A cron job runs a command or script automatically on a schedule. For example, you could send a daily report, clear a cache every hour or run WordPress scheduled tasks reliably.
Add a cron job
- In cPanel, go to Advanced › Cron Jobs.
- (Optional) Under Cron Email, enter an address to receive any output from your jobs.
- Under Add New Cron Job, pick a schedule from Common Settings, or fill in the Minute, Hour, Day, Month and Weekday boxes yourself.
- Enter the Command (see the examples below) and click Add New Cron Job.
Schedule examples
| Minute | Hour | Day | Month | Weekday | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
*/15 |
* |
* |
* |
* |
Every 15 minutes |
0 |
* |
* |
* |
* |
Every hour, on the hour |
30 |
2 |
* |
* |
* |
Every day at 02:30 |
0 |
9 |
* |
* |
1 |
Every Monday at 09:00 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
* |
* |
Midnight on the 1st of each month |
Note: Cron times use the server's time zone, which may differ from yours.
Command examples
Replace username with your cPanel username.
Run a PHP script
/usr/local/bin/php /home/username/public_html/scripts/report.php >/dev/null 2>&1Run WordPress scheduled tasks
/usr/local/bin/php /home/username/public_html/wp-cron.php >/dev/null 2>&1Then add define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true); to wp-config.php so WordPress doesn't also run them on every page visit. Every 5–15 minutes is usually enough.
Laravel scheduler (every minute)
cd /home/username/myapp && /usr/local/bin/php artisan schedule:run >/dev/null 2>&1Use a specific PHP version
/opt/cpanel/ea-php83/root/usr/bin/php /home/username/public_html/script.phpTip: Adding
>/dev/null 2>&1 to the end of a command stops it from emailing you every time it runs. Remove it while you're testing so you can see any errors.Important: Please don't schedule heavy jobs more often than they need to run. Very frequent cron jobs can slow your website down and may breach our fair-use policy.
Still stuck? Contact Raleway support and our team will be happy to help.
