Cron Expression for the First Day of Every Month

Run a cron job on the first day of every month at midnight using 0 0 1 * *. Standard schedule for monthly reports, billing, and archival.

Expression

0 0 1 * *

At 00:00 on the 1st of every month

Use Cases

• Generating monthly financial reports
• Running monthly billing and invoicing
• Archiving the previous month logs
• Resetting monthly usage counters and quotas

Code Examples

Crontab

# At 00:00 on the 1st of every month
0 0 1 * * /path/to/your/script.sh

GitHub Actions

name: Scheduled Job
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 1 * *'
jobs:
  run:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: echo "Running First Day of Every Month"

systemd Timer

[Unit]
Description=First Day of Every Month timer

[Timer]
OnCalendar=*-*-* *:*:00
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Tips

✓ Day-of-month field accepts 1-31
✓ The @monthly shorthand equals 0 0 1 * * in most systems
✓ Run at a business-friendly time: 0 9 1 * * for 9 AM on the 1st
✓ Always test what happens if the 1st falls on a weekend

Frequently Asked Questions

Is @monthly the same as 0 0 1 * *?

Yes, @monthly is a shorthand for 0 0 1 * *, meaning midnight on the first day of every month.

How do I run on the 15th of each month instead?

Change the day-of-month field to 15: 0 0 15 * * runs at midnight on the 15th of every month.

Related Cron Expressions

Last Day of Every Month 0 0 28-31 * * Every Quarter (Quarterly) 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 * First Monday of Every Month 0 0 1-7 * 1