Uncover the Best Time To Post on Instagram in 2024 - Shopify (2024)

On social media platforms, posting content when your target audience isn’t online means most of them will never see 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 want on Instagram (or, even worse, you’re greeted by crickets) you might be posting at the wrong time.

To determine the best time to post on Instagram, many businesses have examined engagement metrics for millions of Instagram posts across the globe. Ahead, find that research consolidated to provide the best times to post on Instagram for 2024. And, learn how the best posting times for your specific audience 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: 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
• Wednesday: 11 a.m.
• Thursday: 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.
• Friday: 4 p.m.
• Saturday: 9 a.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 article, “most frequently” means at least two of the five publications noted the time as a high engagement time to post on Instagram.

Based on the consolidated information, additional analysis shows:

• Monday and Thursday commonly see 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. as effective posting times, with Thursday at 11 a.m. appearing in four sources
• Tuesday shows a strong morning presence, especially around 9 a.m., as the best time to post
• Wednesday has a high agreement on 11 a.m. being effective for the Instagram audience, based on four sources
• Friday afternoon, especially around 4 p.m., seems to be a peak time to post
• Early Saturday morning at 9 a.m. consistently appears as the best posting time
• Sunday evening, particularly around 7 p.m., is a noteworthy time for high-engagement Instagram posts

The best time to post on Instagram for your audience

Before you schedule all your content to go out at the times listed above, you also need to consider your target audience and your content intent. Take into account people’s daily habits and schedules (like wake up time or lunch break), what kind of content you publish, past data from your own Instagram account, and your target audience’s habits.

If you’re a juice brand using Instagram marketing to promote your new breakfast smoothie, for example, catching Instagram users when they wake up is a good tactic. But if you’re selling software subscriptions to enterprise companies, you might find 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 tell you more about the best times to post. You may find that content lands in different markets at different times. Later, learn how to analyze your post data to find your sweet spot.

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

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

Generally, this will mean in the early morning, when people are just waking up and reaching for their mobile devices, when people go 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 good 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 show that morning posts generate more engagement, your brand might be the outlier.

Remember that averages don’t necessarily reflect your target audience’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 time 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 want your message to reach the right people at the right time. This is why it’s important to consider the content of your posts too.

For example, your sandwich shop might share 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, 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 certain products and brand categories.

That’s why it’s essential to do your own research to figure out when the best time to post on Instagram is for your own audience. Beyond that, remember 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 time.

“It’s really important to remember,” says Taylor Loren in an edited excerpt from the 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 active community should still be your number one priority.”

Best time to post on Instagram by industry

Based on data from Social Pilot’s own analysis of more than 500,000 Instagram posts, the following posting times are the best by industry. Again, take this data as a starting point and read on to the next section to determine the best posting times for your unique brand and audience.

Best time to post on Instagram for travel 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 time to post on Instagram for fashion brands

• Weekdays: 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
• Weekends: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Best time to post on Instagram for fitness and wellness brands

• Weekdays: 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
• Weekends: 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Best time 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 find the best time 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 time” for every type of brand.

Use Instagram insights to understand your followers

If you have an Instagram business account, you can see the demographics of your followers, including their age, gender, and location within Instagram insights. This will help you schedule your posts in the right time zone. For example, if 75% of your audience is in New York, you can schedule your posts in the eastern time 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, go to your profile and tap the menu in the top right corner
2. Tap Insights
3. Tap Total Followers
4. Toggle the date range to capture a wider time period
5. Scroll to see audience locations, demographics and most active times

Instagram insights also shows you the performance of each post, so you can start tracking it based on time and day posted and type of content shared.

Take note of your competitors’ social media strategy

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 help 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 audience 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 want to dig into this manually, there are apps that can help. 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 help you compare competitor data side by side:

Experiment with posting at different times

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

Use Instagram’s analytics tool to see 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, change 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 theory 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 time 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 company 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 goal of your Instagram post: To inspire? To encourage 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 need a hearty dose of inspiration to kick off their week.

Schedule posts for prime times (and tweak as necessary)

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

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

Monitoring how your social media posts are doing is crucial for generating maximum engagement levels, and it’s important that you track, measure, and tweak throughout the year. Something that performs well in 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 right times to schedule your posts during high engagement periods, the process ideally should be fluid. Continue to measure results and experiment with different posting times as you attract more followers and start promoting different products and different times of the year.

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

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

Start 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, measure, and tweak your schedule to ensure engagement levels remain high throughout the year.