Rate expression
rate(Value Unit)
Where:
Value can be a positive integer.
Unit can be minute(s), hour(s), or day(s).
For example:
| Example | Cron expression |
|---|---|
| Invoke Lambda function every 5 minutes | rate(5 minutes) |
| Invoke Lambda function every hour | rate(1 hour) |
| Invoke Lambda function every seven days | rate(7 days) |
Note the following:
- Rate frequencies of less than one minute are not supported.
- For a singular value the unit must be singular (for example,
rate(1 day)), otherwise plural (for example,rate(5 days)).
Cron expression
cron(Minutes Hours Day-of-month Month Day-of-week Year)
All fields are required and time zone is UTC only. The following table describes these fields.
| Field | Values | Wildcards |
|---|---|---|
| Minutes | 0-59 | , - * / |
| Hours | 0-23 | , - * / |
| Day-of-month | 1-31 | , - * ? / L W |
| Month | 1-12 or JAN-DEC | , - * / |
| Day-of-week | 1-7 or SUN-SAT | , - * ? / L # |
| Year | 1970-2199 | , - * / |
The following table describes the wildcard characters.
| Character | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| / | Specifies increments | 0/15 in the minutes field directs execution to occur every 15 minutes. |
| L | Specifies "Last" | If used in Day-of-month field, specifies last day of the month. If used in Day-of-week field, specifies last day of the week (Saturday). |
| W | Specifies Weekday | When used with a date, such as 5/W, specifies the closest weekday to 5th day of the month. If the 5th falls on a Saturday, execution occurs on Friday. If the 5th falls on a Sunday, execution occurs on Monday. |
| # | Specifies the nd or nth day of the month | Specifying 3#2 means the second Tuesday of the month (Tuesday is the third day of the 7-day week). |
| * | Specifies All values | If used in the Day-of-month field, it means all days in the month. |
| ? | No specified value | Used in conjunction with another specified value. For example, if a specific date is specified, but you don't care what day of the week it falls on. |
| - | Specifies ranges | 10-12 would mean 10, 11 and 12 |
| , | Specifies additional values | SUN,MON,TUE means Sunday, Monday and Tuesday |
| / | Specifies increments | 5/10 means 5, 15, 25, 35, etc. |
The following table lists common examples of cron expressions.
| Example | Cron expression |
|---|---|
| Invoke a Lambda function at 10:00am (UTC) everyday | cron(0 10 * * ? *) |
| Invoke a Lambda function 12:15pm (UTC) everyday | cron(15 12 * * ? *) |
| Invoke a Lambda function at 06:00pm (UTC) every Mon-Fri | cron(0 18 ? * MON-FRI *) |
| Invoke a Lambda function at 8:00am (UTC) every first day of the month | cron(0 8 1 * ? *) |
| Invoke a Lambda function every 10 min Mon-Fri | cron(0/10 * ? * MON-FRI *) |
| Invoke a Lambda function every 5 minutes Mon-Fri between 8:00am and 5:55pm (UTC) | cron(0/5 8-17 ? * MON-FRI *) |
| Invoke a Lambda function at 9 a.m. (UTC) the first Monday of each month | cron(0 9 ? * 2#1 *) |
Note the following:
- The previous examples assume you are using the AWS CLI. If you are using the Lambda console, do not include the
cronprefix to your expression. - Cron expressions that lead to rates faster than one minute are not supported.
- One of the day-of-month or day-of-week values must be a question mark (
?).