The best time to post on social media. Every platform, sourced.

The best time to post on social media in 2026, platform by platform

Two large 2026 studies power this tool. Buffer analyzed more than 52 million posts and ranked time slots by median engagement. Sprout Social looked at nearly 2 billion engagements across about 307,000 profiles between November 27, 2025 and February 27, 2026. Both report times in the audience's local time. The short version:

• Twitter: Buffer's top slot is Tuesday at 9 AM, weekday mornings from 8 to 11 AM are the reliable window, and Saturday is the weakest day. Sprout puts the window later: noon to 6 PM, Tuesday to Thursday.

• LinkedIn: Buffer's top slot is Wednesday at 4 PM, with afternoons from 3 to 6 PM strongest. Sprout favors late morning to late afternoon, Tuesday to Thursday.

• Instagram: in Buffer's data, Thursday at 9 AM got the highest reach across nearly 10 million posts, Wednesday was the best day and Friday the worst. Sprout favors Monday to Thursday afternoons.

• Facebook: Buffer's top slot is Thursday at 9 AM, weekday mornings from 8 AM to noon work, and Saturday is the quietest day. Sprout favors Monday to Thursday from midday.

• TikTok: the studies disagree most here. Buffer's top slot is Sunday at 9 AM, with Saturday its best day and Wednesday its worst. Sprout favors weekday afternoons and rates weekends weak.

• Threads: Buffer's top slot is Thursday at 9 AM, weekday mornings from 7 AM to noon are strong, and Saturday to Monday are the weakest days.

• YouTube: in Buffer's data, long videos do best on Sunday at 10 AM and Shorts on Friday at 4 PM.

• Pinterest: Sprout favors weekdays, mostly late morning to early afternoon, and weekends trail.

Why this tool shows two studies, not one magic hour

Most best-time charts pick one source and present its answer as a rule. But the two studies measure different things. Buffer ranks slots by median engagement per post across its users. Sprout counts reactions, comments, shares, direct messages and link clicks across its customers' profiles. Different accounts and different metrics give different answers. When both point the same way, the pattern is worth trusting: midweek beats the weekend on most platforms, and daytime beats late night. When they split, as they do on TikTok, treat both windows as candidates and test them.

One more honest note: these are averages across millions of accounts, and none of them is yours. A B2B audience on LinkedIn and a student audience on TikTok keep very different hours. The studies give you a smart first guess. Your own data gives you the answer.

How to find your own best time to post

• Start where the studies agree. Put your strongest post of the week in the overlap for your platform, not in a slot only one study likes.

• Test two slots for three to four weeks. Post similar content in each and change nothing else, so time is the only difference.

• Judge by rate, not raw likes. The free engagement rate calculator turns a post's numbers into a rate you can compare across slots.

• Get frequency right first. Timing is a small lever next to showing up consistently. The posting frequency calculator sizes a weekly plan to the hours you have.

If Twitter and LinkedIn are your main channels, the best time to post on Twitter and LinkedIn tool breaks both down by day and part of day.

Timing gets the post seen. VoiceMoat makes it worth seeing.

A great slot only amplifies the post you put in it. VoiceMoat is a Personal Brand OS for Twitter and LinkedIn. audenAI, the brain inside it, learns from your own content and drafts posts in your voice, and Schedule lines them up for a good time for each one. After a few weeks, Analytics reads your real posts and shows which slots work for your audience, not the platform average.