0 1 * * *) is standard practice to avoid the massive midnight stampede (0 0 * * *) when system-level crons and hosting providers run log rotation and security updates.

By waiting until 1:00 AM, server CPU utilization has typically settled, and user traffic across North American and European timezones is at near-minimal levels.

If you have multiple daily batch jobs, staggering them across early morning hours (e.g. Job 1 at 1:00 AM, Job 2 at 1:30 AM, Job 3 at 2:00 AM) prevents disk I/O bottlenecks.

Real-World Server Implementations

Common Production Scenarios for `0 1 * * *`

Case 01

Nightly Log Compression & Rotation

Compresses yesterday's Nginx access logs and transfers archives to cold storage buckets with gzip compression.

/usr/sbin/logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/nginx
Case 02

Daily Data Warehouse ETL Pipeline

Extracts yesterday's transaction logs from PostgreSQL, transforms analytics metrics, and loads summary tables into BigQuery.

/usr/bin/python3 /opt/etl/run_nightly_pipeline.py
Case 03

ElasticSearch Index Optimization & Merge

Forces segment merging on closed read-only log indices to free RAM and improve search query performance.

curl -X POST 'http://localhost:9200/*/_forcemerge?max_num_segments=1'
Operational Traps & Failure Modes

Production Gotchas When Running `0 1 * * *`

  • Daylight Saving Time (DST) Transitions: In regions with daylight saving time, the clock can jump from 1:59 AM to 3:00 AM in spring, or repeat 1:00 AM to 2:00 AM in fall. Keep server time in UTC.
  • Overlapping 1 AM Jobs: Do not launch 10 heavy backup scripts simultaneously at 01:00. Offset by minutes (e.g. 01:10, 01:25).
  • UTC Timezone Offsets: 01:00 UTC corresponds to 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time the previous evening. Double-check your server's timedatectl output.

Frequently Asked Questions About `0 1 * * *`

Why run jobs at 1 AM instead of midnight?

Midnight (0 0 * * *) suffers from severe server resource contention as operating system cron scripts all fire simultaneously. 1 AM offers quieter CPU and disk I/O.

How do I run a job at 1:15 AM?

Set minute to 15 and hour to 1: 15 1 * * * /path/to/script.sh.

Does 0 1 * * * run every day?

Yes, because the day of month, month, and day of week fields are all asterisks (*), the task executes once every day.

Related Cron Schedule Generators

Every 5 Minutes (*/5 * * * *)Every Minute (* * * * *)Every Hour (0 * * * *)Every 10 Minutes (*/10 * * * *)Every 15 Minutes (*/15 * * * *)Daily at Midnight (0 0 * * *)Every Weekday Mon-Fri (0 0 * * 1-5)Every Monday (0 0 * * 1)Every Sunday (0 0 * * 0)on the 1st Day of the Month (0 0 1 * *)Every Weekend Sat-Sun (0 0 * * 6,0)Every 2 Minutes (*/2 * * * *)Every 30 Minutes (*/30 * * * *)Every 2 Hours (0 */2 * * *)Every 6 Hours (0 */6 * * *)Every 12 Hours (0 */12 * * *)Every Day at 2 AM (0 2 * * *)Every Day at 9 AM (0 9 * * *)Every Day at Noon (0 12 * * *)Every Friday (0 0 * * 5)Every Saturday (0 0 * * 6)on the 15th of the Month (0 0 15 * *)Every 3 Months (0 0 1 */3 *)on the 1st Day of the Year (0 0 1 1 *)Full Visual 5-Field Editor