Original study · 6,430 posts

Best time to post on Instagram

The best time to post on Instagram is 8 p.m. Eastern, and the best day is Friday, in a study of 6,430 posts from 611 accounts in US Eastern cities. The differences are small: the median post earned between 0.93× and 1.04× its account’s usual likes in every hour with enough posts, so what you post matters more than when.

Measured by OneiroseaUpdated October 1, 2026

Best times to post on Instagram, hour by hour

	12 a			3 a			6 a			9 a			12 p			3 p			6 p			9 p
Mon	Monday 12 a.m.: too few posts	Monday 1 a.m.: too few posts	Monday 2 a.m.: too few posts	Monday 3 a.m.: too few posts	Monday 4 a.m.: too few posts	Monday 5 a.m.: too few posts	Monday 6 a.m.: too few posts	Monday 7 a.m.: too few posts	Monday 8 a.m.: 0.96×	Monday 9 a.m.: 0.97×	Monday 10 a.m.: 0.95×	Monday 11 a.m.: 1.03×	Monday 12 p.m.: 1.03×	Monday 1 p.m.: 1.00×	Monday 2 p.m.: 0.90×	Monday 3 p.m.: 1.00×	Monday 4 p.m.: 1.00×	Monday 5 p.m.: 1.00×	Monday 6 p.m.: 1.14×	Monday 7 p.m.: 0.94×	Monday 8 p.m.: 1.10×	Monday 9 p.m.: 1.08×	Monday 10 p.m.: too few posts	Monday 11 p.m.: too few posts
Tue	Tuesday 12 a.m.: too few posts	Tuesday 1 a.m.: too few posts	Tuesday 2 a.m.: too few posts	Tuesday 3 a.m.: too few posts	Tuesday 4 a.m.: too few posts	Tuesday 5 a.m.: too few posts	Tuesday 6 a.m.: too few posts	Tuesday 7 a.m.: too few posts	Tuesday 8 a.m.: 0.94×	Tuesday 9 a.m.: 1.09×	Tuesday 10 a.m.: 0.83×	Tuesday 11 a.m.: 0.93×	Tuesday 12 p.m.: 1.01×	Tuesday 1 p.m.: 1.04×	Tuesday 2 p.m.: 1.00×	Tuesday 3 p.m.: 1.00×	Tuesday 4 p.m.: 0.97×	Tuesday 5 p.m.: 1.03×	Tuesday 6 p.m.: 1.00×	Tuesday 7 p.m.: 0.89×	Tuesday 8 p.m.: 0.94×	Tuesday 9 p.m.: 0.70×	Tuesday 10 p.m.: 1.00×	Tuesday 11 p.m.: too few posts
Wed	Wednesday 12 a.m.: too few posts	Wednesday 1 a.m.: too few posts	Wednesday 2 a.m.: too few posts	Wednesday 3 a.m.: too few posts	Wednesday 4 a.m.: too few posts	Wednesday 5 a.m.: too few posts	Wednesday 6 a.m.: too few posts	Wednesday 7 a.m.: too few posts	Wednesday 8 a.m.: 0.99×	Wednesday 9 a.m.: 1.06×	Wednesday 10 a.m.: 0.87×	Wednesday 11 a.m.: 1.00×	Wednesday 12 p.m.: 1.00×	Wednesday 1 p.m.: 1.02×	Wednesday 2 p.m.: 0.88×	Wednesday 3 p.m.: 0.95×	Wednesday 4 p.m.: 0.91×	Wednesday 5 p.m.: 0.91×	Wednesday 6 p.m.: 0.96×	Wednesday 7 p.m.: 1.09×	Wednesday 8 p.m.: 1.01×	Wednesday 9 p.m.: 0.99×	Wednesday 10 p.m.: too few posts	Wednesday 11 p.m.: too few posts
Thu	Thursday 12 a.m.: too few posts	Thursday 1 a.m.: too few posts	Thursday 2 a.m.: too few posts	Thursday 3 a.m.: too few posts	Thursday 4 a.m.: too few posts	Thursday 5 a.m.: too few posts	Thursday 6 a.m.: too few posts	Thursday 7 a.m.: too few posts	Thursday 8 a.m.: 1.04×	Thursday 9 a.m.: 1.00×	Thursday 10 a.m.: 1.02×	Thursday 11 a.m.: 1.00×	Thursday 12 p.m.: 1.17×	Thursday 1 p.m.: 1.15×	Thursday 2 p.m.: 1.06×	Thursday 3 p.m.: 1.06×	Thursday 4 p.m.: 1.05×	Thursday 5 p.m.: 0.99×	Thursday 6 p.m.: 1.01×	Thursday 7 p.m.: 1.04×	Thursday 8 p.m.: 1.00×	Thursday 9 p.m.: 0.92×	Thursday 10 p.m.: too few posts	Thursday 11 p.m.: too few posts
Fri	Friday 12 a.m.: too few posts	Friday 1 a.m.: too few posts	Friday 2 a.m.: too few posts	Friday 3 a.m.: too few posts	Friday 4 a.m.: too few posts	Friday 5 a.m.: too few posts	Friday 6 a.m.: too few posts	Friday 7 a.m.: too few posts	Friday 8 a.m.: 1.10×	Friday 9 a.m.: 1.04×	Friday 10 a.m.: 1.00×	Friday 11 a.m.: 1.22×	Friday 12 p.m.: 1.00×	Friday 1 p.m.: 1.00×	Friday 2 p.m.: 0.99×	Friday 3 p.m.: 1.01×	Friday 4 p.m.: 1.05×	Friday 5 p.m.: 1.14×	Friday 6 p.m.: 0.98×	Friday 7 p.m.: 1.22×	Friday 8 p.m.: 1.32×	Friday 9 p.m.: 1.00×	Friday 10 p.m.: too few posts	Friday 11 p.m.: too few posts
Sat	Saturday 12 a.m.: too few posts	Saturday 1 a.m.: too few posts	Saturday 2 a.m.: too few posts	Saturday 3 a.m.: too few posts	Saturday 4 a.m.: too few posts	Saturday 5 a.m.: too few posts	Saturday 6 a.m.: too few posts	Saturday 7 a.m.: too few posts	Saturday 8 a.m.: too few posts	Saturday 9 a.m.: 0.90×	Saturday 10 a.m.: 0.72×	Saturday 11 a.m.: 1.00×	Saturday 12 p.m.: 0.97×	Saturday 1 p.m.: 0.86×	Saturday 2 p.m.: 1.05×	Saturday 3 p.m.: 0.98×	Saturday 4 p.m.: 1.10×	Saturday 5 p.m.: 1.00×	Saturday 6 p.m.: 1.05×	Saturday 7 p.m.: 1.01×	Saturday 8 p.m.: 1.05×	Saturday 9 p.m.: too few posts	Saturday 10 p.m.: too few posts	Saturday 11 p.m.: too few posts
Sun	Sunday 12 a.m.: too few posts	Sunday 1 a.m.: too few posts	Sunday 2 a.m.: too few posts	Sunday 3 a.m.: too few posts	Sunday 4 a.m.: too few posts	Sunday 5 a.m.: too few posts	Sunday 6 a.m.: too few posts	Sunday 7 a.m.: too few posts	Sunday 8 a.m.: too few posts	Sunday 9 a.m.: 1.03×	Sunday 10 a.m.: 1.05×	Sunday 11 a.m.: 0.91×	Sunday 12 p.m.: 0.88×	Sunday 1 p.m.: 0.97×	Sunday 2 p.m.: 1.08×	Sunday 3 p.m.: 0.92×	Sunday 4 p.m.: 1.16×	Sunday 5 p.m.: too few posts	Sunday 6 p.m.: 1.04×	Sunday 7 p.m.: 1.18×	Sunday 8 p.m.: 1.10×	Sunday 9 p.m.: 0.90×	Sunday 10 p.m.: too few posts	Sunday 11 p.m.: too few posts

Eastern time. Darker cells did better against each account’s usual likes; blank cells had too few posts to say.

The most posts went up at 12 p.m. (513 of them, 1.00×), but 8 p.m. did better, at 1.04×.

Best day to post on Instagram

Friday is the best day to post on Instagram: the median post earned 1.04× its account’s usual likes, ahead of Thursday at 1.02×. Wednesday was the weakest, at 0.97×.

Day	Against usual likes	posts
Friday	1.04×	978
Thursday	1.02×	960
Monday	1.00×	1,005
Tuesday	1.00×	1,092
Saturday	1.00×	655
Sunday	1.00×	603
Wednesday	0.97×	1,137

Best time to post on Instagram, day by day

Best time to post on Instagram on Monday

On Monday, posts did best at 6 p.m. (1.14×), 8 p.m. (1.10×) and 9 p.m. (1.08×), against each account’s usual likes.

Best time to post on Instagram on Tuesday

On Tuesday, posts did best at 9 a.m. (1.09×), 1 p.m. (1.04×) and 5 p.m. (1.03×), against each account’s usual likes.

Best time to post on Instagram on Wednesday

On Wednesday, posts did best at 7 p.m. (1.09×), 9 a.m. (1.06×) and 1 p.m. (1.02×), against each account’s usual likes.

Best time to post on Instagram on Thursday

On Thursday, posts did best at 12 p.m. (1.17×), 1 p.m. (1.15×) and 2 p.m. (1.06×), against each account’s usual likes.

Best time to post on Instagram on Friday

On Friday, posts did best at 8 p.m. (1.32×), 11 a.m. (1.22×) and 7 p.m. (1.22×), against each account’s usual likes.

Best time to post on Instagram on Saturday

On Saturday, posts did best at 4 p.m. (1.10×), 2 p.m. (1.05×) and 6 p.m. (1.05×), against each account’s usual likes.

Best time to post on Instagram on Sunday

On Sunday, posts did best at 7 p.m. (1.18×), 4 p.m. (1.16×) and 8 p.m. (1.10×), against each account’s usual likes.

Best time to post Reels on Instagram

Across 3,209 Reels, the best hours were 6 p.m. (1.09×), 4 p.m. (1.05×) and 8 a.m. (1.04×) Eastern.

Worst time to post on Instagram

The weakest hours with enough posts were 10 a.m. (0.93×) and 9 p.m. (0.93×) Eastern.

How this study works

We searched Instagram for local businesses and creators in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando and Charlotte, with 24 niche terms from “bakery”, “coffee shop” and “restaurant” to “food truck”, and kept public accounts with at least 1,000 followers whose name or bio names their city. Every one is on US Eastern time, so each post’s hour is the hour it went up where the account is.

From each account we read its latest posts and Reels and kept those from the past year: 6,430 posts from 611 accounts in US Eastern cities, posted between October 1, 2025 and October 1, 2026. Each post is scored against its own account’s median likes over that year, so a large account cannot outweigh a small one, and a score of 1.10× means a tenth more likes than that account usually gets.

An hour or day counts only with enough posts behind it: 150 for an hour of the week, 30 for one day’s hour. The study measures likes, not reach or watch time, and shows when posts did well, not that the hour made them do well.

Common questions

When is the best time to post on Instagram?

What is the best day to post on Instagram?

Friday is the best day to post on Instagram: the median post earned 1.04× its account’s usual likes, ahead of Thursday at 1.02×. Wednesday was the weakest, at 0.97×.

What is the best time to post on Instagram today?

It depends on the day. In our study the best hour of each day, Eastern time, was: Monday 6 p.m., Tuesday 9 a.m., Wednesday 7 p.m., Thursday 12 p.m., Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 4 p.m. and Sunday 7 p.m.

What is the best time to post Reels on Instagram?

Across 3,209 Reels, the best hours were 6 p.m. (1.09×), 4 p.m. (1.05×) and 8 a.m. (1.04×) Eastern.

What is the worst time to post on Instagram?

The weakest hours with enough posts were 10 a.m. (0.93×) and 9 p.m. (0.93×) Eastern.