Cron every 3 hours: the expression, explained, in Laravel

The cron expression for “every 3 hours” is 0 */3 * * *. This page shows what each field does, the next five times it will fire, the mistake most people make with it, and a working Laravel example you can paste.

The expression

0 */3 * * *

Field	Value	Meaning
minute	0	exactly 0
hour	*/3	every 3 hours, starting at 0
day of month	*	every day of month
month	*	every month
day of week	*	every day of week

Next five runs (UTC, from now)

2026-09-18 00:00 UTC
2026-09-18 03:00 UTC
2026-09-18 06:00 UTC
2026-09-18 09:00 UTC
2026-09-18 12:00 UTC

Mistakes people make with this schedule

Using "* */3 * * *" for every 3 hours. That runs every minute of every 3th hour. The minute field must be the fixed number 0.
Assuming the server clock is your clock. Cron runs in the machine’s timezone unless the runtime says otherwise; the examples here are UTC.
No lock around a job that might overlap itself, and no alert when it silently stops. That second one is what Supercrontab is for.

Run it in your stack

Linux crontab Laravel WordPress Next.js / Vercel Node.js Python Docker GitHub Actions

// routes/console.php
Schedule::command('reports:send')
    ->cron('0 */3 * * *')
    ->timezone('UTC')
    ->withoutOverlapping();

Requires the scheduler itself to be started every minute: `* * * * * php artisan schedule:run`.

Questions

Does 0 */3 * * * run in my local time?

Only if the scheduler is configured for it. crontab uses the system timezone; Vercel and GitHub Actions always use UTC; Laravel and node-cron take a timezone option. In Supercrontab the timezone is a field on the job.

What if the previous run is still going?

Classic cron starts the next run anyway. Add a lock (flock on Linux, withoutOverlapping() in Laravel) or let Supercrontab skip the tick while the previous request is open.

Is there a shorter way to write this?

No. The five-field form is the shortest portable version.