How to Create and Manage Scheduled Tasks (Cron Jobs) in Plesk

Scheduled tasks (also called cron jobs) let you run scripts or commands automatically at set times — for example, running a WordPress cron script every hour, generating a daily backup, or sending automated email reports. Plesk provides a built-in task scheduler so you can set this up without command-line access.

Step 1: create a new scheduled task

1. Log in to your Plesk control panel.
2. Go to Websites & Domains.
3. Find your domain, then click Scheduled Tasks (under "Dev Tools" or "More").
4. Click Add Task.
5. Choose the task type:
   • Run a command — execute a shell command or script (e.g., a backup script)
   • Fetch a URL — visit a URL on a schedule (no need for curl or wget, just enter the URL)
   • Run a PHP script — execute a PHP file directly, with a PHP version selector
6. Enter the command, URL, or script path depending on the type you selected.
7. Set the schedule:
   • Choose a preset (every hour, every day, every week, every month) or
   • Select Cron style to enter a custom schedule using cron syntax (e.g., */5 * * * * for every 5 minutes)
8. Make sure Active is ticked.
9. Click OK or Run Now to test the task immediately.

Common cron schedule examples

• Every 5 minutes: */5 * * * *
• Once per hour: 0 * * * *
• Once per day at midnight: 0 0 * * *
• Once per day at 3:15 AM: 15 3 * * *
• Once per week on Monday at 6 AM: 0 6 * * 1
• Once per month on the 1st at midnight: 0 0 1 * *

The format is: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week. Use a tool like crontab.guru to build and test expressions if you are not familiar with cron syntax.

Managing scheduled tasks

All your tasks are listed on the Scheduled Tasks page. From there you can:

• Edit — click the task name to modify its settings
• Enable/disable — click the toggle icon next to the task
• Run now — click the play icon to execute the task immediately (useful for testing)
• Remove — select the checkbox and click Remove

Important notes

• Run a PHP script is the easiest option for WordPress cron. Just enter the path to your script relative to the domain root (e.g., httpdocs/wp-cron.php) and select the PHP version.
• Fetch a URL is ideal for triggering webhooks or visiting endpoints on a schedule. Plesk handles the HTTP request — no need to write curl commands.
• Avoid scheduling resource-intensive tasks at peak hours. Off-peak times (early morning) are better for backups and heavy scripts.
• If a task fails, Plesk will show the error output. Check this to diagnose issues.
• By default, scheduled tasks run in a chrooted environment on Linux — this means the task can only access files within the domain directory, which is a security feature.
• The system user context for the task is set automatically based on your subscription.

Troubleshooting

• Task runs but does not seem to work? Click Run Now and check the output. If there is an error, it will appear in the task details.
• Cannot find "Scheduled Tasks" for my domain? In Power User view, look under Websites & Domains > your domain > Scheduled Tasks. In Service Provider view, go to Domains > your domain > Scheduled Tasks.
• Task times out? Some hosting providers limit cron execution time. If your script takes too long, contact support to check if there is a time limit.
• PHP script path not working? Make sure the path starts from the domain root, not from the server root. For example, use httpdocs/myscript.php, not /var/www/vhosts/domain/httpdocs/myscript.php.