Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2024

In the world of Instagram, everyone is eager to reach a wider audience. But does the timing of your posts really matter, or is it all about likes, shares, and comments?

In reality, it’s a mix of everything. While factors like content quality, posting consistency, and audience interaction are key, timing is also crucial. Posting when your audience is active is essential to get likes and comments.

In this blog, we have highlighted the best time for you to post on Instagram to enhance your visibility and engagement. By identifying and using optimal posting times, you can make sure that your posts get noticed and boost your reach.

Best Time to Post on Instagram

Our study of over 50,000 Instagram accounts explores the best average times to post on Instagram for each day of the week. These findings will help you in your ongoing search for the ideal posting times.

Best Time to Post on Instagram on Monday

The best time to post on Instagram on Monday is 11 am to 1 am. As people settle into their work week, they’re more likely to browse through their Instagram feeds, providing a prime opportunity to grab their attention.

Best Time to Post on Instagram on Tuesday

The best time to post on Instagram on Tuesday is 11 am to 1 am. 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.

Best Time to Post on Instagram on Wednesday

The best time to post on Instagram on Wednesday is 9 am, 2 pm, and 6 pm. Wednesdays offer a trifecta of perfect posting windows. Shine early birds with an 8 a.m. post, capture the mid-morning energy with a 2 p.m. post, and conquer the late afternoon slump with a 6 p.m. post. By aligning your content as per these slots, you’ll maximize visibility and engagement.

Best Time to Post on Instagram on Thursday

The best time to post on Instagram on Thursday is 7 am, 2 pm and 9 pm. On Thursdays, seize the golden opportunity to captivate your audience during their lunch break at 3 p.m. This mid-afternoon slot is perfect for engaging users during a common lull in their day.

Additionally, the 9 p.m. time slot, after the workday ends, is ideal for grabbing the attention of busy professionals winding down and scrolling through Instagram.

Best Time to Post on Instagram on Friday

The best time to post on Instagram on Friday is 7 am, 12 pm to 1 pm and 8 pm to 9 pm. As the weekend nears, people are eagerly looking for distractions. Capitalize on this by posting during these time slots.

Best Time to Post on Instagram on Saturday

The best time to post on Instagram on Saturday is from 12 pm to 3 pm. Saturday mornings are made for Instagram scrolling, so make the most of it by posting between the time slots to maximize your engagement rate.

Best Time to Post on Instagram on Sunday

The best time to post on Instagram on Sunday is between 1 pm and 5 pm. At last, it’s the end of the week. Most of the audience members enjoy their relaxed morning routines or are busy with their families. End your week on a high note by sharing your dazzling content between 1 pm and 5 pm on Sundays.

Now you know the good time slots to post on Instagram and enhance your visibility and engagement. However, in our experience, it’s hard to generalize the Instagram posting times for a wide range of businesses with different niches and target audiences.

Katelyn Rhoades, a social media expert, shares in her Instagram Masterclass, “We began journaling our posting dates and times to see which ones performed best. The optimal day can vary across industries.”

She continues, “Think about your audience: When will they most likely be on their phones? Are they working Monday through Friday? Are they at home? Tailor your posting times to your audience’s habits. Record your times and review them weekly to identify patterns and refine your strategy.”

Hence, it is always better to find a personalized time frame for your business. To avoid the hassle of manually scouring through your data, you can use SocialPilot’s proprietary Instagram best-timing finder tool. This free AI-powered tool fetches your unique Instagram data, does the math by itself, and shows you the best times to post on Instagram, tailored to your audience and profile.

In a Nutshell

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:

• Before and after work hours (6 am-9 am, 5 pm-6 pm): Well, that’s not surprising. People tend to see their Instagram feed while commuting to work in the early morning or after winding up their workday and returning home.
• Lunch hours (12 pm-2 pm): People are likely to check their Instagram during downtime, so posting around lunch hours is also a fair shot.
• Another average deduction around the best days to post on Instagram suggests:
• Weekends are the least favorite days to post anything on Instagram. The majority of your audience is usually out, busy with their personal lives. But you can still post until 1 pm to 5 pm.

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, suggest 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 Time to Post Stories on Instagram

Research conducted by SocialPilot on 50,000 Instagram accounts indicates that the best time to post Instagram Stories is between during lunch breaks, between 11 am and 4 pm. These findings will assist you in your ongoing search for the ideal posting times.

Now you know the best time frames to post on Instagram stories and enhance your visibility and engagement. However, just like Instagram posts, it’s difficult to be specific about the average Instagram story posting times for different businesses with varied target audiences.

While we talk about Instagram stories, reels are the new favorite on Instagram. Everybody is using it. New Instagram statistics suggest that 58% of marketers will leverage reels in 2024. 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.

Before we move ahead, here are other recent related studies:

• The best time to post on Facebook
• The best time to post on Twitter
• The best time to post on LinkedIn
• The best time to post on TikTok
• The best time to post reels on Instagram

What Are the Best Times to Upload 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:

Note: All the times are expressed in EST

Best Time to Upload 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

Right 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: 11 am to 1 pm and 4 pm to 6 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 6 pm to 10 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

Optimal 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

Good 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

How to Find the Good 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 optimal 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 using SocialPilot

Optimal Instagram posting time 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 Right 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 good time to upload 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’s Instagram scheduler 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 quickly.

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, the effective solution is to use Instagram automation software.

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.