How to Set Up Cron Jobs (Scheduled Tasks) in cPanel

How cron timing works

A cron schedule has five fields, read left to right:

*    *    *    *    *    command-to-run
│    │    │    │    └── day of week (0–6, Sunday = 0)
│    │    │    └─────── month (1–12)
│    │    └──────────── day of month (1–31)
│    └───────────────── hour (0–23, server time = EAT)
└────────────────────── minute (0–59)

* means “every”, */15 means “every 15”, and 1-5 means Monday to Friday.

You want	Minute	Hour	Day	Month	Weekday
Every 15 minutes	*/15	*	*	*	*
Every hour on the hour	0	*	*	*	*
Every night at 2:30am	30	2	*	*	*
Weekdays at 8am	0	8	*	*	1-5
1st of every month at midnight	0	0	1	*	*

Step 1: Open Cron Jobs

In cPanel, go to Advanced → Cron Jobs (or search for cron).

Step 2: Set where cron output goes

At the top, the Cron Email box receives the output of every job. Enter an address you check — useful while testing — and click Update Email. Once your job works, you can silence its output (see Step 4).

Step 3: Add the job

1. Common Settings — choose a ready-made schedule (it fills in the five boxes), or type your own values.
2. Command — the full command to run. Always use full paths (cron does not start in your website folder).
3. Click Add New Cron Job. It appears under Current Cron Jobs, where you can Edit or Delete it.

Command examples

Purpose	Command
Run a PHP script	/usr/local/bin/php /home/yourusername/public_html/cron/report.php
Call a URL (e.g. a plugin’s cron URL)	/usr/bin/curl -s "https://yourbusiness.co.ke/?run=cron" >/dev/null 2>&1
Laravel scheduler	/usr/local/bin/php /home/yourusername/app/artisan schedule:run >/dev/null 2>&1
Delete files older than 7 days in a temp folder	find /home/yourusername/tmp/exports -type f -mtime +7 -delete

Step 4: Silence output once it works

Every run that prints anything sends an email. After testing, add >/dev/null 2>&1 to the end of the command to discard the output, or >> /home/yourusername/logs/cron.log 2>&1 to keep a log file instead.

Example: make WordPress scheduled tasks reliable

WordPress runs its scheduled tasks (publishing scheduled posts, sending WooCommerce emails, backup plugins) only when someone visits the site. On quiet sites, tasks run late. Replace it with a real cron job:

1. In File Manager, edit public_html/wp-config.php and add this line above /* That's all, stop editing! */:

define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);

2. Add a cron job that runs every 15 minutes:

/usr/local/bin/php /home/yourusername/public_html/wp-cron.php >/dev/null 2>&1

Check that it worked

• Leave the Cron Email set and wait for the next scheduled time. You should receive an email with the output (or an error message explaining the problem).
• For scripts that write files or send emails, check that the expected result happened.
• For WordPress, install the free WP Crontrol plugin and look at Tools → Cron Events — the “Next run” times should keep moving forward.

Troubleshooting

Error in the cron email	Meaning	Fix
/bin/sh: php: command not found	Command used php without a path	Use the full path, e.g. /usr/local/bin/php
Could not open input file	Wrong script path	Copy the path from File Manager’s address bar
Permission denied	Script is not executable or wrong owner	Run it with php … instead of calling the file directly; set file permission 644
Job never seems to run	Timing fields wrong, or output silenced too early	Temporarily remove >/dev/null 2>&1 and set a 5-minute schedule to test
PHP version error (e.g. requires PHP 8.1)	Cron uses a different PHP version than the website	Ask us for the matching PHP path; see Change PHP version

Frequently asked questions

Which time zone does cron use?
Our servers run on East Africa Time (EAT, UTC+3), so 0 8 * * * runs at 8:00am Nairobi time.

Is there a limit on cron jobs?
There is no fixed number, but each job uses your plan’s resources. Avoid overlapping heavy jobs — schedule them a few minutes apart.

Can cron send emails to my customers?
Yes, if your script sends them. Make sure your domain has SPF and DKIM set up so they are not marked as spam — see SPF, DKIM and DMARC.