--- title: Monitor a cron job description: Find out when a backup, sync or report job stops running, by having the job check in after every run. section: title: Guides order: 2 order: 4 lastUpdated: 2026-10-31 next: ["/docs/guides/choose-who-gets-alerted", "/docs/concepts/cron-jobs"] keywords: ["scheduled task", "heartbeat", "dead man's switch", "background job", "crontab", "check-in"] --- A cron job monitor waits for your job to report in. Each time the job finishes, it sends one request to Uptime; when a report doesn't arrive on schedule, Uptime alerts you. 1. Open Cron Jobs in the sidebar and click Create Cron Job. 2. Under **Basics**, give it a Name and, optionally, a Description. 3. Under **Schedule**, enter the job's schedule in Cron Expression, such as `0 * * * *` for every hour on the hour, and pick the Timezone it runs in (UTC by default). 4. Set the Grace Period in seconds: how long after the scheduled time a run may still check in on time. It defaults to 300 (5 minutes) and goes from 60 seconds to 24 hours. Make it longer than the job usually takes, since the check-in comes at the end. 5. Under **Alerting**, turn on Alert on Late if you want to hear as soon as a run is late, not only when it is missed. Leave Enabled on. 6. Click Create Cron Job. Check-ins are authenticated. A team owner or admin opens API Keys in the sidebar, clicks Create API Key, names it, ticks only `cron-jobs:ping` under Permissions, and clicks Create API Key. Copy the key now: it is shown once. Store it where the job can read it, such as an `UPTIME_API_KEY` environment variable. Open the cron job's page. **Ping this monitor** shows the command with this monitor's address filled in. Add it as the job's last step: ```bash title="Terminal" curl -X POST https://uptime.sergiodxa.com/api/v1/cron-jobs//ping \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $UPTIME_API_KEY" ``` In a crontab, chain it with `&&` so a failed run never checks in: ```bash title="crontab" 0 * * * * your-job.sh && curl -fsS -X POST https://uptime.sergiodxa.com/api/v1/cron-jobs//ping -H "Authorization: Bearer $UPTIME_API_KEY" ``` After the job's next run, the check-in appears under **Ping History** on the cron job's page, marked On Time or Late, and the status changes from New to Healthy. ## Healthy, late and missed | Status | When | Alerts | | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------- | | Healthy | The last run checked in before its scheduled time plus the grace period | Recovery notice, if one was sent | | Late | The grace period passed without a check-in | Only with Alert on Late | | Missed | The _next_ scheduled run's grace period passed too, so a whole run never checked in | Always | A monitor that has never received a check-in stays New until it is missed. `201` when the check-in is recorded. `401` when the key is missing or invalid, `403` when it lacks the `cron-jobs:ping` permission, `404` for an unknown ID or another team's monitor, and `409` when the cron job is disabled. Check-ins closer than 30 seconds apart for one monitor are refused with `429`. Each check-in counts as one ping toward the 100,000 included in the monthly subscription.