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Best time to post on social media
What the largest published studies suggest for each network, with the source next to every window, converted to your time zone. Treat them as a starting point: the best time for you depends on your audience.
The studies give times in the audience’s own local time. If your audience lives in another time zone, pick it to see when that is for you.
Posting windows by network
Instagram
Strongest on Tuesdays 1–7 p.m. and Wednesdays 12–9 p.m. Weekends are weakest.
Audience’s local time
- Mon 2 p.m.–4 p.m.
- Tue 1 p.m.–7 p.m.
- Wed 12 p.m.–9 p.m.
- Wed 11 p.m.
- Thu 12 p.m.–2 p.m.
Source: Sprout Social, Best Times to Post on Social Media 2026 (31 March 2026)
Other studies
- Buffer (2026): 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays; best single slot Thursday 9 a.m.
- Hootsuite (2025): Mondays 3–9 p.m., Tuesdays 5–8 a.m. and 3–7 p.m., Thursdays 5–7 p.m.
TikTok
Strongest Tuesdays to Fridays, 2–6 p.m. Weekends are weakest.
Audience’s local time
- Mon 3 p.m.–5 p.m.
- Tue 2 p.m.–6 p.m.
- Wed 1 p.m.–8 p.m.
- Thu 1 p.m.–5 p.m.
- Fri 3 p.m.–5 p.m.
Source: Sprout Social, Best Times to Post on Social Media 2026 (31 March 2026)
Other studies
- Buffer (2026): 6–11 p.m. daily plus weekend mornings; best single slot Sunday 9 a.m.
- Hootsuite (2025): Thursdays 7–11 a.m.
Facebook
Strongest on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 12–8 p.m. Weekends are weakest.
Audience’s local time
- Mon 12 p.m.–1 p.m.
- Tue 12 p.m.–8 p.m.
- Wed 12 p.m.–8 p.m.
- Thu 12 p.m.–2 p.m.
- Thu 8 p.m.
Source: Sprout Social, Best Times to Post on Social Media 2026 (31 March 2026)
Other studies
- Buffer (2026): 8 a.m.–12 p.m. on weekdays; best single slot Thursday 9 a.m.
- Hootsuite (2025): Tuesdays 9 a.m.
LinkedIn
Strongest Tuesdays to Thursdays, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Weekends are weakest.
Audience’s local time
- Mon 1 p.m.–2 p.m.
- Tue 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
- Wed 11 a.m.–4 p.m.
- Thu 11 a.m.
- Thu 1 p.m.–5 p.m.
- Fri 11 a.m.
- Fri 1 p.m.–2 p.m.
Source: Sprout Social, Best Times to Post on Social Media 2026 (31 March 2026)
Other studies
- Buffer (2026): 3–6 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday; best single slot Wednesday 4 p.m.
- Hootsuite (2025): Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 4–6 a.m.
Note: The studies disagree most on LinkedIn. Test before you settle on a time.
X
Strongest Tuesdays to Thursdays, 12–6 p.m. Weekends are weakest.
Audience’s local time
- Mon 2 p.m.–3 p.m.
- Mon 5 p.m.
- Tue 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
- Wed 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
- Thu 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
Source: Sprout Social, Best Times to Post on Social Media 2026 (31 March 2026)
Other studies
- Buffer (2026): 8–11 a.m. on weekdays; best single slot Tuesday 9 a.m.
- Hootsuite (2025): Wednesdays to Fridays, 9–11 a.m.
Threads
7 a.m.–12 p.m. on weekdays; best single slot Thursday 9 a.m. Weekends are weakest.
Audience’s local time
- Mon 7 a.m.–12 p.m.
- Tue 7 a.m.–12 p.m.
- Wed 7 a.m.–12 p.m.
- Thu 7 a.m.–12 p.m.
- Fri 7 a.m.–12 p.m.
Source: Buffer, The Best Time to Post on Social Media in 2026 (25 March 2026)
Other studies
- Hootsuite (2025): Tuesdays 8 a.m.
Note: Sprout Social’s study doesn’t cover Threads.
YouTube Shorts
Fridays and Saturdays, 4–7 p.m.; best single slot Friday 4 p.m.
Audience’s local time
- Fri 4 p.m.–7 p.m.
- Sat 4 p.m.–7 p.m.
Source: Buffer, The Best Time to Post on Social Media in 2026 (25 March 2026)
Note: For long videos Buffer’s summary table and its article text disagree, so we don’t show a window. Sprout Social and Hootsuite don’t cover YouTube.
Pinterest
Strongest Tuesdays to Thursdays, 10 a.m.–1 p.m. Weekends are weakest.
Audience’s local time
- Mon 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
- Mon 2 p.m.–3 p.m.
- Tue 7 a.m.
- Tue 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
- Wed 8 a.m.–1 p.m.
- Wed 3 p.m.
- Thu 10 a.m.–11 a.m.
- Thu 2 p.m.–4 p.m.
- Fri 10 a.m.–11 a.m.
Source: Sprout Social, Best Times to Post on Social Media 2026 (31 March 2026)
Other studies
- Hootsuite (2025): Tuesdays and Fridays, 12 p.m.
Bluesky
No large published study yet.
Note: We couldn’t find a large-sample study of Bluesky posting times, so we don’t show one. Use your own numbers.
A starting point, not a rule
Each window comes from one named study and is copied as that study states it. We don’t average studies together or fill gaps with guesses: where a study doesn’t cover a network, we say so, and where the studies disagree you can see each of them.
How to use it
- Pick where most of your audience lives. The studies give times in the audience’s local time, so a bakery in Manchester should read them in UK time.
- Pick your own time zone if it’s different. The windows are converted for the coming week, daylight saving included, so you know when to schedule.
- Choose one or two windows per network, post there for a few weeks, and compare with a couple of other times in your analytics. Keep what works.
Sources
- Sprout Social, “Best Times to Post on Social Media 2026” (published 31 March 2026). Nearly 2 billion engagements across about 307,000 social profiles of Sprout Social customers.
- Buffer, “The Best Time to Post on Social Media in 2026” (published 25 March 2026). Over 52 million posts, ranked by median engagement.
- Hootsuite, “Best time to post on social media in 2025” (published 19 November 2025). Over 1 million social posts, normalised across 118 countries.
Each company studied its own customers’ accounts. Sprout Social’s study doesn’t cover Threads or YouTube, Buffer’s doesn’t cover Pinterest, and Hootsuite’s latest all-network report is from 2025. Windows were last checked against the sources in September 2026.
Scheduling at the right time
Once you know your windows, schedule posts ahead rather than posting by hand at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday. If you’re building a product that schedules for its users, the postpeg scheduling API takes a time in any time zone and publishes within a minute of it, on every network in one request.
Questions
- What is the best time to post on social media?
- There isn’t one for everyone. Large studies find engagement tends to be highest on weekdays, from late morning to late afternoon in the audience’s local time, and lowest at weekends. But they disagree with each other, especially on LinkedIn, and your own audience may behave differently. Use the windows here as a first guess and test them.
- Which time zone are these times in?
- The audience’s local time. Sprout Social and Buffer both say so, and Hootsuite normalises its data across countries. If most of your audience lives in another time zone, pick it above and the windows are converted to your own time.
- Why do the studies disagree?
- They measure different accounts (each company’s own customers), in different years, with different definitions of engagement. A tool used mostly by B2B marketers will find different peaks from one used by creators. That is why we show each source separately instead of averaging them.
- Why is there no Bluesky data?
- We couldn’t find a large published study of Bluesky posting times. Rather than guess, we leave it out. Post at a few different times and compare.
- How do I find my own best time?
- Post the same kind of content at two or three different times for a few weeks, then compare reach and engagement per post in the network’s own analytics. Most business accounts also show when their followers are online.
More free tools
- Hashtag generatorHashtags for your topic, sized for the network you post on.
- Post idea generatorA week of post ideas with hooks and outlines, one per day.
- Character counterCheck one post against every network’s text limit at once.
- Image size guidePost, story, profile and cover sizes, and which ones your image fits.
- Text formatterBold, italic and monospace text you can paste anywhere.
For developers
Publish to all of them with one API call
postpeg is an API for products that post to social networks. Write the post once, and it is checked against every network’s rules, then published or scheduled on any mix of the 10 networks we support, with a status for each account.