The best times to post on social media based on 399 million posts

Key points

• Posting at the wrong time can make even the best content underperform. Social algorithms prioritize posts that gain quick engagement, so publishing when your audience is most active dramatically increases visibility and reach.
• Emplifi’s data shows that midweek mornings (especially Tuesday through Thursday between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.) tend to produce the highest engagement.
• The right tools will help uncover audience-specific behavior patterns. Emplifi combines publishing and analytics in one dashboard, letting marketers plan, schedule, and track posts across channels to determine the posting times that are most optimized for the audience at hand.

You’ve crafted the perfect post. Your visual is striking and attention-getting. Your caption is clever, and you have a strong call to action.

But there’s just one problem: no one sees it. Crickets. Very little engagement. Basically, it flops.

It’s not because your content isn’t good. It’s because you posted it at the wrong time.

For better or worse, if you want your social media content to get traction, you have to cater to the social media algorithms. Which means that when you post can be just as important as what you post.

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn reward content that quickly gains engagement. If your post doesn’t catch that first wave of attention, it sinks before it ever has a chance to be seen.

To help you know the best times to post, Emplifi analyzed 399 million posts across 754,000 profiles worldwide to find out exactly when engagement peaks on every major platform.

This guide unpacks the data from North America to teach you the best times to post on each platform, the “golden rules” that lead to consistent engagement, and how to uncover your own best posting schedule.

The foundation: Why timing still matters

You would think social media platforms would highlight the highest quality content. But there are other factors that come into play.

The algorithms of all major social media platforms prioritize content that gets engagement fast. If your post gets an initial surge of likes, comments, and shares, it signals to the algorithm that your post is valuable and should be shown to more people.

How do you get that initial engagement boost?

It’s all about your audience. Posting when your followers are most active gives your content the best possible chance to be seen and interacted with.

General best practices: The “golden rules” of social media post timing

While every audience behaves differently, Emplifi’s data reveals some universal truths about when people are most likely to engage.

Overall best posting times on social media

Best day: Wednesday
Worst day: Sunday

Tip: Schedule key posts midweek mornings for maximum visibility and algorithmic lift.

Midweek is prime time

Across most platforms, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings consistently produce higher engagement than Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and weekends. By Tuesday, people are in their workweek rhythm, checking social media during breaks and commutes. They’re still engaged with their various social media feeds and haven’t yet switched to weekend mode.

Mornings and late nights are a must

When are you most likely to check your social feeds? Probably in the morning, before your day gets fully rolling – or before bed. Engagement peaks during these times.

Weekends are quiet

There are some platforms, like LinkedIn, that users tend to avoid during the weekends. Engagement generally drops on weekends, especially Sundays, as audiences focus on offline life.

Consistency is king

Timing won’t help you much if you post infrequently. To gain social media traction, you need to post consistently. Posting regularly at similar times trains your audience to expect and engage with your content. Algorithms also reward predictable activity.

The best time to post on each social media platform

Now, let’s look at the best times to post on each social media platform.

Facebook

Best times to post on Facebook:
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays around 10 p.m.

Other strong times:
Saturday evenings around 6 p.m. and Sunday afternoons around 1 p.m.

Insight:
Facebook activity surges on weekends, late at night when users are relaxing or catching up on their feed. People are in scroll mode, not actively searching for anything specific. You need to grab their attention. Posts with humor, entertainment value, or emotional storytelling perform well in these evening slots.

Instagram

Best times to post on Instagram:
Weekends, particularly Saturday and Sunday nights (9 p.m. to 12 a.m.).

Other strong times:
Thursday nights from 9 p.m. to midnight.

Insight:
Instagram usage surges when people unwind. People want to see what their friends are doing and check on the brands they love. They’re not necessarily in shopping mode, but they’re also not that far from it. Evenings and weekends are prime scrolling time for aspirational and lifestyle content. Reels and Stories perform especially well during these leisure hours.

X (Formerly Twitter)

Best times to post on X:
Mondays from 12 a.m. to 1 a.m. or from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Fridays from 3 a.m. to 4 a.m.

Other strong times:
Sundays from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m.

Insight:
X (Twitter) lacks consistent blocks of high engagement times compared to other platforms. It remains a platform of immediacy. People look to it for headlines and up-to-date information. Users often scroll during transitions, such as early mornings, late nights, or downtime, making these moments ideal for real-time commentary or important updates. If you can respond quickly to an event, like Oreo did, you can get significant engagement.

YouTube

Best times to post on YouTube:
Mornings on Mondays and Tuesdays (6 a.m. to 12 p.m.).

Other strong times:
Friday mornings from around 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. and Sundays from midnight to 2 a.m.

Insight:
Posting to YouTube early in the day (or even the night before) gives the algorithm time to process and distribute your video before prime viewing hours.

TikTok

Best times to post on TikTok:
Mondays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Other strong times:
While the above windows represent the most ideal, impressions are strong on TikTok every weekday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. It’s hard to go wrong.

Insight:
TikTok’s audience peaks during the workweek. Monday through Friday, it’s hard to go wrong posting in the morning, afternoon, or evening. Brands should target weekdays for quick, snackable, and emotionally resonant content. Weekends tend to be quieter.

Finding the true best posting time for your brand

The averages above provide a general compass, but they’re not your map. Your audience is unique, and so are their habits.

Your social media analytics hold the real key.

Each platform offers native analytics tools that provide a starting point for understanding your audience’s real-world behavior:

• Meta Business Suite: Dive into your Page Insights or Professional Dashboard to find out exactly when your audience is online and engaging with your content. You can view follower activity by day and hour, compare post performance, and identify trends over time.
• TikTok Analytics: TikTok’s built-in analytics (found under “Creator Tools”) show you when your followers are most active, how long they stay engaged with your videos, and which types of content perform best during certain times. Look at both “Follower Activity” and “Video Views by Hour” to identify patterns.
• YouTube Studio: Within the “Audience” tab, YouTube Studio visualizes when your viewers are online each day of the week. This data enables you to publish videos several hours before peak times, allowing the algorithm to index and recommend your content when viewership surges. Combine this with Watch Time and Average View Duration metrics to identify which upload times result in higher retention and repeat viewing.
• LinkedIn Page Analytics: For brands focused on B2B engagement, LinkedIn offers insights into when professionals interact with your content the most. Review “Engagement Highlights” and “Follower Demographics” to align your posts with your audience’s workday patterns.
• X Analytics: Twitter Analytics can show which tweets earn the most impressions and engagement. Pay attention to time-of-day patterns in your top-performing tweets to find your ideal posting window.

However, to gain a true understanding of your audience and ideal posting times, you need unified analytics across platforms that go beyond native capabilities.

Optimize social posting times further with Emplifi

When it comes to finding the right posting time for your unique audience, the right toolkit can make all the difference. Emplifi’s social media management platform combines publishing and analytics in one dashboard, letting brands plan, schedule, and track posts across channels to determine the posting times that are most optimized for their unique audiences.

Emplifi’s PrimeTime scheduling engine analyzes behavioral patterns unique to your followers, surfacing actionable recommendations for when your audience is most active on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and other social platforms.

Instead of generic benchmarks, PrimeTime provides customized publishing windows mapped to your own audience’s habits. For easy scheduling, there’s also the option to automate posting to the ideal timeframes.

Emplifi’s Unified Analytics consolidates data from every social channel into a single, streamlined interface. Rather than toggling between dashboards for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube, you get a 360° view of your audience, allowing you to truly engage with them.

Final thoughts: Post timing isn’t a trick, it’s a strategy

The perfect posting time isn’t magic.

Across 399 million posts, one is clear: consistent, data-driven timing multiplies engagement. Whether it’s posting Reels on Sunday nights, YouTube videos early in the week, or X updates at dawn, the key is understanding your audience’s rhythm.

When you align your schedule with your followers’ habits and back it with analytics, you stop chasing visibility and start engineering it.

Learn how Emplifi can help you win the engagement game today.