Uncover the Best period To Post on Instagram in 2025

On social media platforms, posting content when your target spectators isn’t online means most of them will never view your posts. Instagram is no exception. To make things more challenging, its algorithm is constantly changing. If you’re not getting the engagement levels you desire on Instagram (or, even worse, you’re greeted by crickets) you might be posting at the incorrect period.

To determine the best period to post on Instagram, many businesses have examined engagement metrics for millions of Instagram posts across the globe. Ahead, discover that research consolidated to provide the best times to post on Instagram for 2025. And, discover how the best posting times for your specific spectators might be more valuable than platform averages.

The best times to post on Instagram

The best times to post on Instagram, based on consolidated data from millions of posts are Monday and Thursday between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m.; Tuesday mornings; Wednesday at 11 a.m.; Friday afternoon around 4 p.m.; Saturday mornings; and Sunday evenings.

Here’s a breakdown of the specific times that are best for posting on Instagram:

• Monday: 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. 
• Tuesday: 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. 
• Wednesday: 11 a.m.
• Thursday: 7 a.m., 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. 
• Friday: 4 p.m. 
• Saturday: 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.
• Sunday: 7 p.m. 

These numbers are based on consolidated research from Hootsuite, Later, Sprout Social, Social Pilot, Influencer Marketing Hub, and Buffer. As the research results vary wildly, the above times are those that appeared the most frequently across these websites’ findings. For the purpose of this piece, “most frequently” means at least two of the six publications noted the period as a high engagement period to post on Instagram.

Based on the consolidated information, additional analysis shows:

• Weekday mornings from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. as a period with high engagement, getting mentions from three out of six sources
• Monday and Thursday commonly view 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. as effective posting times
• Tuesday shows a powerful morning presence, especially from 7 to 10 a.m. as the best period to post
• Wednesday has a high agreement on 11 a.m. being effective for the Instagram spectators, based on four sources
• Friday afternoon, especially around 4 p.m., seems to be a peak period to post
• Early Saturday morning starting at 7 a.m. appears as the best posting period
• Sunday evening, particularly around 7 p.m., is a noteworthy period for high-engagement Instagram posts, but this isn’t a great day to post overall

The best period to post on Instagram for your spectators

Before you schedule all your content to leave out at the times listed above, you also require to consider your target spectators and your content intent. receive into account people’s daily habits and schedules (like wake up period or lunch shatter), what benevolent of content you publish, history data from your own Instagram account, and your target spectators’s habits.

If you’re a juice brand using Instagram marketing to promote your recent breakfast smoothie, for example, catching Instagram users when they wake up is a excellent tactic. But if you’re selling software subscriptions to enterprise companies, you might discover your 6 a.m. Saturday Instagram posts fall flat when your ideal customer is enjoying their day off. 

For global brands however, your own data on Instagram engagement will inform you more about the best times to post. You may discover that content lands in different markets at different times. Later, discover how to analyze your post data to discover your sweet spot.

What’s the best period overall to post on Instagram?

Overall, the best posting times and the best day of the week is when your spectators is most likely to be online.

Generally, this will cruel in the early morning, when people are just waking up and reaching for their mobile devices, when people leave on lunch breaks, and during evenings when people are scrolling through their phones after work.

Posting in the early morning on most weekdays gives you a excellent chance of popping up in a user’s Instagram feed when they first open the app. But if you’re targeting professionals or B2B brands with business Instagram accounts, you might have better luck posting at lunchtime or during the working day to catch their attention while their mind is on the job.

Is it better to post on Instagram at night or in the morning?

Based on the above consolidated times to post on Instagram, it’s best to post in the morning on most days of the week. But while research might display that morning posts generate more engagement, your brand might be the outlier.

recall that averages don’t necessarily reflect your target spectators’s habits or your niche. For example, you might be a yoga brand that gets high engagement when posting Friday night Instagram Reels of different restorative yoga routines. While Friday night isn’t a great period to post based on general averages, it might be just the ticket for your brand.

While it might not make a huge difference in engagement levels if you post in the morning versus the evening, you desire your communication to reach the correct people at the correct period. This is why it’s significant to consider the content of your posts too.

For example, your sandwich shop might distribute a daily lunch special on Instagram stories. Posting before the lunch hour will probably get the best results. Post in the afternoon or evening and you’ll be too late for those mid-morning grumbling stomachs.

When should you not post on Instagram?

According to consolidated research, Sundays and late nights are the least effective times to post on Instagram. However, the research doesn’t highlight which industries were included, which can skew the results in favor of sure products and brand categories.

That’s why it’s essential to do your own research to figure out when the best period to post on Instagram is for your own spectators. Beyond that, recall that while Instagram has become a great place to sell your products and engage potential customers, not everyone is looking to shop on social media all the period.

“It’s really significant to recall,” says Taylor Loren in an edited excerpt from the Shopify course How to Make Money on Instagram, “that while Instagram can be a great sales channel, that isn’t its only purpose. Building an engaged and energetic throng should still be your number one priority.”

Best period to post on Instagram by industry 

Based on data from Social Pilot’s own analysis of more than 7 million Instagram posts, the following posting times are the best by industry. Again, receive this data as a starting point and read on to the next section to determine the best posting times for your distinctive brand and spectators.

Best period to post on Instagram for trip and tourism brands

• Weekdays: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
• Weekends: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Best period to post on Instagram for fashion brands

• Weekdays: 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
• Weekends: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Best period to post on Instagram for fitness and wellness brands

• Weekdays: 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
• Weekends: 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Best period to post on Instagram for food and beverage brands

• Weekdays: 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.
• Weekends: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

How to discover the best period to post on Instagram (for your brand and industry)

You can use the results from secondary research as a starting point for choosing when to post on Instagram, but it should be just that: a starting point.

These supposed “best times” are based on a large number of posts to generate an average that may not be the “best period” for every type of brand.

Use Instagram insights to comprehend your followers

If you have an Instagram business account, you can view the demographics of your followers, including their age, gender, and location within Instagram insights. This will assist you schedule your posts in the correct period zone. For example, if 75% of your spectators is in recent York, you can schedule your posts in the eastern period zone, even if your brand is based in California. Instagram insights also reveal when your followers are online.

To access analytics:

1. In the app, leave to your profile and tap the menu in the top correct corner 
2. Tap Insights
3. Tap Total Followers
4. Toggle the date range to capture a wider period period 
5. Scroll to view spectators locations, demographics and most energetic times

Instagram insights also shows you the act of each post, so you can commence tracking it based on period and day posted and type of content shared. 

receive note of your competitors’ social media way

Industries are incredibly varied—for example, the retail industry includes everything from B2B subscription companies to baby clothes, both of which have very different audiences.

It can assist to focus on your main competitors and identify the times that they post. Pick three or four brands that are similar to yours or have a similar spectators and notice the times they post as well as the posts that get the highest engagement levels.

You can track these in a spreadsheet, but if you don’t desire to dig into this manually, there are apps that can assist. For example, NapoleonCat lets you analyze competitor posts by the number of comments and likes and by engagement rate, and shows you when these posts were published.

Here’s an example of how NapoleonCat and other tools like it can assist you contrast competitor data side by side:

Experiment with posting at different times

Finding the best period to post on Instagram is often a case of trial and error. What works one week might not work the next, so it’s significant to keep experimenting until you discover a period that generates consistent results.

Use Instagram’s analytics tool to view which posts perform best, or manually carry out the research with a spreadsheet.

If in the first week you post at 5 p.m. on Monday, transformation it to 6 p.m. on the second week. When you’ve found the times that get the most Instagram engagement, run the experiment again to prove that hypothesis and make sure the initial results weren’t just a fluke.

Consider the content of your Instagram posts

The content of your Instagram posts will likely have a bigger impact than period alone. Terrible posts will perform terribly at all times, while incredible posts will probably perform incredibly at all times. What you post will also impact engagement levels throughout the day.

For example, if your content contains or promotes something that people tend to do in the evenings, then it may land best in the late afternoon or evening. A wine corporation showcasing their latest bottle might have better luck posting on Instagram on a Friday or Saturday evening rather than a Monday morning, when a glass of wine likely isn’t on people’s minds.

When choosing the best times to post, consider:

• What’s the content of each post?
• What’s the objective of your Instagram post: To inspire? To inspire a purchase? To raise brand awareness?
• When will this content be most useful for your followers?

Sharing an art print with an inspiring quote? Try posting on a Monday morning, when people might require a hearty dose of encouragement to kick off their week.

Schedule posts for prime times (and tweak as essential)

You’re not always going to be online when your followers are. But, if your post’s achievement depends on you being around to engage with commenters, that alone could narrow the windows in which you schedule to post.

If your post isn’t reliant on you being around, you can use tools to schedule your posts to leave out at those times. The more consistent you are with your posting schedule, the easier it is to view whether the times you’ve chosen are working well or whether there’s room for advancement.

Monitoring how your social media posts are doing is crucial for generating maximum engagement levels, and it’s significant that you track, assess, and tweak throughout the year. Something that performs well during Summer at 8 a.m. on a Saturday may not get the same results at 8 a.m. on a Saturday in the middle of Winter.

So, while you should research the correct times to schedule your posts during high engagement periods, the procedure ideally should be fluid. Continue to assess results and experiment with different posting times as you attract more followers and commence promoting different products and different times of the year.

Maximize your posting schedule by finding the best period to post on Instagram

The best period for you to post on your Instagram account depends on your target spectators, your content, your industry, and the intent of your posts, all of which you can figure out by carrying out your own research and experiments. recall, period isn’t the only factor. ​​Instagram’s algorithm looks for content with high engagement—so make content worth engaging with.

commence by learning who your followers are through Instagram analytics, then dissect the posting times of your biggest competitors to figure out what works for your corner of the industry. Finally, post regularly and run your own posting experiments and continue to track, assess, and tweak your schedule to ensure engagement levels remain high throughout the year.