Cron expression for every 20 minutes
Every 20 minutes
*/20
minute
*
hour
*
day (month)
*
month
*
day (week)
Every 20 minutes
Try this expression in the interactive tool:
Open in cron explainer →Next 10 scheduled runs
#1Thu, 16 Apr 2026, 00:20
#2Thu, 16 Apr 2026, 00:40
#3Thu, 16 Apr 2026, 01:00
#4Thu, 16 Apr 2026, 01:20
#5Thu, 16 Apr 2026, 01:40
#6Thu, 16 Apr 2026, 02:00
#7Thu, 16 Apr 2026, 02:20
#8Thu, 16 Apr 2026, 02:40
#9Thu, 16 Apr 2026, 03:00
#10Thu, 16 Apr 2026, 03:20
Common use cases
Every 20 minutes fires three times per hour (at minutes 0, 20, and 40) — totalling 72 executions per day. This is a less common but practical interval for tasks where 15 minutes feels too frequent and 30 minutes is too sparse.
It's often used in data pipeline staging where upstream data arrives in irregular batches, and a 20-minute poll provides a good balance between timeliness and resource usage. Weather data aggregation services and inventory management systems also use this cadence.
Platform-specific syntax
crontab
*/20 * * * * /path/to/script.shAWS EventBridge
rate(20 minutes)GitHub Actions
schedule:
- cron: '*/20 * * * *'Kubernetes
schedule: "*/20 * * * *"Technical breakdown
The expression */20 * * * * has five fields: minute=*/20, hour=*, day (month)=*, month=*, day (week)=*. Every 20 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
What minutes does */20 fire on?
Minutes 0, 20, and 40 of every hour — three times per hour, 72 times per day.