Scheduling Jobs on Heroku
Heroku dynos are ephemeral, so there's no persistent crontab. Use the free Heroku Scheduler add-on for simple jobs (every 10 minutes, hourly, or daily), or run a clock process for arbitrary cron expressions.
Heroku Scheduler
Add it: heroku addons:create scheduler:standard, then heroku addons:open scheduler to add a job like node tasks/report.js. It only offers three frequencies: every 10 minutes, hourly, and daily at a chosen time.
Need a real cron expression?
Scheduler can't do "every Monday at 9". For that, run a clock process (e.g. the clockwork gem or node-cron) as its own dyno defined in the Procfile: clock: node clock.js.
Cost note
Scheduler jobs run in one-off dynos and count toward dyno hours. A long job every 10 minutes can add up — keep scheduled tasks short.
FAQ
Does Heroku support cron?
Not a persistent crontab. Use the Heroku Scheduler add-on for every-10-minutes, hourly, or daily jobs, or a clock process dyno for custom schedules.
How do I run a job every Monday at 9 on Heroku?
Heroku Scheduler can't do that — run a clock process (clockwork or node-cron) as a dyno in your Procfile with the real cron expression.
Does Heroku Scheduler cost money?
The add-on is free but the jobs run in one-off dynos that count toward your dyno hours, so keep scheduled tasks short.