How Do I Create a Cron Job (Scheduled Task)?

A cron job runs a command or PHP file automatically at set intervals. For example, it can take a backup every night, process an email queue every 15 minutes or run WordPress tasks.

Creating a scheduled task in Plesk

1. Log in to your Plesk panel at https://yourdomain.com:8443 or from the service page in your client area.
2. On the Websites & Domains page, click Scheduled Tasks.
3. Click Add Task and choose the task type: Run a PHP script, Fetch a URL or Run a command.
4. Enter the file path or address and choose how often it runs.
5. Click OK. You can test it right away with Run Now.

How to read the time expression

The five fields are, in order: minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week.

Tip for WordPress

WordPress's own scheduler (wp-cron) runs on every page load and can slow the site. Add define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true); to wp-config.php and create a task in Plesk that runs wp-cron.php every 15 minutes. Details: Tips on wp-cron.php.

Running tasks too often (such as every minute) can use up your account's resource limits.