`/10 * * *` — What does this cron expression mean?

*/10 * * * * fires six times an hour on the 10-minute marks. It works cleanly because 10 divides 60 evenly. That is worth understanding, because the same pattern with a step that does not divide 60, such as */7 or */25, silently produces uneven gaps.

In plain English

*/10 * * * *

Run the job every 10 minutes: at minute 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 of every hour.

Frequency: 6 runs per hour, 144 per day. cronstrue reads it as “Every 10 minutes”.

Open */10 * * * * in the Cron Builder

Field-by-field breakdown

*/10

Minute

0–59

Hour

0–23

Day of month

1–31

Month

1–12

Day of week

0–6

Minute*/10 — every 10th minute starting at 0: 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
Hour* — every hour.
Day of month* — every day of the month.
Month* — every month.
Day of week* — every day of the week.

Next run times

Example: next 5 runs

Example: if it is Monday, 5 Jan 2026, 09:07 UTC, the next runs of */10 * * * * (UTC) are:

#1Mon, 5 Jan 2026, 09:10 UTCin 3 min
#2Mon, 5 Jan 2026, 09:20 UTCin 13 min
#3Mon, 5 Jan 2026, 09:30 UTCin 23 min
#4Mon, 5 Jan 2026, 09:40 UTCin 33 min
#5Mon, 5 Jan 2026, 09:50 UTCin 43 min

Live times from your current clock replace this example once the page loads. Cron uses the scheduler's timezone; most cloud servers, GitHub Actions and AWS EventBridge rules use UTC.

/10 * * * in Quartz, AWS, GitHub Actions, Kubernetes and systemd

Crontab (Linux / macOS)

*/10 * * * * /usr/local/bin/job.sh >> /var/log/job.log 2>&1

Standard 5-field syntax used by Vixie cron, cronie, busybox crond and most libraries (node-cron, APScheduler, robfig/cron).

Quartz (6 and 7 fields)

0 0/10 * * * ?
0 0/10 * * * ? *

# Spring @Scheduled
@Scheduled(cron = "0 */10 * * * *")

Quartz uses 0/10 for “start at 0, every 10”. You can shift the start with 5/10 (minutes 5, 15, 25 …).

AWS EventBridge

cron(0/10 * * * ? *)

# interval alternative
rate(10 minutes)

Both are valid. Use the cron form when you need runs on the :x0 marks, and the rate form when you only need a 10-minute interval.

GitHub Actions

on:
  schedule:
    # Every 10 minutes, evaluated in UTC
    - cron: '*/10 * * * *'

Valid, but treat GitHub's schedule as best-effort: runs can arrive several minutes late, so two consecutive runs may be anywhere from about 5 to 20 minutes apart.

Kubernetes CronJob

apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
  name: every-10-minutes
spec:
  schedule: "*/10 * * * *"
  timeZone: "Etc/UTC"
  concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
  startingDeadlineSeconds: 180
  jobTemplate:
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          restartPolicy: OnFailure
          containers:
            - name: job
              image: alpine:3.20
              command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "echo running"]

Forbid plus a 3-minute deadline keeps at most one Job running and drops runs that could not start in time.

systemd timer

# /etc/systemd/system/myjob.timer
[Unit]
Description=Every 10 minutes

[Timer]
OnCalendar=*:0/10
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Normalises to *-*-* *:00/10:00. Add RandomizedDelaySec=60 on many hosts to avoid all of them firing in the same second.

When to use every 10 minutes

Syncing data from a SaaS API whose quota is roughly 150 calls per day.
Rebuilding a small RSS feed, status page or leaderboard.
Expiring reservations or carts that are held for 10–30 minutes.
Collecting disk usage or certificate expiry metrics on hosts without an agent.

Common pitfalls with /10 * * *

Steps that do not divide 60 reset every hour

The step restarts at minute 0 of each hour. */10 is fine, but */7 runs at 0, 7, 14 … 49, 56 and then 0 again, so there is a 4-minute gap at the top of each hour. If you need an exact interval that does not divide 60, use rate() on AWS, OnUnitActiveSec in systemd or an in-process scheduler.

# Uneven: 0,7,14,21,28,35,42,49,56 → gap of 4 min at :56→:00
*/7 * * * *

# Even: always 10 minutes apart
*/10 * * * *

*/10 is not the same as 10

10 * * * * runs once an hour at minute 10, and * 10 * * * runs every minute between 10:00 and 10:59. Read each field position carefully: the first is minutes, the second is hours.

Offset away from :00 when the job hits a shared resource

5-59/10 keeps the same frequency on the :05, :15, :25 … marks, away from the hourly and quarter-hour jobs that pile up on :00 and :30.

5-59/10 * * * * /usr/local/bin/sync-feed.sh

Related cron expressions

Every 5 minutes

*/5 * * * *

Every 15 minutes

*/15 * * * *

Every hour

0 * * * *

Need a different schedule? Paste */10 * * * * into the Cron Builder and edit it, browse all cron expressions, read the cron syntax guide or copy from the cron examples list.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does */10 * * * * mean in cron?▾

Every 10 minutes. The minute field */10 expands to 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and every other field is *, so the job runs 6 times an hour and 144 times a day.

How do I run a cron job every 10 minutes starting at minute 5?▾

Use 5-59/10 * * * *. That runs at minutes 5, 15, 25, 35, 45 and 55. In Quartz the same schedule is 0 5/10 * * * ?.

What is the difference between */10 and 0/10?▾

In Quartz, Spring and AWS they mean the same thing: start at 0 and step by 10. Classic crontab only documents steps on * or on a range, so 0/10 is rejected or misread by some cron daemons. In a crontab, write */10 or 0-59/10.

*/10 * * * * — What does this cron expression mean?