Run a cron job every 2 minutes
“At every 2nd minute.”
The */2 step fires on every even minute (0, 2, 4, … 58) — 720 runs a day. Teams usually land here after 'every minute' proved too aggressive for an API rate limit or a database, but near-real-time freshness still matters.
*/2 * * * *Next 5 runs
Computing from your local clock…
Field by field
| Field | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | */2 | every 2 starting from 0 |
| Hour | * | every value |
| Day of month | * | every value |
| Month | * | every value |
| Day of week | * | every value |
Typical uses
- Polling third-party APIs whose rate limits punish 60-second intervals
- Refreshing a near-real-time dashboard cache
- Retrying failed webhook deliveries quickly
Worth knowing: Steps count from the range start, not from when the daemon started: */2 always means even minutes, never 'two minutes after boot'.
Related schedules
Need a different schedule? Build and test any cron expression with live explanation and next-run preview, or read the complete cron syntax guide.