Every Day at 3 AM Cron Expression
Runs once daily at 03:00 — the classic backup window.
Expression
0 3 * * *Try it in the tester →Field Breakdown
0
minute
3
hour
*
day-of-month
*
month
*
day-of-week
minuteat minute 0
hourat 3 AM (hour 3)
day-of-monthevery day (1–31)
monthevery month (1–12)
day-of-weekevery weekday (0=Sun – 6=Sat)
How It Works
Fires at 03:00 every day — the canonical window for nightly backups, log rotations, and reindex jobs.
Example Run Times
- Mon 03:00:00
- Tue 03:00:00
- Wed 03:00:00
- Thu 03:00:00
- Fri 03:00:00
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is 3 AM so common for backups?
Traffic is at its overnight minimum and DST transitions have completed, so the wall clock and elapsed time match up cleanly.