What's the Best Time to Post on Instagram?

We all know high-quality and creative content works best on Instagram when trying to generate engagement. But do you know the time you put up your content on this social media platform matters quite a bit, too?

Well, yes. If you want to get the most engagement out of your content, your strategy needs to go beyond just high-quality content. And one of the major elements it needs to include is the ideal time to post on Instagram.

So without further ado, let us tell you all you need to know about when to post on Instagram to get the most out of your content.

Best Time to Post on Instagram on Different Days

• Sunday: 10:30 AM to 2 PM
• Monday: The general range is pretty long at 9 AM to 5 PM, but the best specific timing turns out to be around 11 AM and 2 PM
• Tuesday: The range is even longer for a Tuesday between 8 AM to 6 PM, but the most engagement is found at around 7 PM
• Wednesday: The general range is between 11 AM to 3 PM, with the sooner being the better
• Thursday: The best time is around 11 AM but the engagement continues to be good till around 4 PM
• Friday: A lot of different times here, with 11 AM being your best bet, and the rest being 9 AM to 10 AM, 12 PM to 1 PM and 2 PM to 4PM
• Saturday: You only have a couple hours to engage your users the best, between 9 AM to 11 AM

Now, if it sounds like it’s too hard to keep up with these changing timings through the week, here’s an easy posting schedule you can follow.

• Posting very early in the morning at around 5 AM from Tuesday to Friday, as many Instagram users check their updates right after waking up
• The second best time to post on weekdays (including Monday) is between 11 AM to 3 PM, as many users are bored or tired at their work and fire up Instagram to take a break. Most users at work also have their lunch during this time.
• On the weekends, people are a little lazy so posting at around 11 AM was found to generate the most engagement

A Simple Formula and Which Day to Post?

All said and done, if you want an even simpler formula to stick to with respect to your posting schedule on Instagram, then posting between 11 AM to 12 PM or 2 PM to 3 PM every day is going to be your best bet. However, the difference in the engagement between the different days of the week is pretty significant as well.

Wednesday was found to generate the most engagement for Instagram posts, and the increase in engagement over the other days was noticeable enough to make you consider it seriously. So you may want to release your special or best posts on Wednesday, as well as try to make more posts on Wednesday than on the other days of the week.

On the other hand, the same data showed that Sunday is the worst day to post on as it generated the least engagement of all the days of the week. Perhaps users like to take a little break from social media on Sunday and spend some time outside?

There’s More to It

It’s important to note that the numbers shared above are not set in stone. While analysis of a large amount of data revealed that the times mentioned above are more effective when it comes to getting engagement, there are many factors that influence these timings and their effectiveness.

The type of your audience, for one, is one of the biggest factors. You won’t get the same level of engagement when targeting teens and posting at 5 AM as you would when targeting professionals that need to wake up early to get ready for work.

Similarly, you won’t be getting a lot of Instagram likes and comments on your posts late at night if you’re targeting people in the older age groups. However, late-night timings may turn out to be more effective when targeting teens or very young people.

The same goes for the niches as well. For instance, the analysis found that the best time to post for accounts in the consumer goods niche and to try and sell products was around 3 PM. While for the media niche, the best time to post was found to be around 9 AM, as people like to read news and entertainment pieces early in the morning while they are traveling to work or before getting ready for work.

A Final Word

We hope you’re a lot more knowledgeable about the best time to post on Instagram than you were before reading this post. As we mentioned above, you may have to tweak the timings we mentioned a bit based on the different factors we talked about.

Of course, doing some testing on your own doesn’t hurt as well. In fact, it goes a long way in helping you find just the perfect time to post, starting with the above timings as your base.

So, what time do you think has been working best for you on Instagram?