The best time to post is when your audience is most active — but if you're starting from scratch, these ranges are a reliable default while you gather your own data.
Quick answer
- Instagram (feed & Reels): weekdays 11am–1pm and 7–9pm local time; Wednesday and Friday often perform best.
- TikTok: early morning (6–9am) and evening (7–11pm); Tuesday–Thursday tend to be strongest.
- YouTube Shorts: afternoons and early evening (12–4pm, 7–10pm), with weekends often stronger for entertainment.
- Threads: weekday mornings (8–11am), when people check feeds with their coffee.
Treat these as a starting hypothesis, not gospel — a niche audience in a single time zone can behave completely differently.
Why "best time" charts are only a starting point
Generic charts average millions of accounts across every niche and country. Your followers are a specific group, in specific time zones, with specific habits. After two or three weeks of posting, your own analytics will tell you more than any blog post — including this one.
How to find your best time
- Post consistently for 2–3 weeks at varied times so you have data across the day.
- Check each platform's native insights for when your followers are online and which posts got the most reach in the first hour.
- Schedule future posts into those windows so you hit them every time without watching the clock.
Make it automatic
Posting at 7am on a Saturday is easy to plan and hard to do live. Schedule a week of posts into your best windows in one sitting with Compose, then let Sprkly publish them at the exact minute. See How to batch a week of content in one sitting and How often should you post?.