The best time to post on social media in 2026 is Tuesday and Wednesday between 11am and 6pm in your audience's local time, according to Sprout Social's study of nearly 2 billion engagements. Sunday is the weakest day. Each network has its own pattern on top of that: LinkedIn peaks in the working day, TikTok and YouTube Shorts in the afternoon and evening, and long YouTube videos on weekend mornings.
This page puts every network in one table and links to a full guide for each. Everything was checked on 10 November 2026.
Best times to post on every platform
| Network | Best days | Best times (local) | Weakest | Full guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok | Tue to Thu (brands); Sat (creators) | 2pm to 6pm; creators also 9am Sun and evenings | Sunday for brands | TikTok |
| YouTube (long videos) | Sunday, then Tue and Mon | 8am to 11am; Sunday 10am | Wed and Thu | YouTube |
| YouTube Shorts | Friday, then Sat and Thu | 6pm to 9pm; Friday 4pm | Mon and Tue | Shorts |
| Tue to Thu; Wednesday best | 10am to 5pm; Wednesday 4pm | Weekends | ||
| X (Twitter) | Tue to Thu; Wednesday best | 9am to 11am (Buffer) or 12pm to 6pm (Sprout) | Weekends | X |
| Mon to Thu | 12pm to 7pm; Wednesday until 9pm | Weekends | ||
| Mon to Thu | 12pm to 8pm, Tue and Wed | Weekends | ||
| Bluesky | Weekdays | Morning to early afternoon | Weekends | |
| Mastodon | Weekdays | Morning to early afternoon | Weekends |
Sources: Sprout Social (TikTok, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook; Nov 2025 to Feb 2026), and Buffer's 2026 studies of TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn and X. No large study covers Bluesky or Mastodon yet; their times follow how their feeds work (see below).
Find the best time in your time zone
Pick a network, who you post for and where your audience is. The finder shows the best day and hour, the whole week as a heat map, and the time where you are.
Best time to post on Instagram
Tuesday, 2pm
New York time
- Also strongWed 2pm
- Also strongTue 12pm
Reels keep finding viewers for days, so timing matters most for feed posts and Stories.
Free for 7 days. Postbase finds your own best times as you post.
The whole week
New York timeThe pattern behind the numbers
Three things explain most of the table.
People scroll in breaks, not at their desks. The broad 11am to 6pm window covers lunch and the afternoon slump. Very early mornings, which older guides recommended, have lost ground in the 2026 data on almost every network.
Work networks follow the working week. LinkedIn, and brand accounts on X and Facebook, do best Tuesday to Thursday and go quiet at weekends.
Video follows free time. TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Reels pick up in the late afternoon and evening, and creator accounts do well at weekends, when people have time to watch. Long YouTube videos are chosen deliberately, which is why weekend mornings work for them.
Brands, creators and B2B: which times to use
The studies measure different accounts, and that's why they sometimes disagree.
- B2B and professional audiences: Tuesday to Thursday, late morning to mid-afternoon. Skip weekends. LinkedIn first.
- Consumer brands: weekday afternoons into the early evening; test Saturday on TikTok and Instagram.
- Creators: afternoons and evenings, and weekends, especially on TikTok, where Buffer's 2026 data ranks Saturday the best day and Sunday 9am the best single slot.
Our finder has a "Who you post for" switch that shifts the times for businesses and consumers.
Bluesky and Mastodon: why timing matters more
Bluesky's Following feed and every Mastodon timeline are in time order. A post is seen by whoever is online in the minutes and hours after it goes out, then it scrolls away. There's no algorithm to resurface it a day later.
That makes timing more important there than anywhere else: post when your followers are awake and at their screens, usually weekday mornings to early afternoon in their time zone, and spread posts out rather than sending several at once. Our guides to growing on Bluesky and scheduling Mastodon posts cover more.
Post in your audience's time zone
Every time on this page is local to the people you want to reach. If you're in London and your followers are in New York, 1pm for them is 6pm for you. If your audience is spread across the US, aim at Eastern time, the most populous time zone, and check that the time still works on the West Coast, three hours behind.
If your audience is split between continents, don't look for one perfect slot: post at different times on different days and compare.
How to find your own best time to post
Studies average hundreds of thousands of accounts. After a month of posting, your own numbers are better. Where each network shows them:
| Network | Where to look |
|---|---|
| TikTok | TikTok Studio, Analytics, Followers: follower activity by hour and day |
| YouTube | YouTube Studio, Analytics, Audience: "When your viewers are on YouTube" |
| Professional dashboard, Insights, Total followers: most active times | |
| Meta Business Suite, Insights: when your audience is online | |
| X | Analytics dashboard (X Premium): active times |
| No hour-by-hour data; compare your own posts by when they went out |
Then test: pick two or three slots, post similar content in each for a few weeks, and compare engagement in the first day or two. Keep the winner.
Postbase does the comparison for you. Once 20 of your posts have settled, its analytics shows a "Best time to post" grid worked out from when your own posts did best, across every network you post to.
Engagement on your published posts, refreshed automatically after they go out.
Does posting time still matter?
Less than it did, and less than the post itself. Most feeds now show posts for days, ranked mostly on how people respond. But nearly every feed tests a new post on a small group first, so posting when your audience is around gives it a better first hour. On Bluesky and Mastodon, with time-ordered feeds, it matters a lot.
What matters more: posting consistently, a first line or first second that earns attention, and replying to the people who respond. Our guide to how often to post on social media covers the rhythm.
Schedule posts for the best times
The best time to post is rarely a time you're free. Batch your writing once a week and schedule each network at its own best time. In Postbase you write a post once, adjust each network's version, and schedule each one for its own slot on one calendar, or ask the AI agent to "spread these across the week at good times for a US audience".
Frequently asked questions
What is the best time to post on social media?
Tuesday and Wednesday between 11am and 6pm in your audience's local time, based on Sprout Social's 2026 study of nearly 2 billion engagements. Each network differs: LinkedIn peaks in the working day, TikTok and Shorts later in the afternoon and evening.
What is the best day to post on social media?
Tuesday and Wednesday overall. Sunday is the weakest day for most brand accounts, though creators on TikTok can do well at weekends.
What is the worst time to post on social media?
Late at night and very early in the morning, and Sundays for most brand accounts. Weekends are especially quiet on LinkedIn.
Is it better to post in the morning or afternoon?
Afternoon, for most networks in 2026. Midday to late afternoon is the strongest window in the newest studies. Long YouTube videos are the exception and do best in the morning.
Should I post at the same time on every platform?
No. Each network has its own peak. Write once, but schedule each network for its own best time.
Do the best times to post differ by time zone?
The times are local, so they apply in any time zone, but you need to use your audience's time zone, not yours. A scheduler can post at your audience's time while you sleep.
How do I find my own best time to post?
Look at when your followers are active in each network's analytics, then test a few time slots for a few weeks and compare engagement in each post's first day.
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