What is the Best Time to Post on Instagram? [2024 Guide with Cheatsheets]

In a perfect world, you publish a post on Instagram and it goes viral. You start getting thousands of followers, sponsored brand deals, and money for your content. 

But that doesn’t happen nearly as soon as you like. You’re not alone; many Instagram creators struggle with constant algorithm changes and have a hard time understanding their audiences’ needs. So what’s the secret sauce to driving engagement and “making it” as a creator? 

Posting content at the right time can make all the difference on Instagram. And while there are some general guidelines to help you, it’s the specifics that truly matter. The more you know about when to post on Instagram, when your audience is most active, and who engages with your content, the more you’ll drive higher engagement.

This is the only guide you’ll need to figure out when is the best time to post on Instagram in 2024.  

Jump to a specific section: 

• What is the Best Time to Post on Instagram? (in 2024)
• What is the Best Time to Post on Instagram? (for Different Industries)
• How to Find Your Best Time to Post on Instagram
• Best Practices Around Making the Most Out of Your Best Time to Post on Instagram

Let’s dive in.

[#TOC1]What is the Best Time to Post on Instagram? (in 2024)[#TOC1]

You’ll find a lot of studies on the best times and days to post on Instagram. And surprise surprise…they’re all different from one another.

To help you out, we studied the findings of our friends from Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Later — and surfaced some trends that can help you point in the right direction. Remember that all of these studies used different data sets and were based on different time zones. The figures below are just our best-bet, “middle-ground” estimates based on what they found.

To determine the best times to post on Instagram, we first compared the findings of Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Later side-by-side. And then we shortlisted the hours that were:

• The same across at least 2 studies (for example, both Sprout Social and Hootsuite found 12:00 PM to be the best time to post on Mondays)
• Closest to the hours or ranges in at least 2 studies for days where there were no overlaps

Multiple factors come into play when finding the best time to post on Instagram. This includes your timezone, your audience’s location and their engagement preferences, and your industry/niche. Since every creator has a unique audience and business, it’s important to create a custom marketing strategy that works specifically best for you. 

More importantly, don’t base your entire Instagram posting schedule on just a single research. While the studies cited above are great starting points, they’re based on the analysis of a diverse audience. Instead, consider multiple studies to get a sense of what’s working for others, start experimenting, and then dive into your own analytics to see what works best for you. 

Below, we’ve shared the findings of the 3 studies we based our best times on, in case you’re curious to know exactly what they found.

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a unified social media management platform. To help identify the best time of day to post on Instagram, the team collected data from users from various plan types, industries, and locations. 

Note: The findings from Sprout Social are all in a global timezone (i.e. the times work for almost all locations).

More from Sprout Social

• ‍Best Days to Post on Instagram: Tuesdays and Wednesdays‍
• Worst Days to Post on Instagram: Sundays

2. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is another popular social media management platform They analyzed data from over 30,000 Instagram posts from businesses of all sizes. They also worked with their own social media team to gather insights from posting to an audience of 170K Instagram followers. 

Note: The findings of Hootsuite are all in US Pacific Time.

More from Hootsuite

• ‍Best Time of the Week to Post on Instagram: Mid-week (at mid-day)‍
• Worst Time of the Week to Post on Instagram: Weekends

3. Later

Later is a social media scheduling and management platform for creators and small businesses. To find out the best time to post on Instagram, Later analyzed over 11M global image, video, carousel, and Instagram Reels posts. 

The team calculated engagement metrics from their users’ accounts across a range of industries and account sizes. Then, they categorized the data based on the hour and day posted to finally determine the best time to post on Instagram. 

Note: The findings of Later were calculated in local times across multiple time zones.

More from Later

• ‍Best Hours of the Day to Post on Instagram: Early hours of the day (in the AM)‍
• Worst Days and Times to Post on Instagram: Saturdays at 5:00 AM and Sundays at 1:00 PM ‍
• Best Time to Post Reels on Instagram: Mondays at 4 AM

[#TOC2]What is the Best Time to Post on Instagram (for Different Industries)?[#TOC2]

Our analysis shows that the best posting times on Instagram typically fall between early morning till late noon. But it’s important to note that the optimal time of posting also varies greatly by industry/sector since each niche has a unique audience with its unique traits. 

To help you figure out the best day to post on Instagram and what’s working for others in your niche, we studied two reports from our friends over at Sprout Social and Status Brew. Here’s what we uncovered.

Best Time To Post On Instagram For IT Brands 

If you’re an IT brand on the fence about Instagram, we’d recommend you take these best posting times and start experimenting today: 

• Best days to post on Instagram: Mondays
• Worst days to post on Instagram: Saturdays
• Worst time to post on Instagram: 1 AM to 7 AM

Need the above info to go? Here's an infograph:

Instagram isn’t just limited to B2C brands anymore. It’s 2024 and IT brands are just as much active on the platform, if not more, in comparison to B2C orgs. There are three key reasons why Instagram is the ideal platform for IT brands: community building, employer advocacy, and event marketing. 

Accenture, for example, has 276K followers with 880 posts on Instagram. The Fortune 500 shares behind-the-event-scenes, podcast snippets, office tours, interviews, and much more on its IG handle. By creating visually compelling content, the company not only puts a face on the brand, but builds a thriving community of active participants and attracts potential employees who’d want to work with them in the future. 

Best Time To Post On Instagram For Healthcare Brands And Influencers

If you’re a healthcare brand or influencer, follow these best times to post on Instagram:

• Best days to post on Instagram: Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram: Saturdays and Sundays
• Worst time to post on Instagram: 2 AM to 7 AM

Share the above info with your peers:

Post-pandemic, healthcare brands and professionals have been increasingly using social media platforms to educate the public on preventive measures and healthcare information. They’re also building communities for caregivers, patients, and medical professionals to facilitate more interactions.

Best Time To Post On Instagram For Education Brands

Wondering what are the best times to post on Instagram for education brands? 

• Best days to post on Instagram: Tuesdays and Fridays
• Worst days to post on Instagram: Sundays
• Worst time to post on Instagram: 11 PM to 3 AM

Here is a shareable version of the above table:

In 2022, higher education had the highest engagement rate out of any industry on Instagram.  This is a testament to the fact that whether you’re an online course creator or a university looking to expand marketing efforts, Instagram’s visually-rich content appeals to Gen Z and younger generations incredibly well. 

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Hospitality Brands

Here are some of the best times to post on Instagram for those in the hospitality industry: 

• Best days to post on Instagram: Tuesdays to Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram: Saturdays and Sundays
• Worst time to post on Instagram: 11 PM to 5 AM

Share the above info with your peers:

From catchy transitions in Reels to detailed travel itineraries on carousels, Instagram serves as a virtual travel guide for the modern traveler. In fact, 52% of travelers decided to visit a specific place after seeing its photos/videos from friends, family, or peers on social media. 

It’s obvious why hospitality brands leverage Instagram; it’s a visual-centric platform, making it ideal for hospitality brands to bring destinations to life and engage users. 

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Media and Entertainment Brands

For media and entertainment brands, the following information is key if they want to thrive on Instagram:

• Best days to post on Instagram: Mondays to Thursdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram: Saturdays and Sundays
• Worst time to post on Instagram: 10 PM to 2 AM

Download the following infograph and share it with your peers:

‍60% of Instagram’s user base is aged between 18 and 34 — the perfect target audience for many media and entertainment brands. Take Netflix for example; the brand creates relatable content, shares upcoming releases to build hype, runs specific campaigns to drive more eyeballs, and piggybacks on trending content like a meme using a popular series.

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Nonprofit

To really tap into the power of Instagram, nonprofit brands should leverage the following information:

• Best days to post on Instagram: Wednesdays
• Worst days to post on Instagram: Saturdays and Sundays
• Worst time to post on Instagram: 2 AM to 5 AM

Share the above table with your colleagues:

Times like the pandemic remind us just how crucial social support is. It also extends beyond global crises, such as animal abuse, climate change, fostering childcare, and providing for the underprivileged.  For nonprofit organizations, Instagram acts as a catalyst for their efforts and message. It helps them reach a wider audience and thus, helps them garner more support for their cause. 

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Restaurants

Here are some of the best times to post on Instagram for restaurants: 

• Best days to post on Instagram: Mondays
• Worst days to post on Instagram: Saturdays
• Worst time to post on Instagram: 11 PM to 2 AM

Spread the word by downloading and sharing this infograph:

Instagram is a goldmine for the bar and restaurant industry. You can showcase artfully crafted creations of your menu staples and indulge your audience in delicious content. 

Cedric Grolet is a true visionary who gives up-close-and-personal looks at his pastry innovations. People can experience and watch the creations come to life as he prepares pastries for his pâtisserie outside of Paris, overlooking Hyde Park. Grolet has built a massive online presence with 7.8 million followers on Instagram, opened up a new restaurant in London UK, and convinced his followers that it’s worth waiting in a line for hours to get a taste of his creation. 

[#TOC3]How to Find Your Best Time to Post on Instagram?[#TOC3]

Having some ground rules to play by when it comes to the best times to post on Instagram is a great starting point, but as you’ll notice, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. You’re unique, and so are your audience and their preferences, which means you need to create a custom strategy based on when your audience is most active. 

Posting on a workday like Wednesday 2 PM might work for food bloggers, but it might not be the ideal posting time for travel influencers. 

You need to zoom in on your target audience — understand who exactly follows you, the days they’re most active, and the times of the days they’re most active — and figure out your ideal time to post on Instagram. 

Luckily, there are a couple of different ways you can do this: 

Use Instagram Analytics (If You Have an Active Business or Creator Account)

You can get the exact time and days your followers are most active through Instagram insights. The only catch is that you need to have a business account or a creator account on Instagram. 

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to find your unique insights from your Instagram account: 

1. Go to Your Profile 

Click on your profile picture at the bottom right corner of the screen to open your profile. 

2. Tap the “Professional Dashboard” button 

Alternatively, you can also click on the menu icon at the upper-right corner of your profile, and tap Insights. 

3. Scroll down to get detailed analytics

Here you can find out a detailed breakdown of how many accounts you’ve reached, the ones you’ve engaged with, and your follower growth over a specific time period.

You can even dive deeper and tap into each of these analytics to get a closer look at your audience.

For example, you can find out what type of content performs best for your audience, who your audience is, and where they are located. Check the days and times when they’re most active, and even get demographic data of your audience.

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Use a Social Analytics Tool

Social media analytics tools drill down on the specifics of your Instagram profile, which otherwise may go unnoticed. These platforms provide historical data beyond 90 days, a single place to manage multiple social profiles, and the ability to share performance reports with other stakeholders. 

You can use past performance data as your guiding star and assess if your social media strategy is performing as desired. From there on, you can test different times, content formats, hashtags, strategic moves (like collaborations, profile takeovers, contests) to see what works best. 

Beyond analytics, they also act as scheduling tools and empower creators and teams with advanced features like activity heatmaps and post tagging. 

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide the must-have and nice-to-have features you’re looking for in a social media analytics tool. 

Some of the tools we recommend include: 

• Sprout Social 
• Hootsuite 
• Later 
• Buffer
• HubSpot 
• BuzzSumo 

Use Your Own Judgment

Tracking Instagram insights on a spreadsheet is undeniably time consuming, but its pros can make it a worthy choice for certain creators. 

For instance, spreadsheets allow you to structure and organize data as per your specific needs, track custom metrics (think revenue generated, collaborations, partner branding, etc.), and integrate with other data sources. 

While this option isn’t suitable for professional creators and teams, you may want to consider it if:

• You have a small profile and thus, don’t have sufficient data in your Instagram insights tab
• You have a limited budget and don’t intend to invest in a social analytics tool right away

The core idea is that you can track all of your posts (along with the days and times you posted them) onto a spreadsheet, and see which of them got the most likes and comments. And use that information to uncover common trends.  

Note that you’ll be measuring data at the expense of convenience, ease of use, and scalability if you do end up choosing this option. 

[#TOC4]Best Practices Around Making the Most Out of Your Best Time to Post on Instagram[#TOC4]

Tip #1: Be Consistent With Your Posting And Testing

Like everything else, consistency is key for Instagram too. The more consistent your posts are, the wider net you can cast and increase visibility among your audience. 

A general notion is that consistency equals how frequently you post. We’ve found that consistency on social platforms, specifically visual-centric ones like Instagram, can mean a lot of things, including but not limited to:

• Brand voice and design; how your content looks like
• Video editing; what your editing style is 
• Posting frequency; how often you post
• Posting time; at what time you post 

As you become more consistent in each of these aspects, your brand identity will become stronger — thus, helping you build trust with your audience. They’ll know who you are, what type of content to expect from you, and when to expect it, giving them a reason to engage with your content. 

An efficient way to build consistency in your brand voice, design, and editing style is to use an Instagram video editor. For posting schedules, you can use scheduling tools like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or Later. 

Tip #2: Take The Best Time To Post On Instagram Guides (Like This) With A Grain Of Salt

Resources can be your bible when marketing on Instagram, and the internet has a lot of it. Researching about the best times to post can give you a fair idea of where the potential lies. Guides can help you with detailed research of when to post depending on which industry you are from and you can further utilize that to figure out your unique best posting times. 

Tip #3: Leverage Video Content For Instagram For Even More Engagement

The reach of Instagram reels in accounts with up to 500 followers is a whopping 892%, while the reach of images in the same accounts is only 77%. Video content is a clear-cut choice for creators and teams looking to grow their following and engagement rate. 

A great example is Rachael DeVaux, popularly known by the Instagram handle RachaelGoodEats. Rachael is a registered dietitian and trainer who regularly shares healthy recipes and fitness tips. When the pandemic hit, she started hosting Instagram Lives. Eventually, they became so popular, she had to organize them multiple times throughout the week for her audience. Her recent Reel ”High-Protein Froyo” has garnered 507K views and 16,391 likes.

Tip #4: Use Video Templates For Stronger Brand Resonance And Faster Production

Let’s reverse engineer for a hot second here: to find the best time to post on Instagram, you need to consistently post content. That requires dedicated effort, time and resources in content ideation, production, editing, and posting. That’s a lot! 

By using video templates, you can significantly cut down your production time and efforts while still delivering good quality content. Besides, templates can help you build your brand’s style and vibe, and bring a sense of familiarity for people. This way, when your audience sees a post on their Instagram feed, they’ll immediately recognize it’s from you! 

For this, you can use tools like VEED, a simple yet powerful video editing platform, that lets you record, edit, repurpose, and share videos easily. It provides AI-powered video editing features like auto-subtitles, AI avatars, eye correction, magic cut, and pre-designed templates to help you produce high-production quality videos. 

VEED’s templates are carefully designed with the best Instagram video dimensions so you don’t have to worry about the aspect ratio or all the other jazz. Even if you have a landscape recording and need to resize your video for Instagram, VEED can do it in just a single click. 

The best part? No need to download heavy software. Or watch hours of tutorials just to make a simple transition. All you need to do is create an account, select a template, and edit your video.  

Start Creating Content Today! 

The best time to start creating content on Instagram was yesterday, and the next is today. There’s immense potential on Instagram for creators and businesses to build a community, drive engagement, and grow revenue streams. Knowing when to post is a crucial factor that’ll determine your content’s reach and engagement, and help you achieve your goals in the long haul.