---
title: 'Best Time to Post on Instagram: 6 Studies Compared'
description: 'The best time to post on Instagram from six recent studies, with separate Reels timing and a four-week Insights test to find your own best hours.'
category: 'Social media scheduling'
author: 'Aleksandr Samokhin'
published_at: '2026-10-08'
updated_at: '2026-10-08'
related:
    [
        best-time-to-post-on-twitter,
        how-to-schedule-instagram-posts,
        build-a-consistent-social-media-posting-schedule,
    ]
image: 'infographics/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/featured-thumbnail.webp'
image_alt: 'Best time to post on Instagram headline beside a phone showing a camera icon, an engagement bar chart, and a clock'
thumbnail: 'infographics/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/featured-thumbnail.webp'
thumbnail_alt: 'Best time to post on Instagram headline beside a phone showing a camera icon, an engagement bar chart, and a clock'
---

The best time to post on Instagram is a weekday afternoon or early evening, about 3–8 p.m. in your audience's local time. Tuesday is the safest day, and Saturday is the weakest. That is where six recent studies overlap most. They still disagree a lot: one points to 5 a.m., another to 7–9 a.m., and no hour gets support from more than three of the six.

Use those overlaps to choose what to test, not as a fixed rule. This guide compares what Buffer, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, SocialPilot, Later, and PostFast found. It covers Reels separately, explains why the studies disagree, and gives you a four-week test in Instagram Insights to find the hours that work for your own account.

## What is the best time to post on Instagram?

The best time to post on Instagram is Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, from mid-afternoon to early evening in your followers' time zone. [Sprout Social's](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-instagram/) 2026 analysis of nearly 2 billion engagements recommends Monday 2–4 p.m., Tuesday 1–7 p.m., Wednesday 12–9 p.m., and Thursday 12–2 p.m. [Buffer's](https://buffer.com/resources/when-is-the-best-time-to-post-on-instagram/) analysis of 9.6 million posts ranks Thursday at 9 a.m., Wednesday at 12 p.m., and Wednesday at 6 p.m. as the top three slots, with evenings strongest on most weekdays. [PostFast](https://postfa.st/blog/best-time-to-post-social-media-data-report), which compared each post with its own account's normal, found 3 p.m. to be the one hour that clearly beats average.

Line those windows up and 3 p.m. and 6–8 p.m. get the most support, from three of six studies each. Tuesday is named a best day by four of the five studies that rank days, and Saturday is named a weakest day by four. Start there, then confirm it with your own posts before you commit to a fixed schedule.

## What six studies say about the best time to post on Instagram

Each study measured something different, which matters when you compare them. The table summarizes what each one published, reviewed on October 4, 2026.

| Study                                                                               | Sample and period                                            | Time zone                      | Best window                                                     | Best days                    | Weakest days                                      |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| [Buffer](https://buffer.com/resources/when-is-the-best-time-to-post-on-instagram/)  | 9.6M posts, Jan 2024 – Dec 2025; updated Sep 2026            | Normalized to local time       | Thu 9 a.m., Wed 12 p.m., Wed 6 p.m.; 6–11 p.m. on most weekdays | Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday | Friday, Saturday                                  |
| [Sprout Social](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-instagram/) | ~2B engagements, ~307K profiles, Nov 27, 2025 – Feb 27, 2026 | Local time                     | Mon 2–4 p.m., Tue 1–7 p.m., Wed 12–9 p.m., Thu 12–2 p.m.        | Tuesday, Wednesday           | Saturday, Sunday                                  |
| [Hootsuite](https://blog.hootsuite.com/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/)             | 1M+ posts, 2025 analysis                                     | Localized across 118 countries | Varies by day, e.g. Mon 3–9 p.m., Tue 5–8 a.m. and 3–7 p.m.     | Monday, Tuesday, Thursday    | None named; avoid before 8 a.m. and after 10 p.m. |
| [SocialPilot](https://www.socialpilot.co/insights/best-time-to-post-on-instagram)   | 7M posts from ~50K accounts, Feb 2025 – Jan 2026             | "Timezone-agnostic"            | 7–9 a.m.                                                        | Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday | Saturday                                          |
| [Later](https://later.com/blog/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/)                     | 6M+ feed posts, Jan – Oct 2024                               | Local time                     | 3–6 a.m.; 5 a.m. best                                           | Monday                       | Saturday                                          |
| [PostFast](https://postfa.st/blog/best-time-to-post-social-media-data-report)       | 23,552 posts from 289 workspaces, Jun 6 – Sep 4, 2026        | Local time                     | 3 p.m. (1.20x the account's normal)                             | Days nearly flat             | Days nearly flat                                  |

![PostQuest field guide comparing recommended posting windows on Instagram from six studies: Buffer, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, SocialPilot, Later, and PostFast. 3 PM and 6 to 8 PM are each supported by three of six studies, and no hour gets more.](/infographics/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/posting-windows.webp)

To build the chart, I counted an hour when a study's weekday window included posts starting in that hour, excluding the closing hour. SocialPilot's 7–9 a.m. counts for 7 and 8 a.m. For studies that list different windows each day, such as Sprout Social and Hootsuite, I combined the weekday windows.

### Best time to post on Instagram by day of the week

If you want a slot for a specific day, here is what each study recommends.

| Day       | Buffer  | Sprout Social      | Hootsuite          | SocialPilot              | Later                    |
| --------- | ------- | ------------------ | ------------------ | ------------------------ | ------------------------ |
| Monday    | 7 p.m.  | 2–4 p.m.           | 3–9 p.m.           | 1–2 p.m., 4–6 p.m.       | 5 a.m., 11 p.m.          |
| Tuesday   | 7 p.m.  | 1–7 p.m.           | 5–8 a.m., 3–7 p.m. | 7 a.m.                   | 5 a.m.                   |
| Wednesday | 12 p.m. | 12–9 p.m.          | 5 p.m.             | 7–9 a.m.                 | 3 a.m.                   |
| Thursday  | 9 a.m.  | 12–2 p.m.          | 4–5 p.m.           | 7–9 a.m.                 | 4–5 a.m.                 |
| Friday    | 10 p.m. | No clear peak      | 4 p.m.             | 7–9 a.m.                 | 3–6 a.m.                 |
| Saturday  | 9 p.m.  | Lowest of the week | 11 a.m., 5 p.m.    | 10 a.m.–2 p.m., 6 p.m.   | 5 a.m.                   |
| Sunday    | 9 p.m.  | Weak day           | 12–3 p.m.          | 12 a.m., 7 a.m., 11 p.m. | 12 a.m., 5 a.m., 11 p.m. |

### Where the studies agree

Three conclusions hold across most of the sources:

- **Midweek beats the weekend.** Four of the five studies that rank days put Tuesday among the best. Four name Saturday among the weakest.
- **Overnight is a poor default.** Buffer reports the lowest engagement from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. on every day, and Hootsuite advises against posting after 10 p.m. Later is the exception, discussed below.
- **Local time is the reference.** Five of the six studies express results in the audience's local time. SocialPilot calls its times timezone-agnostic, so read them the same way.

### Where the studies disagree

Instagram studies disagree most about the best hour: Later says 5 a.m., SocialPilot 7–9 a.m., Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and PostFast the afternoon, and Buffer the evening except on Thursday morning.

Later's result is the outlier. It comes from posts published from January to October 2024, while the others use 2025 and 2026 data. Later suggests early posts may face less competition and catch people on their first scroll. Treat it as one view rather than the consensus.

## What is the best day to post on Instagram?

Tuesday is the best day to post on Instagram. Four of the five studies that rank days name it a best day: Buffer, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and SocialPilot. Wednesday and Thursday follow with three votes each, and Monday gets two, from Hootsuite and Later. Saturday is the weakest day, named by Buffer, Sprout Social, SocialPilot, and Later. Friday and Sunday each get one weakest-day vote. Controlled data shrinks these gaps a lot. PostFast scored each post against its own account's normal and found Sunday at 1.04x and Thursday at 0.98x, within a few percent of average. So put your most important post on Tuesday, use Wednesday and Thursday for the next two, and move a Saturday post to a weekday unless your own Insights show your audience is active then.

![PostQuest field guide showing how many of five studies name each weekday as a best or weakest day to post on Instagram. Tuesday is named best by four studies, Wednesday and Thursday by three, Monday by two, and Saturday is named weakest by four.](/infographics/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/best-days.webp)

| Day       | Named a best day | Named a weakest day | Practical starting point                                    |
| --------- | :--------------: | :-----------------: | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| Monday    |        2         |          0          | Good for a second post; Sprout Social sees 2–4 p.m.         |
| Tuesday   |        4         |          0          | Put your most important post of the week here               |
| Wednesday |        3         |          0          | Strong slot; Sprout Social's window runs 12–9 p.m.          |
| Thursday  |        3         |          0          | Strong slot; Buffer's best hour is 9 a.m.                   |
| Friday    |        0         |          1          | Lighter content; Buffer ranks it among its two weakest days |
| Saturday  |        0         |          4          | Skip unless your own data says otherwise                    |
| Sunday    |        0         |          1          | Buffer sees its best weekend slot at 8–10 p.m.              |

PostFast is not counted in the chart because its day effects were tiny. Scored against each account's normal, Sunday came out at 1.04x and Thursday at 0.98x. That suggests the weekday gap in pooled studies partly reflects who posts on weekdays, not only when people scroll.

Weekends can work for some niches. SocialPilot found apparel, beauty, and restaurant accounts doing better on weekends. Test a weekend slot if your audience is consumer-focused.

## What is the best time to post Reels on Instagram?

There is no agreed best time to post Reels on Instagram, so use your audience's mid-afternoon to evening window as a default and test it. The five sources that address Reels point to windows that together cover 21 of the 24 hours in a day. [Later](https://later.com/blog/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/) points to 12–6 a.m. (975K Reels, 2024 data), [SocialPilot](https://www.socialpilot.co/insights/best-time-to-post-on-instagram) to 8 a.m.–12 p.m. from Monday to Thursday (250K Reels), [PostFast](https://postfa.st/blog/best-time-to-post-social-media-data-report) to 1 p.m. at 1.19x the account's normal (603 Reels), and Buffer to 6–11 p.m. in data that pools all formats. Sprout Social says Reels follow the same windows as other posts. Timing matters less for Reels because Instagram's published Reels signals do not include posting time. Format matters more than the hour: in PostFast's data, a Reel earned a median 2.38x the impressions of a feed post on the same account.

| Source        | What it says about Reels                                 | Basis                              |
| ------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- |
| Later         | 12 a.m. best; high engagement 12–6 a.m.; Monday best day | 975K Reels, 2024 data              |
| SocialPilot   | 8 a.m.–12 p.m., Monday to Thursday                       | 250K Reels                         |
| PostFast      | 1 p.m. local time, 1.19x the account's normal            | 603 Reels at that hour             |
| Sprout Social | Same windows as all posts; format does not change timing | All post types combined            |
| Buffer        | 6–11 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday strongest              | All formats pooled, not Reels-only |

![PostQuest field guide showing best times to post Instagram Reels from five sources. Later points to 12 to 6 AM, SocialPilot to 8 AM to 12 PM, PostFast to 1 PM, Sprout Social to 12 to 9 PM, and Buffer to 6 to 11 PM, covering 21 of 24 hours. A callout notes Reels earned a median 2.38 times the impressions of feed posts on the same account in PostFast data.](/infographics/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/reels-windows.webp)

Two sources say timing matters less for Reels than for feed posts. SocialPilot notes that Reels appear in the Reels tab "when they are relevant and not when they are timely." Instagram's own ranking explanation, covered below, lists no posting-time signal for Reels.

That 2.38x figure comes from 42 accounts that posted both formats. If reach is your goal, choosing a Reel over a static post is a bigger lever than moving the post by a few hours.

### Feed posts, carousels, and Stories

Fewer studies split out other formats, and those that do often disagree:

- **Carousels.** Later recommends 5 a.m. on Tuesday. SocialPilot recommends 7–9 a.m. on Tuesday to Thursday. Buffer says carousels follow the same midweek pattern as everything else. PostFast found no well-sampled hour above 1.07x.
- **Feed posts.** PostFast's feed-only curve peaked at 1 p.m. UTC (1.48x on 518 posts), which is morning in New York and afternoon in Europe. The 3 p.m. result in the main table (1.20x on 1,574 posts) uses local time across all formats, which is why the two numbers differ.
- **Stories.** Later suggests 6–8 a.m. and 7–9 p.m. SocialPilot lists a different window each day, mostly late morning to early afternoon. Buffer recommends one or two Stories a day. PostFast found no hour above 1.00x.

Stories disappear after 24 hours, so post them when you can watch replies come in. They are ranked mostly by your relationship with viewers, not by the clock.

## Why the best-time studies disagree

Five differences explain why Later says 5 a.m. and Sprout Social says 1–7 p.m.:

1. **They measure different outcomes.** Buffer ranks by median engagement rate (likes, comments, shares, and saves divided by followers). Sprout Social counts engagements. PostFast scores impressions. A slot can win on one and lose on another.
2. **They sample different customers.** Each dataset comes from the people who use that tool. A B2B-heavy customer base will push results toward working hours.
3. **They cover different periods.** Later's data is from 2024. Sprout Social's covers three winter months. Buffer's spans two full years. Seasonal habits and algorithm changes shift the results.
4. **They handle time zones differently.** Most normalize to local time, but each uses its own method. Hootsuite also publishes separate results for specific time zones, and they differ from its overall numbers.
5. **Big accounts distort pooled averages.** When large accounts post at certain hours, those hours look strong. PostFast tested this by scoring each post against its own account's median. On Instagram, that shrank the swing between the best and worst hour of the day from 5.5x to 1.43x, counting thinly sampled hours too, according to [PostFast's 2026 timing report](https://postfa.st/blog/best-time-to-post-social-media-data-report). PostFast is a scheduler like PostQuest, and its figures come from its own users' posts.

The last point matters most for planning. Timing affects results, but less than most charts suggest. A strong first frame or opening line at an average hour usually beats a weak post at the "best" hour. If your posts struggle, start with [writing a stronger hook](/blog/write-better-social-media-hooks) before you change your schedule.

## How much does posting time matter on Instagram?

Posting time matters most for feed posts shown to your followers and least for Reels recommended to non-followers. Instagram's official explanation, [Instagram Ranking Explained](https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-ranking-explained) by Adam Mosseri (May 31, 2023), says each part of the app uses its own ranking. For Feed, "information about the post" includes popularity signals, such as how quickly people like, comment, share, and save it. It also includes details "like when it was posted."

The Reels signals in the same explanation are your activity, your history with the creator, information about the reel, and information about the person who posted. Posting time is not listed. Stories are ranked by viewing history, engagement history, and closeness.

In January 2025, Mosseri named the three signals that matter most for ranking: watch time, likes, and sends. He told creators to track average watch time, likes per reach, and sends per reach. He also said likes matter slightly more for followers and sends slightly more for non-followers, as [Social Media Today reported](https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-shares-algorithm-insights-2025/738034/). These are rates. Posting when your followers are online can lift early likes, but it cannot fix a post that people do not watch or share.

The working rule, then: **the best time to post on Instagram is when your followers are online and you can reply to comments for the next hour.** After that, the content does the work.

## How to find your own best time to post on Instagram

Studies tell you where to start; only your own account can tell you where to stay. This four-week test uses the method that made PostFast's results more reliable: compare each post with your own normal, not with other accounts.

### 1. Check when your followers are active

Open Instagram Insights from your professional dashboard and tap **Total followers**. If you have at least 100 followers, Instagram shows the times they are most active, according to the [Instagram Help Center](https://help.instagram.com/788388387972460). Use it to pick test slots that fall inside your audience's active hours.

### 2. Pick three test slots

Choose one morning, one afternoon, and one evening slot in your audience's time zone. A good default from the six studies is 9 a.m., 3 p.m., and 7 p.m. on Tuesday through Thursday. Keep the slots fixed for the whole test.

### 3. Rotate formats fairly

Post comparable content in each slot. If every Reel goes out at 7 p.m. and every carousel at 9 a.m., you are testing formats, not times. Rotate Reels, carousels, and single-image posts across the slots so each slot gets a similar mix.

Plan for four or more posts per slot. Three posts a week over four weeks gives you twelve, four per slot. Twelve posts can point you in a direction, but they cannot prove a winner.

### 4. Score each post against your median

For each post, tap **View insights** and record its metrics at the same age, such as 48 hours after publishing. Instagram reports:

- **Views**: how many times your content was played or displayed.
- **Viewers**: the unique accounts that saw it, which most tools call reach.
- **Interactions**: likes, comments, saves, and shares.
- **Accounts engaged**: the unique accounts that interacted, split into followers and non-followers for posts.

Then calculate a timing index:

> Timing index = post views ÷ your median views per post

An index of 1.00 is your normal. An index of 1.30 means 30% more views than your typical post. Average the index for each slot. Repeat the calculation with shares or saves if those matter more to you than views. The [Instagram Help Center](https://help.instagram.com/788388387972460) says insights cover the past 90 days, so record your numbers before older posts drop out.

| Slot (illustrative)     | Posts | Average timing index | Read                     |
| ----------------------- | ----: | -------------------: | ------------------------ |
| Tuesday–Thursday 9 a.m. |     4 |                 0.91 | Slightly below normal    |
| Tuesday–Thursday 3 p.m. |     4 |                 1.22 | Clear lead; keep testing |
| Tuesday–Thursday 7 p.m. |     4 |                 1.04 | About normal             |

These numbers are an example to show the calculation, not data from a real account.

### 5. Keep the winner, then retest

Switch to a slot only if it beats the others by around 20% or more over several posts. A finish within a few percent means the hour is not what holds your account back, so keep whichever slot suits you and spend the effort on the posts themselves. Repeat the test every quarter or after your audience changes.

## Time zones: schedule for your audience, not for yourself

All the hours in this guide refer to where your followers are, not where you are. Check the top locations under Total followers in Insights, and set your schedule for the region where most of them live.

| Audience                 | Starting slot                          | Why it works                                         |
| ------------------------ | -------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| Mostly US East Coast     | 3–7 p.m. ET                            | Matches the afternoon and early-evening overlap      |
| Across the United States | 6–7 p.m. ET (3–4 p.m. PT)              | Evening in the East, mid-afternoon in the West       |
| UK and US East Coast     | 7–8 p.m. UK (2–3 p.m. ET)              | Evening in the UK, afternoon in New York             |
| Western Europe           | 3–8 p.m. CET                           | Covers most of Europe in one window                  |
| Global                   | Test two slots about eight hours apart | No single hour reaches every region in the afternoon |

Daylight saving time starts and ends on different dates in the United States and Europe, so check any cross-region slot again in spring and autumn.

## A starter Instagram posting schedule

If you want a schedule to use this week, start with three posts that follow the overlap between the studies. Then run the four-week test before you change anything.

| Day       | Time (audience local) | Post type                                              |
| --------- | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| Tuesday   | 3 p.m.                | Your strongest post of the week, as a Reel or carousel |
| Wednesday | 7 p.m.                | A Reel built to be shared                              |
| Thursday  | 1 p.m.                | A carousel with a useful takeaway worth saving         |
| Most days | Morning or evening    | One or two Stories when you can reply to messages      |

Giving each slot one format and one purpose keeps the weekly prep simple and keeps the test fair. For capacity planning and a weekly review, read [how to build a consistent social media posting schedule](/blog/build-a-consistent-social-media-posting-schedule). To set the slots up, follow the step-by-step guide on how to schedule Instagram posts.

## Common timing mistakes on Instagram

- **Treating one study as the answer.** Six studies give six different best hours. Use them to pick test slots, not to set a schedule.
- **Changing the time and the format at once.** Reels earn more reach than static posts, so moving from a 9 a.m. photo to a 7 p.m. Reel tells you nothing about time.
- **Trusting one viral Reel.** Reels can reach far beyond your followers, so one outlier can make any hour look perfect. Use the median.
- **Posting when you cannot reply.** Early comments and shares are part of why timing matters.
- **Copying another time zone.** A 3 p.m. Eastern recommendation is noon in California.
- **Comparing posts of different ages.** A post checked after a week will beat one checked after a day. Record every post at the same age.

## Schedule Instagram posts at your test times with PostQuest

A timing test only works if posts go out at exactly the same hours each week, which is easier to guarantee with a scheduler than by hand. PostQuest is the scheduler I build for founders, creators, and small teams. It supports Instagram along with Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Threads, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

For an Instagram timing test, the useful parts are:

- **A calendar for fixed slots.** Schedule photo posts, Reels, carousels of 2–10 items, and photo or video Stories for an Instagram Business or Creator account.
- **Pre-publish checks.** PostQuest checks the 2,200-character caption limit, the hashtag limit, and media rules such as feed image aspect ratios from 4:5 to 1.91:1 and Reels from 3 seconds to 15 minutes. The full list is on the [Instagram specs page](/specs/instagram).
- **Per-post analytics.** Views, reach, likes, comments, shares, saves, and follows for each Instagram post, with its publish time, so you can calculate the timing index without copying numbers by hand.
- **AI assistant access.** Through the [PostQuest MCP server for Claude](/mcp/claude), you can ask your assistant to list recent Instagram posts with their metrics and group them by posting hour. AI-created posts stay drafts until you approve them.

PostQuest does not suggest best times automatically. If you want a tool to recommend slots from your history, Buffer, Later, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite all offer best-time features. The seven-day trial includes 20 scheduled or published posts and 14 days of analytics history, enough to set up your slots, but a four-week test runs longer than the trial. See the current [PostQuest plans](/#pricing) for longer analytics history.

Instagram is one network among several. For others, compare [the best time to post on Twitter (X)](/blog/best-time-to-post-on-twitter), [the best time to post on TikTok](/blog/best-time-to-post-on-tiktok), and the best time to post on Facebook, or start from the best time to post on social media overview.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the best time to post on Instagram today?

It depends on the day. On Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, post between about 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. in your audience's time zone, where the studies overlap most. On Monday, Sprout Social sees 2–4 p.m. and Buffer sees 7 p.m. On Friday and Saturday, engagement is weaker in most studies, so hold your strongest post for midweek if you can.

### Should Reels and photos be posted at different times?

Not necessarily. Sprout Social found that the best times for Reels mirror its overall windows, and Buffer did not split its data by format. The sources that did study Reels separately point to very different hours, from midnight to 1 p.m. Pick one schedule for both formats, then compare Reels with Reels and photos with photos.

### What is the worst time to post on Instagram?

Overnight and Saturday. Buffer reports the lowest engagement between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on every day. Hootsuite advises against posting before 8 a.m. or after 10 p.m., and four of five day-ranking studies name Saturday among the weakest days. Later is the outlier, recommending 3–6 a.m. based on 2024 data.

### How many posts do I need before trusting my own best time?

Aim for at least four posts in each slot you compare, published over three to four weeks. With fewer posts, one Reel that reaches non-followers can decide the winner. Compare each post with your median views, and adopt a slot only when it leads by a clear margin, such as 20%. Repeat the test each quarter.