> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.crew.you/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.crew.you/scheduled-tasks/basics.md).

# Getting Started with Scheduled Tasks

Scheduled tasks let you automate recurring work. Instead of remembering to ask Crew the same thing every day, set it up once and let it run automatically.

## What Are Scheduled Tasks?

A scheduled task is an instruction you give Crew to execute at a specific time or on a recurring schedule. The task runs in the background with full access to all your connected tools — email, calendar, web search, document creation, and more.

## Creating a Scheduled Task

Just ask Crew to set something up:

> "Every morning at 8 AM, check my calendar and email, then send me a summary on Telegram."

> "Every Monday at 9 AM, search for news about 'AI regulation' and save a summary PDF to My Files."

> "At 5 PM today, remind me to submit the expense report."

Crew will create the task and confirm the schedule.

## Schedule Types

### One-Time Tasks

Run once at a specific date and time:

> "At 3 PM tomorrow, send an email reminder to the team about the deadline."

> "On March 15 at 9 AM, check if the invoice payment has arrived."

One-time tasks automatically deactivate after execution.

### Recurring Intervals

Run every X minutes, hours, or days:

> "Every 6 hours, check the news for mentions of our company."

> "Every day at 9 AM, give me a morning briefing."

> "Every 2 hours during business hours, check for urgent emails."

### Schedule Expressions

For advanced users, you can use schedule expression syntax:

> "Set up a scheduled task with schedule '0 9 \* \* 1-5' to check my email." (Every weekday at 9 AM)

> "Run at '0 \*/4 \* \* \*' — check stock prices every 4 hours."

## What Tasks Can Do

Scheduled tasks have access to all the same tools as regular conversations:

| Capability                  | Example                                         |
| --------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| **Send emails**             | "Email the team a weekly status update"         |
| **Check calendar**          | "Review tomorrow's meetings and prepare briefs" |
| **Search the web**          | "Monitor news about our industry"               |
| **Create documents**        | "Generate a weekly report PDF"                  |
| **Send messenger messages** | "Send the summary to my Telegram"               |
| **Run Python code**         | "Download data from the API and process it"     |
| **Read/write files**        | "Update the tracking spreadsheet"               |

## Managing Tasks

### Viewing Tasks

> "List my scheduled tasks."

> "Show me all my active scheduled tasks."

### Editing Tasks

> "Change the morning briefing to run at 7:30 AM instead of 8 AM."

> "Update the news monitoring task to also search for 'machine learning'."

### Disabling/Enabling

> "Pause the weekly report task."

> "Re-enable the email monitoring task."

### Deleting Tasks

> "Delete the expired reminder task."

> "Remove the stock price monitoring job."

## Delivering Results

Scheduled task results can be delivered in several ways:

### Web Chat

Results appear in your web chat conversation:

> "Run the report and put the results in this conversation."

### Messengers

Results are sent directly to your connected messenger:

> "Send the morning briefing to my Telegram."

> "Deliver the report summary to Slack."

### Email

Tasks can send results via email:

> "Email the weekly digest to <sarah@company.com>."

## Python Script Tasks

For advanced automation, tasks can run Python scripts directly:

> "Set up a task that runs this Python script every hour: \[paste script]"

Script tasks:

* Execute in an isolated sandbox
* Can access input files from My Files
* Output is captured as the task result
* Can use injected secrets via `{{KEY_NAME}}` placeholders

## Task Limits

| Plan  | Max Tasks | Min Interval | Daily Executions |
| ----- | --------- | ------------ | ---------------- |
| Free  | 3         | 6 hours      | 4                |
| Basic | 10        | 2 hours      | 12               |
| Plus  | 30        | 30 minutes   | 36               |
| Pro   | Unlimited | 1 hour       | 24               |

If a task's existing schedule is shorter than the minimum on your plan, Crew pauses it the next time it would run and emails you so you can reschedule or upgrade.

## Credit Consumption

Each task execution consumes credits, just like a regular conversation. The cost depends on the complexity of the task and how many tools it uses.

**Tips to manage costs:**

* Keep task instructions focused and specific
* Use appropriate intervals (don't run hourly if daily is sufficient)
* Python script tasks are more efficient for simple data processing (they skip the AI reasoning step)

## Activity Tracking

All task executions are logged in the **Activity** page under the **Scheduled Tasks** tab. You can see:

* When each task ran
* Whether it succeeded or failed
* The output of each execution