Do you often wonder which is the best time to post on Instagram?
Well, the way people use social media keeps changing. What may have worked last year is not likely to work for 2023 as well. With over two billion people using Instagram every day, it comes as no surprise that brands are getting higher opportunities to reach their audience through Instagram.
When it is time to understand which is the best time to post on Instagram, several factors determine the right time for you. Additionally, what works for one social media page owner does not necessarily have to work with the other one. However, with some effective strategies, you can yield significant results from your posts on Instagram.
Over the last few months, we have been working closely to determine the best time to post on Instagram, and it is safe to say, we did come across some of the best times and days of the week for getting maximum engagement!
Furthermore, we are also going to share a few tips on how you can find the best time for your post to boost your engagement without any complications! So, let’s get into the details below!
What is the Best Time to Post On Instagram?
We understand if you do not have time to go through our complete article, which is why a quick table below will help you determine the best times to post. Note that these timings are only for posts and exclude reels.
The best time to post on Instagram is at 11 AM on Wednesdays!
However, various factors can affect the outcome, including your niche, the song you choose, the location of your targeted audience, the day of the week, the goal of your post, the type of post, and more.
Therefore, determining the right time to post for your own posts can be done by doing some workarounds. Our detailed guide later in this post will provide you with some practical tips on how you can find the best time for your Instagram posts.
| Day | Best time to post |
| Monday | 10 AM -11 AM |
| Tuesday | 10 AM -1PM |
| Wednesday | 11 AM |
| Thursday | 2 PM -3 PM |
| Friday | 10-11 AM |
| Saturday | 6 AM |
| Sunday | 6 AM |
Best Time to Post Instagram — Reels
Instagram recently introduced the reels feature. The feature ultimately beats TikTok and provides an excellent way to boost your reach. According to research, Instagram reels provide higher engagement and reach than usual posts. However, this does not mean your every reel will blow up.
There may be times that you posted a reel on Instagram, but it hardly got any views. Maybe, you chose the wrong timing for your post. Therefore, it is best to understand which is the best time to post your reels to get maximum engagement and reach.
If you need a straightforward answer, the best time to post your reels is between 9 AM to 12 PM on Monday to Thursday.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the best time to post Instagram Reels, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.
| Day of the week | Best time to post reels |
| Monday | 6 AM, 10 AM, and 10 PM. |
| Tuesday | 2 AM, 4 AM, and 9 AM. |
| Wednesday | 7-8 AM and 11 PM. |
| Thursday | 9 AM, 12 PM, and 7 PM. |
| Friday | 4 AM and 12 -2 PM. |
| Saturday | 10 AM and between 6-7 PM. |
| Sunday | 6-7 AM and 3 PM |
Best Time to Post on Instagram— Geo Locations
Depending on various time zones, people use social media accordingly, and managing multiple social media platforms can be hectic for some people. For instance, people residing in South Asia may be sleeping while America and Canada will wake up and scroll through their social media. This is why every location has a different ‘best time to post on Instagram.
Here’s a quick overview of the best time to post by location on Instagram.
| Location | Best time to post |
| Africa | 6 AM, 7 AM |
| UK | 4 AM to 6 AM |
| South America | 4 AM |
| US and Canada (Central and Eastern) | 4 AM to 9 AM |
| US and Canada (Western) | 12 AM to 6 AM |
| Europe (Eastern) | 5 AM to 7 AM |
| Europe (Western) | 6 PM to 8 PM |
| Middle East and South Asia | 3 AM |
| East Asia | 11 PM to 2 AM |
Case Studies on — Right Time to Post on Instagram
It is better to analyze data from various studies than to stick to just one study, as we mentioned previously. Since the best time can vary depending on multiple factors, below, we have collected data from numerous resources to understand what their research says about the best time to post on Instagram.
1. SproutSocial
According to SproutSocial’s research, after analyzing data from 30,000 accounts, the best day to post on Instagram is Wednesdays and Thursdays. Additionally, the best time to post on Instagram is between 10 AM to 1 PM. Similarly, if you think what could be the worst days to post on Instagram, SproutSocial came up with Sunday as you are likely to get low engagement compared to other days.
2. Later
Another study from Later analyzed over 35 million Instagram posts to find the best time to post on Instagram and came up with the average time between 5 AM to 6 AM. Another study from Later revealed that the worst time to post on Instagram is on Wednesday from -10 A.M to 4 PM and Thursday from 9 PM to 11 PM.
3. Influencer Marketing Hub
Influencer Marketing Hub also conducted a study and according to their data, the best day to post on Instagram is Thursday. The best time varies from one day to another. Usually, their data revealed the best time to post on Instagram is 11 AM on Wednesdays, 2–3 PM on Thursdays, and 10 AM on Fridays.
Best Time to Post On Instagram According to Different Niches
Sometimes despite your hard work, you may not see results. Usually, the best time for your post will also depend on your post’s niche. For example, the posts on travel and tourism may have a different best time than the healthcare industry. Therefore, before you narrow down and stick to one time, understand your niche.
| Niche | Best time | Best day |
| Education | 4 to 5 AM | Fridays |
| Healthcare | 8 AM to 9 AM | Mondays and Tuesdays |
| Travel and Tourism | 7 AM | Thursday |
| Media | 1 PM to 5 PM | Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday |
| Hospitality | 12 PM | Friday |
| Non-profit | 10 AM to 6 PM | Wednesday |
| Tech | 10 -11 AM | Monday |
| Restaurant and Food | 9 AM to 1 PM | Monday |
The data mentioned above is from Word Stream’s studies.
When Is It Not The Right Time To Post On Instagram?
According to many researchers, weekends are not the right time to post on Instagram, especially on Saturdays. The engagement rate is very low on Saturday compared to any other day. The weekend is the only time when everyone gets a little bit of time for their family or themselves. But that does not mean you should completely eliminate Saturday from your posting times.
You just need to know when is the right time to post on Saturday; if you miss that time to post, then you should avoid posting on Saturday altogether. Sunday is also not a good time to post on Instagram because, on that day, most people prepare themselves for the upcoming week, so they will not likely come across your post. However, this research does not have a lot of data to back up this claim. So I would suggest you run your own experiment to see what works best for you.
Why Is It Important To Find The Best Time To Post On Instagram?
Instagram is constantly changing its algorithm, so they push out newer trending content to users’ feed based on new and upcoming features. The basic ranking depends on three different factors: Recent, Relevance, and Interest. Instagram will show the most recent content that is getting famous among other users, but it will be relevant to all your past interactions with other content. The ranking also depends on your interest, meaning if you have liked something, then you’re interested in content like that.
Nowadays, we see the most recent content only in our feed, we don’t see content that is more than three weeks old in our feed, so the importance of finding the best time to post is increasing. If you’re posting any content and it catches the attention of active users within the first hour of posting, then there is a very high chance that Instagram will push that content to other users’ feeds, increasing your engagement rate. So you should post your content on Instagram when most users are active.
5 Tips to Find The Right Posting Time for Your Business!
Even after scrolling through multiple articles and websites online during your research to find the best time to post on your Instagram account, you may not be able to see the results. Additionally, you will be confused with each website’s different figures. Don’t worry! You are not the only one.
Earlier, one of the common tricks people followed was the timeline, meaning interactions to your post in the first 30 minutes will determine the ranking. However, Instagram confirmed that this is not the case anymore. So, the unnecessary pressure to get maximum engagement in the first thirty minutes is waived off.
You can ease your confusion with these mixed numbers by finding what works for your posts. You will need to spend some time figuring out the best time for your account.
Below are some essential tips that will help you find the best time for your Instagram post, increasing your engagement to the highest!
- Take Advantage of the Instagram Insight Feature.
Instagram itself provides one of the most powerful tools that give you a detailed breakdown of your audience and engagement. However, you will get access only if you have a business or creator account. You can navigate to your professional dashboard on your profile and check your audience. Over here, you will be able to see where your audience is from, a time when they are most active, gender, age, and other details.
Once you go through your insights, you will be able to understand where your target location is based and which might be the right time to post on your account. Moreover, understanding the age range of your target audience will also be a critical factor in understanding when your target audience is sleeping or busy with their work.
After analyzing these pointers, you can try to post at the time when your followers are more active and keep an eye on the progress.
- Focus on engagement.
Sometimes even if you follow the best practices, you won’t get higher engagement. This is because you are not creating engaging content. One way to win the hearts of your audience is by focusing on creating engaging content and engaging with your audience. A few tips to focus on engagement include:
- Focus on adding a great caption and exciting content so that users spend some time on your content.
- Engage your audience by asking them questions in the post or your caption so that they respond with a comment.
- Aim to provide valuable tips and tricks or information so that people save your post to check back again!
- Track the best time manually.
If the analytics feature is not working for you, another way is to see which is the best time manually. You can do so by uploading posts at different times and creating a spreadsheet with the data. For example, if you posted at 9 PM on a Monday, write the data on your spreadsheet followed by other days.
After a week, check which post got the maximum engagement, which type of content you posted, what engagement it received, and how long it took to go live. Investing some time in understanding your account will work the best in the long run for you.
- Use Instagram’s free resources to understand the algorithm.
The Instagram algorithm keeps changing over time. The best way to understand the best time for your posts is by investing your time in free resources by Instagram itself. When you go to your dashboard, you can scroll down and see various free guides by Instagram with the best practices.
How To Use Multiple Best Times To Post On Instagram Effectively?
Once you try and test all the best times to post on Instagram, as mentioned above, there will come a time when you will feel exhausted and think about whether this posting on the best time trick works or not. You can not depend on posting just once a day or a week to reach your goals and get the best reach. You must capitalize on multiple best times to get the best outcome on Instagram.
But it can be extremely difficult to post multiple times in a day on multiple social media accounts, and you also need to focus on providing quality content. You can either choose to post multiple times in a day or just pick your favorite time of the day to post on Instagram. Both choices can be ineffective and give no results, and you will waste your time and energy on nothing.
That’s when you should invest in an Instagram scheduling tool. These tools can help you post multiple best times a day without you needing to go post every time. You can create a content calendar and schedule multiple posts to be published with captions and hashtags at once. After doing this task, you just need to sit back, relax, let the tool do its job, and post on Instagram for you.
You can choose multiple slots of the day and schedule the posts within the tool, so you don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night and post on Instagram all by yourself. These tools can increase your engagement, and the best part is that you can also interact with your audience directly from the tool.
Related Read:
Verdict: What’s the right time to post on Instagram in 2023?
Now that you have made it to the end of the post, you may be overwhelmed and confused seeing different figures as per various studies. So, we recommend finding the best time for your post would be by analyzing your post and finding the best time that works specifically for your account.
With the tips mentioned above, you can spend time understanding the ideal time and take steps to ensure you get maximum engagement on your posts.
We hope this article gave a complete guide to understanding the right time to post on Instagram. Over to you. Did you find our guide helpful? Let us know in the comment section below!
FAQs
It totally depends on the timezone you’re in. I have created a time chart for every day of the week, along with the best time to post. You can check that out in the post and post accordingly to engage with your audience.
The worst time for you to post on Instagram is after 2 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Because this is the time when people go out with their friends and family, they spend less time on their phones during this time.
Yes, you can post on Instagram at night. You can post around 2-4 am on Tuesdays and 4-6 AM on Fridays. Apart from these timings, you should not post anything on Instagram if you want to reach your target audience.
It totally depends on the quality of your content. If the quality is good and the content clicks with your audience, you can post as many times as you want.
There is no limit on posting on Instagram, but I suggest you prefer quality over quantity because that is the only way to increase your audience.
