Cron expression for every quarter (every 3 months)
At 12:00 AM, on the 1st, every 3rd month
At 12:00 AM, on the 1st, every 3rd month
Try this expression in the interactive tool:
Open in cron explainer →Next 10 scheduled runs
Common use cases
Quarterly execution is the standard cadence for financial reporting, compliance audits, strategic reviews, and fiscal quarter processing. This expression fires on the 1st of January, April, July, and October — the start of each calendar quarter.
Common applications include generating quarterly revenue and expense reports, triggering compliance review workflows, processing quarterly tax filings, archiving old data that's past the quarterly retention window, and sending quarterly customer satisfaction surveys.
Platform-specific syntax
0 0 1 */3 * /path/to/script.shcron(0 0 1 1/3 ? *)schedule:
- cron: '0 0 1 */3 *'schedule: "0 0 1 */3 *"Technical breakdown
The expression 0 0 1 */3 * has five fields: minute=0, hour=0, day (month)=1, month=*/3, day (week)=*. At 12:00 AM, on the 1st, every 3rd month.