Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2025 ( 7 Million Posts Data)

Posting top-tier content on Instagram and still hearing crickets? You’re not alone. Great visuals and captions matter, but if your audience isn’t online when you post, your efforts might go unnoticed.

Timing is everything. When you post during peak activity hours, your chances of getting seen, liked, and shared shoot up.  Find out when your audience is most active — and post right before that peak to maximize reach and engagement.

In this guide, we break down the best times to post on Instagram, backed by data from 50K+ accounts and over 7 million posts. Whether you’re a brand, creator, or marketer trying to crack the engagement code, this is for you.

When Is the Common Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2025?

We have identified the common best times to post on IG by averaging data across industries, countries, and audience behaviors. This is aimed at highlighting general patterns of audience activity to help maximize your content’s impact.

Your Instagram Insights remain key for precise, personalized timing.

Our social media experts observed a strong mid-morning to mid-afternoon dominance on weekdays, particularly Monday to Thursday, suggesting active engagement during work breaks. However, on Friday’s optimal window falls just between 11 am to 2 pm, possibly due to weekend anticipation.

At the same time, on weekends, specifically Saturday (9 am to 4 pm) and Sunday (10 am to 4 pm), show broader engagement periods, reflecting more flexible user schedules.

The consistent presence of midday hours across all days indicates a general habit of users checking feeds during lunch or brief breaks.

What Are the Best Times to Post on Instagram by Day? 

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

Best Time to Post: 5 am and 11 pm.

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

Best Time to Post: 5 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

Best Time to Post: 3 am to 5 am.

Wednesdays are a sweet spot for Instagram engagement, especially if you post early. Content shared in the pre-dawn hours often performs well, with another noticeable boost around mid-morning and early afternoon. Posting during these peak times can help your content reach more people and keep engagement steady throughout the day.

Best Time to Post on Instagram on Thursday

Best Time to Post: 4 am to 5 am.

Thursdays tend to see strong engagement early in the morning, but that’s not your only chance to shine. A post around 3 p.m. can catch users during a midday scroll, while a 9 p.m. slot works well for connecting with people relaxing after a long day.

Best Time to Post on Instagram on Friday

Best Time to Post: 3 am to 6 am.

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

Best Time to Post: 5 am.

Early mornings on Saturday are surprisingly effective for engagement, as many users check Instagram soon after waking up. Posting around 5 a.m. lets you capture this fresh audience before the day’s activities take over.

Best Time to Post on Instagram on Sunday

Best Time to Post: 12 am, 5 am, and 11 pm.

Sundays see engagement spikes at unconventional hours. Posting right after midnight or early at 5 a.m. can catch night owls and early risers alike, while an 11 p.m. post taps into late-night scrollers wrapping up their weekend.

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.”

Instead of guessing, you can use SocialPilot’s AI-powered Instagram Timing Tool to find the best times to post on Instagram tailored to your niche audience. This is a free extension of SocialPilot’s in-app best time to post indicator.

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 of 50K accounts and 7 million posts, 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 work hours (3 am to 6 am): Well, that’s not surprising. People tend to see their Instagram feed while commuting to work in the early morning.
• Middays (11 pm-2 pm): People are likely to check their Instagram during the middle of their days, just after the rushed mornings, so posting before lunch is also a fair shot.
• Another average deduction around the best days to post on Instagram suggests that weekends are the least favorite days to post anything on Instagram. The majority of your audience is usually out, busy with their personal lives.

Times and Days to Avoid Posting on Instagram

Knowing the best times to post on Instagram gives your content a significant edge, but it’s just as crucial to understand the worst times to post so you can avoid wasting your efforts.

Generally, Saturdays see the lowest overall engagement throughout the week, making it a less ideal day to share your content.

Apart from that, our teams also found that the worst time to post on Instagram are Thursdays at 3 am and Saturdays at 11 pm. The reason these days are not recommended because:

• Midweek Fatigue + odd/off hours on Thursday mean your audience is asleep or inactive, especially in most time zones.
• Late weekend evenings usually see a drop in social media usage. There’ll be high chance that your audience is either offline, distracted, or winding down, thus, making it a low-engagement slot for content.

So while timing plays a big role in performance, it’s equally important to pair it with strong strategies that encourage interaction. If you want to push your reach further, focusing on ways to get more engagement on Instagram can ensure your posts perform well even outside the peak posting hours.

Best Time to Post Stories on Instagram

If you’re using stories to connect with your target audience, timing matters just as much as it does for regular posts. Just like the suitable time to post on Instagram, stories also have specific hours for better engagement.

Research conducted by SocialPilot on 50,000 Instagram accounts indicates that the best times to post Instagram Stories are during lunch breaks, between 11 am and 2 pm. These findings will assist you in your ongoing search for the ideal posting times.

Our research has yielded us interesting results for the best time to post reels on Instagram.

While these are solid averages, keep in mind that, like with posts, the best time to post Instagram Stories will vary by industry and audience behavior.

Experimentation and analytics are key!

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

• Best Time to Post on Social Media Platforms 
• 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

What Are the Best Times to Upload on Instagram by Industry?

As businesses and influencers strive to captivate their target audiences, understanding the right time to post on Instagram becomes a strategic game-changer. Each industry has unique characteristics, preferences, and audience behaviors, making it essential to tailor your posting schedule accordingly.

Based on our analysis of 50k accounts and 7 million posts, weekends may not work for all industries; some, like fashion, actually see higher engagement during those times. That’s why our study segmented the best times to post Instagram content by industry, helping you align your posting strategy with what works best in your niche.

Best Time to Upload on Instagram for Travel and Tourism

The best Instagram posting times for travel and tourism brands are midday and early evening. Post on weekdays from 12 pm to 2 pm and 6 pm to 9 pm, and on weekends from 11 AM–1 PM and 4–6 PM. Tuesdays and Thursdays drive the highest engagement.

Best times to post on Instagram for Travel and Tourism:

• Weekdays: 12 pm to 2 pm; 6 pm to 9 pm.
• Weekends:  11 am to 1 pm; 4 pm to 6 pm

Best days to post on Instagram for Travel and Tourism: Tuesdays and Thursdays

Best Time to Post on Instagram for Fashion and Apparel

For those in the fashion and apparel industry, the prime Instagram posting times are weekdays from 1 PM to 2 PM and 8 PM to 9 PM, and weekends from 11 AM to 1 PM and 4 PM to 6 PM. Saturdays are particularly effective. These windows align with users’ lunch breaks and evening scroll times, when they’re actively seeking outfit inspiration and trends.

Best times to post on Instagram for Fashion and Apparel:

• Weekdays: 1 pm to 2 pm and 8 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

For Fitness and Wellness brands, the best Instagram posting times are early mornings 6 am to 8 am and evenings 6 pm to 10 pm on weekdays, with weekends favoring mornings 8 am to 10 am and late afternoons 4 pm to 6 pm.

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

Best Time to Post on Instagram for Food and Beverage

For Food and Beverage brands, the best Instagram posting times align with meal cravings: weekdays from 11 am to 1 pm, and weekends from 7 am to 9 am and 5 pm to 7 pm. These windows capture users during lunch, breakfast, and dinner prep or leisure times.

Best times to post on Instagram for Food and Beverage:

• Weekdays: 11 am to 1 pm
• Weekends:  7 am to 9 am; 5 pm to 7 pm

Best days to post on Instagram for Food and Beverage: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

Best Time to Post on Instagram for Digital Marketing/Social Media

For digital marketers, your audience is typically online during working hours, making that the ideal time to post Instagram content for industry professionals.

Ideal posting windows on weekdays are from 7 am to 11 am and 1 pm to 3 pm, capturing peak professional activity. Weekends show limited engagement, with occasional effective posts between 10 am and 12 pm.

Best times to post on Instagram for Digital Marketing/Social Media:

• Weekdays: 7 am to 11 am; 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

The best time to post Instagram content for tech companies is often early morning or late morning on weekdays, when professionals are checking in before work meetings.

Best times to post on Instagram for IT Brands:

• Weekdays: 4 am to 6 am; 10 am to 12 pm
• Weekends: 1 pm and 3 pm; 8 pm to 9 pm

Best days to post on Instagram for IT Brands: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday

Best Times to Post on Instagram by Country/Region

While we’ve shared the common best times to post on Instagram, these are general averages. Sometimes, the most effective approach could be to tailor your schedule to your audience.

If your audience is heavily concentrated in one of the nations below, these times are your best bet for maximizing reach and engagement. However, if your followers are spread across multiple regions, try to find overlap in these peak times to ensure your content is seen by a broader international audience.

When Should You Post on Instagram in USA?

The best time to post on Instagram in the USA is affected by many local factors, such as work/school schedules, multiple time zones, holidays and seasonal changes, and crucially, the unique daily habits and content preferences of your specific target audience within those varying regions.

When Should You Post on Instagram in Canada?

Optimizing Instagram posts in Canada is tricky due to six time zones and concentrated urban populations. You need to consider factors such as rush hour traffic, midday meal periods, evening recreational browsing habits, and how seasonal shifts impact outdoor activities when planning your approach.

When Should You Post on Instagram in Australia? 

Different factors significantly impact the best time to post on Instagram if you are in Australia. From its multiple time zones and the population concentration on the east coast to local culture and daily habits, all these elements profoundly affect the optimal posting times in Australia.

When Should You Post on Instagram in Bangladesh?

You can gain maximum engagement on your Instagram posts in Bangladesh by timing them for the best slots. These times are influenced by unique local factors such as its single time zone, high population density, long commute times in urban centers, daily prayer times, and major national and religious festivities.

When Should You Post on Instagram in Philippines?

To find the best times to post on Instagram in the Philippines, understand that it is significantly affected by factors such as its single time zone, exceptionally high mobile penetration, distinct commute timings, and more.

When Should You Post on Instagram in Pakistan? 

In Pakistan, optimal Instagram posting is shaped by its single time zone, high mobile use, and long urban commutes. Crucially, daily prayer times, Friday midday prayers, and Ramadan’s unique schedule significantly alter engagement.

When Should You Post on Instagram in Europe?

Optimizing Instagram posts in Europe is challenging due to multiple time zones and diverse daily routines. Key factors include varied commute times and different lunch break durations in the north and south. Holidays and seasonal changes also significantly impact optimal posting windows across the continent.

When Should You Post on Instagram in Nigeria?

Nigeria’s single time zone simplifies optimal Instagram posting across the country. Key factors influencing best times to post include long urban commutes and vibrant evening leisure. Crucially, daily prayer times and major religious festivals significantly impact engagement, requiring adaptation to cultural and daily routines for maximum reach.

When Should You Post on Instagram in South Africa?

South Africa has a single time zone, which streamlines efforts to find optimal Instagram posting times. Like many locations, the busy commute times, evening leisure time, public holidays, and critical load shedding issues can unpredictably affect when users are even able to be online, requiring adaptive scheduling.

When Should You Post on Instagram in India?

India, like many Asian nations, benefits from a single time zone, simplifying post-scheduling. Key factors affecting optimal times include long commutes and dominant late-evening leisure. Crucially, major festivals such as Diwali and Eid, and daily religious patterns significantly alter engagement, demanding adaptable strategies.

Now, you can use any of the above best times to post on your Instagram, based on any of the criteria given above. These time slots have been identified based on the research sample we took.

So, you might have to make some tweaks to these times to find the sweet spot for your audience.

However, there is a way to take all the guesswork out of the process and find the absolute perfect time to post on Instagram just for YOU!

How to Find the Best Time to Post on Instagram For Your Business?

Finding the sweet spot for posting on Instagram is crucial for your business’s success. To pinpoint the exact best times, you can leverage robust data from social media management tools like SocialPilot or delve into Instagram’s own native tool. Both offer valuable, distinct methods to understand your audience and maximize content visibility.

How to Find Your Own Best Time to Post on Instagram with SocialPilot

The average optimum time to post on Instagram, based on our study, will definitely work wonders for your engagement rate.

But if you want to maximize engagement, it’s crucial to identify the best time to post Instagram content tailored to your unique audience.

With SocialPilot’s AI Suggested Time for Publishing, you can easily identify the best time to post on Instagram, tailored to your audience’s unique engagement patterns. By analyzing real-time data, this feature offers personalized recommendations that help you maximize your reach and boost engagement. Instead of guessing or relying on generic guidelines, SocialPilot empowers you to make data-driven decisions.

Simply schedule your Instagram post, and the AI will suggest the optimal time slots based on when your followers are most active. This allows you to publish confidently, ensuring your content reaches the right people at the right time, enhancing your overall social media strategy.

Step 1: Go to the ‘Create Post’ section and draft your Instagram content. Upload your images or videos, write your caption, and add any relevant hashtags.

Step 2: As you finalize your post, SocialPilot will automatically analyze your audience’s engagement data and suggest optimal time slots for publishing. The AI will display a list of suggested times, based on when your audience is most active.

Step 3: Review the AI-generated time suggestions. Choose the time that fits best with your posting strategy.

Step 4: Once you’ve selected the recommended time, finalize your post and hit ‘Schedule.

As seen in the image above, when you schedule a post, SocialPilot’s AI automatically provides a breakdown of the days and times when your audience is online and most active. You can choose and schedule your post on any of these time slots for maximum engagement.

Benefits of using SocialPilot for Social Media Management:

• AI-Powered Insights: Leverage advanced AI capability to receive tailored post-time suggestions based on in-depth analysis of your audience’s behavior. This feature adapts to changes in engagement trends, ensuring your posts are always scheduled for maximum impact.
• Effortless Scheduling: Save time with automatic AI recommendations that eliminate the need for manual research. SocialPilot allows you to schedule posts with ease, taking out the guesswork in finding the ideal publishing times for your Instagram audience.
• Boosted Engagement: Maximize the likelihood of your content being seen and interacted with by posting when your audience is most active. SocialPilot’s AI recommendations enhance the chances of higher engagement, increasing interactions and improving content visibility.
• Centralized Content Management: Manage all your social media profiles in one place with SocialPilot, making it easy to schedule posts, track engagement, and manage campaigns across multiple platforms without toggling between different tools.
• Actionable Data for Strategy: Gain valuable insights into what works best for your audience through SocialPilot’s real-time data. Use this information to fine-tune your content strategy, ensuring your posts are more relevant and impactful, driving better results for your business.

How to Find Your Own Best Time to Post on Instagram Using Instagram Insights or Creative Studio

While general best times can provide a starting point, the most effective way to determine optimal posting times for your specific business on Instagram is by delving into your own account’s data. Instagram Insights, a free analytics tool built into the platform for Creator and Business accounts, offers invaluable information on your unique audience’s behavior.

By understanding when your followers are most active, you can tailor your posting schedule to maximize visibility and engagement. And when this timing strategy is combined with content that taps into trending formats, challenges, and audience psychology, you can significantly increase your chances of going viral on Instagram.

1. Use Instagram Insights

Instagram provides powerful native analytics, called Instagram Insights, to help you understand your followers’ behavior, such as their demographics, location, and crucially, their most active times on the platform.

This personalized data can reveal unique audience patterns, allowing you to fine-tune your posting schedule beyond general recommendations.

To access these valuable insights from your Creator or Business account (available for accounts with over 100 followers):

Step 1: From your profile, tap the ≡ menu icon in the top right corner.

Step 2: Select “Insights”.

Step 3: Under the “Overview” section, tap on a metric or scroll down to “Total Followers/New Followers”.

Step 4: Scroll further down within “Total Followers” to find “Most active times”, which breaks down follower activity by day and hour.

Use this to narrow down your audience’s peak Instagram posting times.

To access insights on Instagram, having an Instagram business account or an Instagram creator’s profile is a must.

2. Meta Business Suite

The once standalone tool Instagram Creator Studio is now part of the Meta Business Suite, which is a comprehensive platform that allows businesses and creators to manage their Facebook and Instagram presence from a single dashboard.

It serves as a centralized hub where you can create content, schedule posts, analyze performance metrics, manage monetization features, and engage with your audience across both platforms.

It offers a range of tools to manage your presence effectively:

• Content Creation & Scheduling: Create, plan, and schedule various types of content for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
• Unified Inbox: You can manage messages, comments, and notifications from Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in one place.
• Performance Insights: It provides you the access to analytics on your social media performance, including reach, engagement, and demographics.
• Ad Management: It helps to create and manage ad campaigns on Instagram.
• E-commerce Integration: It connects your online store to showcase products and create shoppable posts.
• Automated Responses: With the business suite, you can set up automated replies for timely audience engagement.

When it comes to finding the best time to post on Instagram, the Meta Business Suite can come in to help you. It is a highly effective method because it’s based on data from your specific audience. The platform’s Insights feature provides a detailed breakdown of when your followers are most active.

Here are the steps to find your best posting times using Meta Business Suite:

Step 1: Access insights from your Meta Business Suite dashboard, navigate to the “Insights” section. You can typically find this in the left-hand menu.

Step 2: In Insights, look for the “Audience” tab. This is where you’ll find a wealth of information about your followers, including their demographics, location, and activity patterns.

Step 3: Scroll down to the “Most Active Times” or a similar section. This feature displays a graph showing the days of the week and hours when your followers are most engaged. You can usually filter this data by day to see hour-by-hour activity.

Step 4: Pay close attention to the days and hours with the highest peaks in the graph. These are the times when the most people in your audience are online and scrolling.

Step 5: Once you’ve identified these peak times, you can use the Meta Business Suite “Planner” to schedule your Instagram posts accordingly. The Planner allows you to schedule content in advance, ensuring you’re posting when your audience is most likely to see and interact with it.

2. SocialPilot’s Instagram Analytics

Optimal Instagram posting time depends on three things: audience, day of the week, and time zone.

Fortunately, SocialPilot’s Instagram analytics feature helps you figure out the right time to post on Instagram based on your actual followers’ data.

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 perfect time to post on Instagram.

This heat map graphic will give you all the information about the best times and days for getting more engagement on Instagram for your business.

Moreover, you can view the location of your followers, their gender, age, city, country of origin, online activity, 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, saves, comments, shares, video plays, and even the Reel interaction trend. 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.

Refine Your Instagram Strategy to Find Your Optimal Posting Time

To find your best posting times and maximize your content’s impact, you need a dynamic approach that goes beyond just looking at peak activity hours. It involves a mix of consistent effort, active engagement, and smart testing.

Here’s how to hone in on your best times:

• Be Consistent, But Flexible: Once you identify potential peak times through your Instagram Insights, try to post consistently around those windows. However, don’t be afraid to experiment! As a social media manager, using a scheduler makes it incredibly easy to post at slightly different times on different days without constantly being glued to your phone. This allows you to test various slots effortlessly.
• Engage Post-Publishing: Your job isn’t done after hitting “post.” The initial engagement your content receives significantly impacts its reach. Be ready to respond to comments and DMs in the first hour or two after posting. This shows Instagram that your content is valuable and encourages further distribution.
• A/B Test Your Content and Timing: Don’t just test times; test what you post at those times. Does a quick Reel perform better in the morning rush, while an in-depth carousel excels in the evening? Try different Instagram post ideas to see what resonates when. This helps you understand not just when your audience is online, but what they want to see at specific times.
• The Continuous Cycle: This isn’t a one-and-done task. User behavior evolves, and so should your strategy.

Here’s a simple checklist to keep you on track:

• Access Audience Insights: Start by checking your Instagram Professional Dashboard to see your followers’ most active times.
• Formulate a Hypothesis: Based on insights, predict potential optimal posting times.
• Plan Diverse Content: Prepare various types of posts (Reels, carousels, static images) to test.
• Schedule Strategically: Use a scheduler to post consistently at your chosen experimental times with ease.
• Engage Immediately Post-Publishing: Be active and respond to comments and messages in the first hour.
• Monitor Performance: Closely track metrics like reach, engagement rate, and saves for each post.
• Analyze & Compare: Look for patterns and identify which content types perform best at specific times.
• Adjust Timing & Content: Refine your strategy based on the data, iterating on both when and what you post.
• Repeat & Refine: Continuously monitor and adapt as audience behavior and platform algorithms evolve.

By continually tracking, experimenting, and refining, you’ll uncover the sweet spot for your Instagram content, ensuring it gets seen by the right people at the right moment.

How to Effectively Use Multiple Right Times to Post on Instagram? 

Eventually, you might realize 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 at multiple time slots while handling various social media accounts.

You can either let go of multiple time slots and opt for the 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’re equipped with data-backed posting strategies to help you pinpoint the best times to post on Instagram for your audience. If you want to go deeper, check out the full Instagram Trends Report 2025 for the latest insights shaping platform success.

If you’re managing multiple accounts or simply want to save time while maximizing engagement, consider using Instagram automation software to plan and publish content efficiently.

The right time can get you in the feed, but only great content turns impressions into interactions. That’s where SocialPilot comes in.