Every N minutes
*/2 * * * *
Run on even minutes, :00, :02, :04, … :58.
This preview is live: the table below shows the actual next run times for */2 * * * * in your time zone, recomputed in your browser. Change the expression, dialect, or zone to experiment, then copy the result.
What */2 * * * * means
*/2 * * * * uses a step value: */2 in the minute field means "start at minute 0 and fire every 2 minutes thereafter", landing on every even minute of every hour. It is a common middle ground for pollers that need to feel responsive without the load of an every-minute job.
Steps are anchored to the start of the range, not to when you deploy. */2 always fires on even minutes regardless of when the crontab was installed, so two jobs both set to */2 will collide on the same even minutes unless you offset one of them with an explicit start like 1-59/2.
Field-by-field breakdown
Unix cron has five fields. Here is what each one is doing in this expression:
| Field | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | */2 | every 2 (step) across minute |
| Hour | * | every hour |
| Day of month | * | every day-of-month |
| Month | * | every month |
| Day of week | * | every day-of-week |
Every 2 minutes in every scheduler
The same cadence written for the seven cron dialects you are most likely to meet. Copy the line for the system you target, the field count and day-of-week numbering differ between them.
| Scheduler | Expression | Copy |
|---|---|---|
| Unix / crontab | */2 * * * * | |
| GitHub Actions | */2 * * * * | |
| Kubernetes CronJob | */2 * * * * | |
| Vercel Cron | */2 * * * * | |
| Quartz | 0 */2 * * * * * | |
| Spring | 0 */2 * * * * | |
| AWS EventBridge | */2 * * * * * |
When you would use */2 * * * *
- Polling a third-party webhook fallback endpoint between real events.
- Refreshing a short-TTL cache that tolerates up to two minutes of staleness.
- Frequent-but-not-real-time sync jobs in CI preview environments.
The gotcha worth knowing
*/2 is not "every 2 minutes from now", it is anchored to :00. If you need to stagger two such jobs, use 1-59/2 for the second one so they land on odd minutes.
People also search for
*/2 * * * * FAQ
What does the cron expression */2 * * * * mean?
*/2 * * * * means: Run on even minutes, :00, :02, :04, … :58. */2 * * * * uses a step value: */2 in the minute field means "start at minute 0 and fire every 2 minutes thereafter", landing on every even minute of every hour. It is a common middle ground for pollers that need to feel responsive without the load of an every-minute job.
How do I write "every 2 minutes" in GitHub Actions?
Use */2 * * * * in the schedule's cron field. */2 is not "every 2 minutes from now", it is anchored to :00. If you need to stagger two such jobs, use 1-59/2 for the second one so they land on odd minutes.
How do I write "every 2 minutes" for AWS EventBridge?
EventBridge uses six fields with a required year and a ? placeholder in one day field: */2 * * * * *. Wrap it as cron(*/2 * * * * *) in the console or CloudFormation.
What is the Quartz equivalent of */2 * * * *?
Quartz is seconds-first with a trailing year, so the equivalent is 0 */2 * * * * *. Remember Quartz numbers Sunday as 1, the opposite of Unix.
Related cron patterns
More cron tools
Browse the full set of cron pattern pages, or jump to the interactive tools: the cron expression builder for designing a schedule from scratch, the cron cheat sheet for a side-by-side reference, the cron timezone translator for moving a schedule between zones and dialects, and the GitHub Actions cron picker for DST-stable CI schedules.