Back to free tools
Analytics100% Free

Best Time to Post Calculator

Find the optimal posting times for each social media platform based on your audience.

Best times to post on Instagram

Tuesday
9:00 AM12:00 PM
WednesdayBest day
11:00 AM1:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM2:00 PM

Times are shown in your local timezone. For international audiences, consider posting at multiple times. These recommendations come from broad engagement data. Your own audience may differ.

You have your posting slots. Having a post ready for each one is the part that slips, so BuntingPost, the LinkedIn autopilot for founders, writes posts from your blog and changelog and holds each one for your approval. The free plan writes the posts, and you publish them yourself by copy-paste. Launch pricing is $49, once. Join the waitlist.

Picked your times. Got posts to fill them?

We'll send you 30 LinkedIn post prompts for founders, organized by source. Enough material to cover every slot you just chose.

Optional. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Best times to post, by platform

These are sensible starting points drawn from aggregate engagement patterns, shown in your local time. They are a hypothesis to test, not a rule. Your own audience data beats any benchmark, and the tool above breaks these down further by platform and audience type.

PlatformBest daysBest times
InstagramTue–Thu11am–1pm, 7–9pm
LinkedInTue–Thu8–10am, 12pm
FacebookWed–Fri1–4pm
Twitter / XTue–Thu9am, 12pm
TikTokTue, Thu, Fri6–10am, 7–11pm
PinterestFri–Sun3–5pm, 8–11pm

Why B2B and B2C peak at different hours

The single biggest factor isn't the platform, it's who you're talking to.

B2B audiences are reachable during the working day. LinkedIn peaks mid-morning on Tuesday through Thursday, because that's when people are at a desk.

B2C audiences peak in the gaps around work: early morning, lunch, and the evening scroll. Weekends run far stronger than most B2B accounts ever see.

That's why a single “best time to post” number is misleading. Set the audience type in the tool above and the recommended slots shift accordingly.

Timing matters less than consistency

Posting time is a tiebreaker, not a strategy. Modern feeds rank by engagement signals rather than strict recency.

A good post published at an average hour will beat a weak one published at the perfect hour. The accounts that grow are the ones that show up predictably.

Get the cadence right first, meaning a sustainable schedule you can actually keep, and then optimise the hour. That ordering is what most timing advice gets backwards.

How to find your own best time

  1. Start with the benchmark slots above for your platform and audience.
  2. Post consistently at those times for two to three weeks so you have enough data.
  3. Open your platform's native analytics and find when your followers are actually online.
  4. Compare your top-performing posts and look for the times they share.
  5. Shift your schedule toward those windows and re-test. Audiences drift over time.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best time to post on Instagram?
For most accounts, weekdays between 11am and 1pm and again between 7pm and 9pm perform best, with Tuesday through Thursday the strongest days. Consumer and lifestyle accounts often do well at weekends too. Treat these as a starting point and confirm against your own Instagram Insights.
What is the best time to post on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn peaks during the working day: Tuesday through Thursday, roughly 8–10am and around midday in your audience's timezone. Evenings and weekends are noticeably weaker because the platform's usage is tied to the work routine.
Does posting time still matter with algorithmic feeds?
Less than it used to, but it isn't irrelevant. Feeds are ranked mainly by engagement rather than strict recency, so a post published when your audience is awake gets its early engagement faster. Early engagement is one of the signals that decides how widely it's shown. Consistency and content quality matter more.
Is it better to post on weekdays or weekends?
It depends on your audience, not the platform. B2B and professional audiences are overwhelmingly weekday-driven, especially on LinkedIn. Consumer, lifestyle, food, and entertainment audiences often engage more at weekends, and Pinterest in particular skews to Friday through Sunday.
How often should I post on social media?
A sustainable cadence beats an ambitious one you abandon. Three to five posts a week per platform is a realistic target for most small businesses and creators. If that sounds like more than you can write, recycle. Evergreen posts are usually the difference between a schedule you keep and one you drop.
Should I post at the same time every day?
Consistency helps your audience know when to expect you, and it makes your results easier to read. If the time is constant, performance differences point to the content rather than the schedule. Vary the hour deliberately when you're testing, not by accident.

More free tools

Free Social Media Content Calendar

Plan and visualize your social media content with our free content calendar tool.

Use tool

Content Recycling Calculator

Work out how often you can repost evergreen content without repeating yourself. Then see how many posts you actually need when you recycle instead of writing everything fresh.

Use tool
Take the first step

Stop letting LinkedIn be a chore.

Your customers, investors, and next hires are already on LinkedIn. And you already have the material: testimonials, blog posts, releases. BuntingPost turns it into a LinkedIn presence that runs itself. Connect, approve, and watch it happen.

Join the waitlistStarts at $49
4.8

Used by 129+ founders

Lifetime deals from $49 · 7-day refund