Best time to post on Instagram
Three large 2026 studies, side by side for every day of the week, plus a planner that converts the best slots to your time zone and adds them to your calendar.
Darker = more of the 3 studies name that hour. Times are your audience’s local time.
- Monday 7 p.m. · named by Buffer, Hootsuite
- Tuesday 7 p.m. · named by Sprout Social, Buffer, Hootsuite
- Wednesday 12 p.m. · named by Sprout Social, Buffer
The file adds 3 repeating 15-minute events with a 10-minute alert, in your audience’s time zone, to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook. It is built in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
The best time to post on Instagram is Tuesday between 3 and 7 p.m. in your audience’s local time: it is the only window all three large studies (Sprout Social, Buffer, Hootsuite) name. Monday 3-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m., and Wednesday at 12 p.m. and 5-6 p.m., are named by two. Buffer and Sprout both rank the weekend lowest.
Checked by Koldflux · updated 2026-09-24 · times re-read from each study page
Instagram: best times by day, study by study
All times are the audience’s local time. The last column shows hours at least two studies name.
| Day | Sprout Social | Buffer | Hootsuite | Shared hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 2-4 p.m. | 7 p.m., then 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. | 3-9 p.m. | 3-4 p.m., 6-8 p.m. |
| Tuesday | 1-7 p.m. | 7 p.m., then 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. | 5-8 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. | 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m. (all three); 3-7 p.m. (two) |
| Wednesday | 12-9 p.m. and 11 p.m. | 12 p.m., then 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. | 5 p.m. | 12 p.m., 5-6 p.m. |
| Thursday | 12-2 p.m. | 9 a.m., then 8 a.m. and 7 a.m. | 4-5 p.m. | no shared hour |
| Friday | not in its top windows | 10 p.m., then 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. | 4 p.m. | no shared hour |
| Saturday | not in its top windows | 9 p.m., then 10 p.m. and 8 p.m. | 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. | no shared hour |
| Sunday | not in its top windows | 9 p.m., then 10 p.m. and 8 p.m. | 12-3 p.m. | no shared hour |
Why the studies disagree on Instagram, and what to do about it
Sprout Social counts when engagement happens across its customers’ profiles, and finds midweek afternoons busiest. Buffer measures which posting hour earned the highest median engagement rate on 9.6 million posts, and its answer leans to evenings (roughly 6-10 p.m. on most days), with Wednesday noon and Thursday 7-9 a.m. as exceptions. Hootsuite lands in between, with late afternoons on most days.
Both can be true at once: the afternoon is when most people engage, and the evening is when a single post may compete with fewer others. Start with the Tuesday afternoon window all three share, then test one evening slot from Buffer’s list against one afternoon slot from Sprout’s for two weeks and keep the one that wins in your own Insights.
What each study measured
| Study | Measures | Sample | Period | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sprout Social | when engagement happens: hourly windows with the most likes, comments and shares across Sprout customers’ profiles | nearly 2 billion engagements on about 307,000 profiles (30,000+ Sprout customers) | 27 Nov 2025 to 27 Feb 2026 (published 2026-03-31) | Best: Tuesday and Wednesday. Worst: Saturday and Sunday |
| Buffer | which posting hour earned the highest median engagement rate for posts published through Buffer | 9.6 million Instagram posts | Jan 2024 to Dec 2025 (published 2026-09-23) | Best: Wednesday, then Thursday and Tuesday. Worst: Friday and Saturday |
| Hootsuite | peak engagement times for posts from businesses of all sizes, localised across 118 countries | over 1 million social posts, analysed with Critical Truth | published 2026-07-14 | - |
Find your own best time on Instagram
- Start with a shared slotUse the hours most studies agree on for your first posts, in your audience’s local time.
- Test one alternativeFor two weeks, post similar content at one shared slot and one slot only a single study names, same days each week.
- Compare like with likeCompare reach or views per post after the same number of hours, not total likes days later.
- Check Instagram InsightsSwitch to a professional (creator or business) account, open Insights, then Total followers: the “Most active times” chart shows the hours and days your followers are on Instagram.
Limits and when to use something else
- Study times come from their customers’ accounts, mostly brands. Your audience can differ, especially outside the US and Europe.
- A great slot does not rescue a weak post: the first seconds of a video or the first line of a caption matter more than the hour.
- Where the studies disagree, neither is wrong; they measure different things. Test instead of picking one.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best day to post on Instagram?
Midweek. Buffer found Wednesday best, followed by Thursday and Tuesday; Sprout Social found Tuesday and Wednesday strongest. Both put Friday, Saturday or the whole weekend at the bottom.
What is the worst time to post on Instagram?
Weekends in general: Buffer found Friday and Saturday the weakest days and Sprout found Saturday and Sunday the lowest. Early mornings rarely appear in the studies’ lists; exceptions include Buffer’s Thursday 7-9 a.m. and Hootsuite’s Tuesday 5-8 a.m.
Is the best time different for Reels?
The studies here report times for Instagram as a whole. Your own Insights show when your followers are active, which applies to Reels and feed posts alike; test Reels at the same slots before assuming they differ.
Is the best time to post on Instagram the same in India, the UK or Australia?
Yes, as a local time. Every study here converts times to the audience’s own time zone, so 5 p.m. means 5 p.m. in Mumbai, London or Sydney. What changes is your own clock when your audience lives somewhere else: set both time zones in the planner above to see the slot in your time.
How do I find my own best time on Instagram?
Use a professional account and open Insights, then Total followers: the “Most active times” chart shows the hours and days your followers use Instagram. That beats any study once you have a few hundred followers.
Turn one idea into a week of posts
The hard part of posting at the right time is having something ready. Koldflux Studio turns one recording, idea or script into Shorts and carousel posts you approve and export, so the slots in your calendar are filled. It does not publish or schedule posts for you.
- 1 · Recording, idea or script
- 2 · Pick the angles
- 3 · Review and approve
- 4 · Export Shorts and carousels
