Curious about the best time to post on Instagram? What time will bring you the most reach and engagement?
Well, that`s one endless conversation continuing on social media for ages.

In a world buzzing with hashtags, and filters, timing is the key to reaching maximum eyeballs.

The latest social media statistics prove that Instagram is a powerhouse of engagement, understanding when to hit the share button can help you reap the most of it.

Well, the logic behind selecting the best time to post is simple; your post should go live when most of your audience is active in engaging with it.

You may ask: But is there any specific best time of the day to post on Instagram?

Well, the short answer would be 6 am – 11 am (PST).

Now that the short answer is so precise, why would anyone bother about the latter?

It’s because every business has its own personalized best time to post, depending on the niche and location of its target audience.

The above number has a good chance of working for you, as it was derived from the study we conducted on thousands of Instagram accounts across various industries and locations.

Still, It’s hard to say that the average best time to post for a wide range of businesses, based on different companies’ data in various parts of the world, would also apply to your business.

Hence, you must find out the personalized best time frame for your business. This blog will guide you to find out when is the best time to post on Instagram for your business. Additionally, we’ll explore our detailed study on the optimal posting times, which encompasses data from over 50,000 accounts.

But before doing that, let’s find out why it is vital to know the best time to post.

Why Does Finding the Best Time to Post on Instagram Matter?

Instagram keeps tweaking its algorithm, making timeliness crucial for posts to rank on a user’s feed and accommodating newer features. Yet the basic ranking more or less depends on these three factors:

1. Interest: Posts having content similar to what you previously showed interest in will appear on top of your feeds.
2. Recency: The most recent posts will be prioritized to rank higher on the feeds over days or week-older posts.
3. Relationship: Posts and accounts that you had frequently interacted with in the past on Instagram rank better on your feed.

With recency being a major factor in ranking a post on Instagram, choosing the right time to post becomes more prominent.

If more active people see the post, the engagement rate increases within the first hour of posting. Based on this, the Instagram algorithm will decide how many more feeds you can make an appearance to further amp up the engagement long after posting.

So, what does this mean for you?

It means that you have to strategically choose the best time to post on Instagram for likes, comments, shares, and saves, and do it when your audience is most active for the best results.

But wait, there’s more!

Post more frequently on the platform at peak times to use the recency factor to your advantage. It has a higher chance of your brand being shown in feeds.

So apart from this, let’s move to the main point and find out the best time to post on Instagram to help you achieve your Instagram marketing goals.

What are the Average Best Times to Post on Instagram?

In our recent studies on:

We have found that it is more suitable to test and find your own data than to stick to a fixed template of best times.

On the other hand, if you are new to Instagram promotion, then the general time-frames can be a good start before you set out to test for your personal best time to post. 

So we went ahead and conducted an extensive study at SocialPilot, that breaks down the best time to post on Instagram for you. There are fair chances that these fixed times may work wonders for your brand on Instagram.

Let’s look at the results!

Based on our study, we found that the best days to post on Instagram are always weekdays, whereas a deeper dive into the timings tells us that It is always safe to post:

Wait! Here’s some bonus data from popular social media marketing companies suggesting when brands should post on Instagram for you to help you save time.

• Later suggests the time frame between 9 am to 11 pm (EST).
• Hubspot favors the time between 2 pm and 3 pm (CDT) and Thursday as the best day to post on Instagram.
• Sprout Social deduced Wednesday at 11 a.m. and Friday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. as the preferred time slots.
• Search engine Journal favors Monday, Tuesday, and Friday at 11 a.m. and Tuesday at 2 pm.

Best Times to Post on Instagram by the Days of the Week

Do you ever wonder if it is possible to find the best day to post on Instagram? Well, the answer is a YES.

Our study of over 50,000 Instagram accounts further delves into the average best time to post on Instagram for each day of the week. The findings will help your never-ending quest of searching, “What is the best time to post today?”

Let’s break down the average best times (in PST) to post for each day of the week that you can try:

The Best Time to Post on Instagram on Monday

The best time to post on Monday is 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.

As people settle into their workweek, they’re more likely to browse through their Instagram feeds, providing a prime opportunity to grab their attention.

The Best Time to Post on Instagram on Tuesday

The best time to post on Tuesday is 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.

As the week progresses, people are still in a productive mindset and open to discovering new content. Engagement during this time will be highest during the day.

The Best Time to Post on Instagram on Wednesday

The best time to post on Wednesday is 5 a.m., 11 a.m., and 3 p.m.

Wednesdays offer a trifecta of perfect posting windows. Shine early birds with a 5 a.m. post, capture the mid-morning energy with an 11 a.m. post, and conquer the afternoon slump with a 3 p.m. post. By aligning your content as per these slots, you’ll maximize visibility and engagement.

The Best Time to Post on Instagram on Thursday

The best time to post on Thursday is 12 p.m. and 5 p.m.

On Thursdays, seize the golden opportunity to captivate your audience during their lunch break at 12 p.m.

Additionally, the 5 p.m. time slot, just before the workday ends, is ideal for grabbing the attention of busy professionals winding down and scrolling through Instagram.

The Best Time to Post on Instagram on Friday

The best time to post on Friday is 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

As the weekend nears, people are eagerly looking for distractions. Capitalize on this by posting during the 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. window and the 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. time slot.

The Best Time to Post on Instagram on Saturday

The best time to post on Saturday is 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Saturday mornings are made for Instagram scrolling, so make the most of it by posting between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. to maximize your engagement rate.

The Best Time to Post on Instagram on Sunday

The best time to post on Sunday is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

At last, the end of the week. Most of the audience is enjoying their relaxed morning routines or busy with their person. End your week on a high note by sharing your dazzling content between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sundays.

For your convenience, we have converted the above data into the form of a table:

What Are the Best Times to Post on Instagram by Industry?

As businesses and influencers strive to captivate their target audiences, understanding the best times to post becomes a strategic game-changer. Each industry has unique characteristics, preferences, and audience behaviors, making it essential to tailor your posting schedule accordingly.

For instance, while we previously suggested that weekends might not be the optimal posting time on average, fashion and apparel businesses often see their highest sales and views during these days.

That’s why our study meticulously tracked the industry of each account. This allowed us to further segregate the best time to post on Instagram based on different businesses.

Here are some of the valuable industry insights into the optimal posting times that you can use to inform your publishing calendar and enhance your engagement rates:

Best Time to Post on Instagram for Travel and Tourism

The travel and tourism industry relies heavily on aspiration content to ignite wanderlust. Posting in the middle of the day and at night lets travelers temporarily escape and daydream about their upcoming journey.

Best times to post on Instagram for Travel and Tourism:

• Weekdays: 10 am to 12 pm and 7 pm to 9 pm.
• Weekends: 9 am to 11 am and 4 pm to 6 pm.

Best days to Post on Instagram for Travel and Tourism: Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Best Time to Post on Instagram for Fashion and Apparel

Instagram is a great platform for clothing and fashion brands to display their most recent styles and trends. When consumers have more time to explore their feeds in the afternoon and evening, posting around those times can increase engagement and visibility.

Best times to post on Instagram for Fashion and Apparel:

• Weekdays: 12 pm to 2 pm and 7 pm to 9 pm
• Weekends: 9 am to 11 am and 5 pm to 7 pm

Best days to post on Instagram for Fashion and Apparel: Weekends, especially Saturdays

Best Time to Post on Instagram for Fitness and Wellness

There is a committed consumer base in the fitness and wellness sector looking for motivation and inspiration. You should target them while they prepare for or finish their workouts in the early mornings and late at night.

Best times to post on Instagram for Fitness and Wellness:

• Weekdays: 6 am to 8 am and 5 pm to 7 pm
• Weekends: 8 am to 10 am and 4 pm to 6 pm

Best days to post on Instagram for Fitness and Wellness: Tuesday and Wednesday

Best Time to Post on Instagram for Food and Beverage

The tantalizing world of food and beverages sparks cravings at various times. Weekday lunch hours and Sunday evenings are ideal posting times. People are actively seeking culinary inspiration or planning their dining experiences.

Best times to post on Instagram for Food and Beverage:

• Weekdays: 12 pm to 2 pm
• Weekends: 5 pm to 7 pm

Best days to post on Instagram for Food and Beverage: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

Best Time to Post on Instagram for Digital Marketing/Social Media

Professionals working in social media and digital marketing are frequently online throughout conventional business hours. Although there may not be much activity over the weekends, they can be used for brief updates or interesting topics.

Best times to post on Instagram for Digital Marketing/Social Media:

• Weekdays: 9 am to 11 am and 1 pm to 3 pm
• Weekends: Limited activity, but occasional posts from 10 am to 12 pm

Best days to post on Instagram for Digital Marketing/Social Media: Monday to Thursday

Best Time to Post on Instagram for IT Brands

There are many different products and services offered by IT brands. Posting during late morning hours on weekdays ensures that professionals and businesses are engaged during their work hours. Weekend afternoons capture the attention of both tech enthusiasts and weekend hobbyists.

Best times to post on Instagram for IT Brands:

• Weekdays: 10 am to 12 pm
• Weekends: 1 pm and 3 pm

Best days to post on Instagram for IT Brands: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday

Best Time to Post Reels and Stories on Instagram

Reels are the new favorite on Instagram. Everybody is using it. New Instagram statistics suggest that 58% of marketers are planning to leverage reels in 2024.

If you have been using Instagram Reels, you know that it provides flabbergasting reach and visibility. On the other hand, with the growing popularity, the need to post on the best times has also risen for Reels.

The best time to post reels on Instagram also depends on the location, industry, and audience factors. However, you can kickstart the time optimization of reels by using the following average best times.

And we absolutely can’t forget Stories! If you are thinking about posting without an agenda, there is no designated best time to post Instagram story. But if you are a business and want your followers to see your story and come to your Instagram business page, there is a preferred time slot.

Bringing in 2 to 3 times more engagement than normal posts on Instagram, the best time to post Instagram Story is on weekdays during lunch breaks, i.e., 11 am – 2 pm.

How to Find the Best Time to Post on Instagram For Your Business?

The average best time to post on Instagram based on our study will definitely work wonders for your engagement rate. Still, it’s very important that you take the step to find your personal optimal time.

How to do that?

There are two ways to find the best time suitable for posting to get more engagement on your Instagram brand profile:

1. Using Insights on the Instagram Application or Creator Studio

Instagram’s own native analytics is a great way to find the optimal time to post on Instagram. There are two routes to check these.

1. Instagram Mobile App

The first one is by using the Instagram mobile app. It is a convenient tool that lets you find significant insights, like the location of your followers, their gender, age, and when they’re most active on Instagram.

To access insights on Instagram, having an Instagram business account or an Instagram creator’s profile is a must. Another added benefit of having a creator’s profile is that you can access the “Instagram Creator Studio“.

2. Instagram Creator Studio

And this is what the second route is. Instagram Creators Studio, like Instagram insights, gives you access to multiple audience insights to find the best time to post on Instagram.

One shortcoming of Instagram native insights is that they only provide you with the followers’ online activity data for the past 7 days.

That’s where SocialPilot comes to your rescue.

2. Find Your Best Times to Post With SocialPilot

Your best time to post on Instagram depends on three things – audience, day of the week, and timezone.

Fortunately, SocialPilot’s Instagram analytics feature helps you figure all of that under one dashboard.

Let’s see how.

The “Time Range” filter lets you choose the exact period for which you want to see the insights in the analytics section. You can view, download, and email the analytics report of your Instagram business accounts by selecting a custom date range.

There’s also a heat map that automatically calculates the average number of followers active at each hour and each day of the week in the chosen time range to give you the personalized best time to post on Instagram.

This heat map graphics will give you all the information about the best times and days for getting more engagement on Instagram for your business.

Moreover, you can see the location of your followers, their gender, their age, and other significant follower insights.

These days, reels have been taking Instagram by storm, which is why we knew it was imperative not only to allow users to post reels using SocialPilot but also to release Reels analytics.

Reels analytics helps you monitor your reach, interactions, likes, and video plays. You can use all of these insights to navigate your Instagram account growth and gauge what kind of content your audience prefers and when.

Here’s a curated list of some Instagram analytics tools if you’d like to compare and opt for the best one to measure your Instagram campaigns and the best times to post.

How to Effectively Use Multiple Best Times to Post on Instagram?

Eventually, you will come to know that there is no single best day or time to post on Instagram after using the tools mentioned above.

Anyway, you wouldn’t want a world with only one best time to post on Instagram.

But, it can be tiresome for a social media manager or marketing agency to keep posting on multiple time slots while handling various social media accounts.

You can either let go of multiple time slots and opt for one best time from the whole day or manually post on various time slots. Choosing the former will lose your other better engagement times, and going for the latter will waste a colossal amount of your time.

This is where you need a social media content scheduler!

For instance, SocialPilot lets you create and schedule your Instagram post for days, weeks, and even months ahead of time.

So this automatic posting tool will help you publish at different time slots without any hassle. All you have to do is select multiple time slots for every day of the month in its content planner, and your created posts will be published on Instagram.

Tip: Experiment with posting different types of content at varied times to zero in your sweet spot. Schedule multiple reels and stories for the day for an aggravated reach.

Conclusion

Nothing is more annoying than not getting any reach on the Instagram posts you have so effortlessly created.

But now you know how to avoid the pitfall. Use the methods and times discussed above to zero down on your best time to post on Instagram. You won’t see numbers surging on the very first day but with consistent efforts, you will see the results.

It will help you engage with your audience better and get you in the eyes of promising prospects quicker.

But remember, the best time to post can only get you in the feeds of your audience, from there fate lies in the hand of your content.

If your content fails to spark any interest, then sharing even at the best time to post on Instagram can’t fetch your desired likes or comments.

If you are a social media marketer juggling multiple Instagram accounts for your clients, use a social media tool.

For instance, SocialPilot allows you to directly schedule multiple Posts, Stories, and Reels way ahead of time. You can plan every post to be published at the best time so you don’t miss out for any reason.

Experience it yourself! Start your 14-day free trial today or schedule a demo call.