Best time to post, in your time zone

How the finder works

1. It starts from each study’s own times. For every day of the week, we store the hours each study recommends, in the audience’s local time. A range such as 2–4 p.m. covers 2:00 up to, but not including, 4:00; a single time such as 9 a.m. represents the following hour. Vague recommendations without a precise time are shown in the source table but do not cast a vote.
2. It counts the studies that agree. For every 15 minutes of your week, the finder checks what time it is where your audience lives and counts the studies that recommend that hour. With more than one place, a study only counts if it recommends the time in every place.
3. It ranks the windows. Your top times are the windows the most studies agree on. Ties go to a study’s own top-ranked slots: we count how many study top-slot hours a window contains, then prefer the longer window. These are our combined windows, not a new measurement of engagement or a reproduction of any publisher’s ranking.
4. It converts to your clock for this week’s dates. The conversion uses your browser’s time zone data for real dates, so daylight-saving changes and half-hour zones such as India (UTC+5:30) come out right.

Calculations run in your browser without sending your choices to a calculation service. Your time zone comes from your device settings, not an IP lookup. The board shows the strongest simultaneous agreement within each hour; hover, tap or use arrow keys for the exact interval. A lit hour does not mean every minute is recommended. Shared links include the chosen zones, and existing site analytics still run.

Why the studies disagree

On Instagram, Later points to early mornings, Buffer’s daily recommendations vary from mornings to evenings, and Sprout Social favours weekday afternoons. None of them is wrong. They answer slightly different questions.

• They measure different things. Sprout Social looks at when engagement peaks. Buffer ranks hours by median engagement per post. Later ranks by engagement rate. Hootsuite looks at engagement across posts from 118 countries.
• They see different accounts. Each study samples its own customers or dataset, so the mix of brands, creators and industries differs. Some accounts may appear in more than one dataset; agreement is not statistical confidence or a guarantee.
• They cover different years. Later’s Instagram data is from 2024, Buffer’s from 2024–2025 and Sprout Social’s from the winter of 2025–26.
• Timing matters less than it did. Feeds are ranked by interest, so a good time mainly helps early engagement. A strong first second and a clear hook still matter more.

That is why the finder shows where they agree rather than picking one study’s answer.

How to find your own best time

Study averages are a starting point. Your own followers are the real answer, and most apps will show you when they are online.

Instagram

Open Insights, then Total followers. With at least 100 followers you see your followers’ top locations and the times they’re most active on Instagram.

TikTok

In Analytics, the Followers tab shows follower activity by hour. TikTok suggests posting on your most active days and, at most, two hours before activity peaks.

YouTube

In YouTube Analytics, the Audience tab has a “When your viewers are on YouTube” chart. YouTube says publish time “is not known to impact a video’s long-term performance”, but it helps early views, Premieres and live streams.

Facebook

When you schedule a post in Meta Business Suite, Active times recommends times from when your followers were most active over the past 7 days. It works for Instagram too.

LinkedIn and X

Neither shows when your followers are online, so test: post similar content at two times and compare.

A simple test: take the finder’s top two times and alternate between them for four weeks, with similar posts. Compare reach and engagement in the first 24 hours, then keep the winner.

Common mistakes

• Posting at your own best time. If you live in London and most of your followers are in the US, 9 a.m. your time is 4 a.m. in New York for most of the year (5 a.m. during the clock-change mismatch).
• Trusting one study’s single best time. One slot from one dataset is a weak signal. Look for the hours several studies share.
• Forgetting daylight saving. The US and Europe change their clocks on different dates, so for a few weeks each spring and autumn the gap between them is one hour smaller. The finder uses real dates, so it shows the right time that week.
• Judging a time on one post. One post is mostly about the content. Compare several similar posts before you change your schedule.

Who it’s for

Creators and UGC creators planning their own posts, social media managers posting for clients in other countries, and small brands without a scheduling tool. It is most useful when you and your audience live in different time zones.