Free tools/Updated October 2026
Best time to post.
Pick a network and see the best days and hours on a 7 day map. Add your own posts, plan times for many brands, or save the top slots to your calendar. Based on public industry studies, not your audience.
The studies count times on your audience's own clock. If your audience is in another zone, we move the times to yours. Rounded to the hour.
- 1Thursday, 9 AM
- 2Wednesday, 12 PM
- 3Wednesday, 6 PM
A weekly reminder for each slot, in UTC. Works with Google, Apple and Outlook calendars.
Based on public industry studies, not your audience. Check your own analytics before you lock a schedule.
Where this comes from: Sprout Social (2026), Buffer (2026), SocialPilot (2026). Check your own analytics, because your audience may not match the average.
Top slots, 1 table.
All times are on your audience's own clock. Weekends are weak on every network.
| Network | Best slots | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Wed and Thu. Thu 9 AM, Wed 12 PM, Wed 6 PM. | Buffer (9.6M posts) and Sprout Social (2026) | |
| TikTok | Weekdays, 3 to 5 PM. Tue to Thu is the safest. | Sprout Social (2026) |
| Tue to Thu, 11 AM to 5 PM. 1 PM is in the window on all 5 weekdays. | Sprout Social (2026) | |
| YouTube | Weekday afternoons, 3 to 5 PM. Studies disagree on YouTube. Newer reports point to weekend mornings for long videos. Treat this as a starting point. | Buffer (1M videos) and SocialPilot (301K videos) |
| Mon to Thu around noon. Tue and Wed run to 8 PM. | Sprout Social (2026) | |
| Threads | Weekday mornings, 6 to 11 AM. Thu 9 AM tops the list. Evenings (6 to 11 PM) did worst in the same study. Fewer studies cover Threads, so the exact hours are less certain. | Buffer (2.5M posts, 2026) |
| Weekday mornings, around 10 AM. Wed 8 AM to 1 PM is the widest window. | Sprout Social (2026) | |
| X | Tue to Thu, 12 to 6 PM. Mon is best around 2 PM and 5 PM. | Sprout Social (2026) |
Studies read in September and October 2026. Sprout Social covers 6 networks. Threads and YouTube come from Buffer and SocialPilot, so they are less certain.
Your best time is your audience's time.
Averages are a start. Your own followers may be night owls, shift workers or in 3 countries. Open the analytics on each network, find when your followers are online, and test 2 or 3 slots for a month.
That gets slow when you run many brands on 8 networks. Mirkaat lets you save a time for each brand and each network, then schedules the whole week to go out at those times.
Let Mirkaat post at the right time.
Set the best time for each brand and network once. Mirkaat schedules every post to go out then, across all 8 networks.
- X306 characters. X allows 280.Trimmed to 160. The link counts as 23, like X counts it.
- InstagramLinks don't click in a caption.Changed to "Link in bio."
- Instagram6 hashtags. Instagram suggests 3 to 5.Kept the best 5.
- PinterestThe video is 3:2. Pins want 2:3.Cropped to 2:3, meerkat kept in frame.
- TikTokNo sound yet.Sent to your TikTok inbox as a draft, so you can add one.
Kora Studio, Monday 11:42. Before it went out to 8 networks.
Best time to post questions.
8 answers. Anything else: hello@mirkaat.com
01What is the best time to post on Instagram?
Wednesday and Thursday work best in the public studies. Buffer, looking at 9.6M posts, found Thursday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 12 PM and Wednesday at 6 PM on top. Sprout Social found weekday afternoons from about 12 PM to 7 PM. Weekends and early mornings did worst.
02What is the best time to post on LinkedIn?
Tuesday to Thursday, from 11 AM to 5 PM in your audience's time. Sprout Social found 1 PM sits inside the best window on all 5 weekdays. Weekends did worst.
03What is the best time to post on TikTok?
Weekdays from 3 PM to 5 PM. Sprout Social found that window on every weekday, with Wednesday running the longest, from 1 PM to 8 PM.
04What is the worst day to post?
Sunday. Sprout Social found it was the weakest day on every major network in its 2026 data. Saturday is also weak. Very early mornings do badly too.
05Should I use my own time zone or my audience's?
Your audience's. The studies count times on each reader's own clock. A post at 1 PM for a reader in London goes live at 8 AM for you in New York. Pick where your audience lives, then read the times in your zone.
06Can I use my own data?
Yes. Switch to "Use my own data" and paste the day and time of your top posts, 1 per line. For example "Tue 11:00" or "2026-09-14 11:42". We draw your own map in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere. Your data beats the studies once you have many posts.
07How do I plan times for many brands?
Use the "Many brands" view. Add up to 5 brands, pick each brand's networks and where its audience lives, then choose your own zone. You get 1 weekly list on your own clock. The slots still come from public studies, so check each brand's analytics.
08Why do studies give different answers?
Each one uses different accounts, different months and its own way to count engagement. Many also come from companies that sell scheduling tools. So treat every slot as a place to start, then test it against your own numbers.