What’s the best time to post on Instagram in 2024?

Have you ever posted a picture on Instagram and nobody noticed it? We start to feel depressed or sad after a couple of hours when this happens – we don’t feel confident about our social media approach, to say the least.

Well, many people experience this problem, and perhaps they could do well on social media if they knew that there is always a good time to post on every platform—Instagram is no exception.

You heard it correctly. If you post on Instagram at the right time, you’re probably going to get more traction than your average post. However, it’s quite nerve-wracking to determine the best time to post on Instagram for every individual account.

Therefore, brands and experts often do surveys and experiments to find the best time to post across different social media platforms.

We’ll dig deep into finding the best time to post on Instagram so that most of you can crush it with your Instagram profiles in 2024 and beyond.

Why does the best time to post on Instagram matter for you?

The importance of posting at the proper moment is highlighted by the fact that recency plays a significant role in a post’s ranking on Instagram.

If more active users see the post within the first hour, the engagement rate is higher. Based on this, the Instagram algorithm will decide how many additional feeds you can appear in to increase engagement long after posting.

What does this entail for you, then?

This suggests that if you post at a moment when your audience is most engaged on Instagram, they may see your post and engage with it more quickly.

Once you know when to upload your posts, you can manage the content overflow. When people are browsing through their feeds, they will pause to view your content. You can coordinate these insights with your Instagram post scheduler and create the ideal plans to utilize as an Instagram post scheduler, whether you want to use the data to identify peak times or benefit from slower times.

Is there a best time to post on Instagram?

If you’ve never paid attention to detail while posting on Instagram, you probably won’t be much concerned about this subject.

Most people who use Instagram and want to grow their followers without breaking the bank would be interested in understanding the platform better.

It’s important to know that every weekday differs from the users’ engagement on the Instagram platform.

Sprout Social recently published an Instagram Global Engagement chart, which validated what most experts have been saying about the highest engagement period on Instagram during the weekdays.

Related Read: Instagram marketing strategy for businesses: 14 easy ways to ace it

Overall best day and time to post on Instagram

You might be curious whether or not there is the best day to post on Instagram. The studies show that people are likely to respond to Instagram posts more at specific times on certain days.

The time may vary from brand to brand depending on the audience demographics and genre, but it’s mostly the same for most Instagram users.

Based on 3.7+ million posts scheduled and published via ContentStudio, our internal data chart revealed that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days to attract engagement on Instagram.

The following are the optimal times to post on Instagram according to ContentStudio’s research:

Best time to post on Instagram on Monday: 4 pm EST – 7 pm EST

Best time to post on Instagram on Tuesday: 7 pm EST

Best time to post on Instagram on Wednesday: 4 pm EST, 6 pm EST – 7 pm EST

Best time to post on Instagram on Thursday: 12 pm EST, and 6 pm EST – 7 pm EST

Best time to post on Instagram on Friday: 6 pm EST – 8 pm EST and 4 pm EST

Best time to post on Instagram on Saturday: 7 pm EST and 10 pm EST

Best time to post on Instagram on Sunday: 6 am EST – 7 am EST and 5 pm EST

Based on the most engagements on Instagram, ContentStudio determined the best days to post. Wednesdays and Thursdays seem the most popular days to post, and they get a lot of engagement.

Conversely, ContentStudio users get the lowest engagement on Instagram on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Wednesday appears to be when most users are active on Instagram.

Your content will perform better if you post on the optimal days, whether you manually post on Instagram or schedule it with a social media scheduler like ContentStudio.

The worst time to post on Instagram each day

It’s been learned that Sunday is the day with the most minor user activity on Instagram, which is probably why it’s considered the worst day to post on Instagram.

However, we skimmed through several resources on the best and worst days and times to post on Instagram and found out that Instagram users are least active at the weekend and proactively use the platform on Monday and Tuesday.

Here are the worst times to post on Instagram each day:

• Monday: It’s the first day of the week, and people usually commute to work between 7 to 8 a.m. and come back home between 8 to 11 p.m. So 7-8 a.m. and 8-11 p.m. are the worst time to post on Instagram on Monday.
• Tuesday: Tuesday is one of those days when users’ activity is relatively higher on social media platforms, but posting around 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. won’t be the ideal time.
• Wednesday: Wednesday won’t be a bad day to schedule or publish social media posts, but avoid posting around 8 p.m. or later. 
• Thursday: It’s been seen that people are least active on Instagram around 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on the second to last working day of the week.
• Friday: Friday is mostly the last working day of the week, and people usually focus on winding up work and heading home. Therefore, publishing around 5 p.m. and later won’t make much of a difference.
• Saturday: The weekend is usually the worst time to post on social media whether it’s Saturday or Sunday. Anyway, trying to avoid posting on Instagram around 8 a.m. and 12-11 p.m.
• Sunday: Sunday is the day when we like to spend time with family go out with friends or run personal errands. However, posting on Instagram around 7 a.m., 3 p.m, and later might bring no results whatsoever.

Related Read: Instagram Alt Text: A Complete Guide For Everyone

Best time to post by niche/industry

Any company or brand would have an upper hand on the competitors on social media if the company knew about the best time to post niche-related content on Instagram.

A lot of companies start their campaigns on social media but end up going nowhere. One of the reasons why they don’t grow their followers is that they don’t pay attention to social media statistics and insights. 

Figuring out the best time to post on Instagram for your industry could be a game-changer, for instance, if you’ve run a YouTube channel around morning walk or jog. The best time to post videos on your YouTube channel would be between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. because that’s when people might be engaging in these activities. 

However, it doesn’t mean you should never experiment with posting videos between 9 p.m. and 12 a.m. to see what happens with posting at night.

We stumbled upon an article from Shopify that shared a popular study conducted by Social Sprout in which they highlighted the best day and time to post on Instagram for different industries.

The statistics may vary from country to country, but such data could be eye-opening for many brands and companies trying to enter the social media scene.

Here are the best times and days to post by niche/industry revealed by that study:

• Health care: Health care is an important sector. The study revealed that Tuesday is better for posting on Instagram for health-related accounts. Plus, posting at 8 a.m. could be the icing on the cake.
• Retail Industry: For such businesses, posting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday is ideal. Plus, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Friday could also be a good time to post on Instagram.
• Media and entertainment: The best time for posting on Instagram for the media and entertainment industry is 9 a.m. on Friday.
• Technology: It’s been learned that Wednesday is a good day of the week and the best time for tech-related businesses is between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Wednesday.
• Education: Friday is an excellent day for posting educational content on Instagram. If you’re in the education niche, try experimenting with posting on Instagram around 10 a.m.
• Non-profit: Like so many other industries, Wednesday is great for non-profit organizations as well. Furthermore, 2 p.m. is an appropriate time for posting on Instagram on Wednesday.
• Travel and tourism: Friday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are perfect for travel and tourism content. Make sure you post on Instagram between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on those days.

Related Read: Secret to Success: 12 Instagram hacks to boost engagement

How to find your unique best time to post on Instagram

Finding the unique best time to post on Instagram means everything you read online about the best time to post on Instagram might not work out for you. It could be your industry/niche or the demographics that set your account apart from the rest. 

Therefore, it’s essential to devise a manual plan of action to increase your Instagram account’s growth. 

If you haven’t cracked the code of the best time to post on Instagram yet and you’re feeling overwhelmed, here are some ideas. 

The following methods could help you figure out the best time to post on Instagram for your account:

• Go through the ContentStudio analytics: ContentStudio has an Analytics section that goes deep into the analytics and tells you which posts performed well. Furthermore, you could go down the rabbit hole and find out what time and day you published those outlier Instagram posts. 

• Analyze your Instagram insights: Instagram does have an insights section for a business account. You must first convert your personal Instagram account to a business account to access the insights section. This feature would showcase some details about previously posted content on Instagram. Analyze the winner’s content and try to replicate the strategy for more attention.

• Keep an eye on the vanity metrics: You can’t ignore the vanity metrics such as the number of comments, likes, and shares – keep an eye out for those types of Instagram posts that outperform other posts. Once you have identified a handful of successful posts, go through the analytics and check out the time and day of those posts for your record. You could always try out the same time and day for further posts.
• A/B test different formats at different times: One key way to grow followers and gain attention on Instagram is to use all the features available. You could always test out video, live streaming, stories, and reels, especially at different times, just to see what times suit you and your audience the best.

So that’s how anyone could find the best time to post on Instagram. 

Find the best time to post on Instagram using a social media scheduling tool

Analyzing the data in your social media management tool‘s social media analytics or reporting area is one of the simplest ways to determine when to post on Instagram for your business.

ContentStudio is my go-to tool for scheduling social media posts. If your social media scheduling tool offers an analytics feature, you should carry out the same strategy with it.

How to check the best time to post on Instagram using ContentStudio

ContentStudio being an all-in-one social media management tool, provides content scheduling, planning, analytics, and management.

Social media scheduling, social analytics, content curation, workspaces, and social media approval workflows are also among its key features.

Also Read: Top 28 social media management tools for 2024

Using ContentStudio as your social media scheduling tool, here’s how you can find the best time to post on Instagram:

Step #1: Log in to your ContentStudio

Start by logging into your ContentStudio account. You can sign up for a ContentStudio account right now if you haven’t already. Try it free for 14 days – no credit card required.

Step #2: Select ‘Compose’

Select ‘Social Post’ from the dropdown.

Step #3: Compose your post 

Create a post of your choice and select the appropriate platform, category, text, and media.

Don’t forget to select your Instagram handle, write a caption and upload an image.

Step #4: Select ‘View recommended best time to post’

Select the schedule post option. Upon selection, you will see a clickable link under the calendar view with the message ‘View Recommended Best Time to Post’.

An engagement probability score will be displayed on a heat map if you click ‘View Recommended Best Time to Post.’ The time stamp and probability of potential engagement are displayed along the edge of the heat map when you hover over the blocks. To schedule a post, click over any block and choose the time stamp.

How to utilize the identified best time to post on Instagram

When the best time to post on Instagram has been identified, it’s necessary to take action and make the most of this opportunity. Let us shed some light on how you can utilize the best time to publish on Instagram.

• Brainstorm on the relevant topics that have already been working out for you on Instagram. You might not want to post content on the subjects your audience isn’t interested in or doesn’t need to know about.
• Build a content strategy to mass-produce content. Otherwise, it’ll be difficult to keep up with the competition. Social media platforms are about speed, creativity, and engagement. When you have a content strategy in place, you can speed up content production and ramp up the publishing process.
• Create a content calendar to plan your content publishing ahead of time. A lot of influencers plan content for the next few months and follow their content calendar along the way. When you have a content calendar, you have a clear picture of what needs to be done from the content creation standpoint.
• Figure out an Instagram scheduling tool to use for scheduling your Instagram posts. Thanks to ContentStudio, now you can schedule Instagram posts via Direct API or push notification.
• Always post on Instagram at the best time so that you can make the most of your followers on the platform. You must have gone through your statistics and other data to identify the best time for publishing on Instagram. Don’t shy away from a little bit of experimentation regarding finding the best time to post on Instagram.

There are no hard and fast rules for utilizing the best time for posting on Instagram. Anyway, we shared what we have been doing regarding our Instagram publishing.

Related Read: 7 Brands that are killing it with their strong meme game on Instagram

Schedule your content for the best time to post

How long have you been trying to come up with a social media scheduling plan? If you haven’t been able to figure out a strategy, then it’s time to take action now.

One of the main things to remember when scheduling your posts on social media platforms is that you must have figured out the best time to publish on each platform.

Since we’ve discussed the best time to post on Instagram, you must have some idea by now when you should be posting on Instagram.

We put some light on data-backed analysis on the best time and day for publishing the Instagram posts. Now, it’s up to you how you take action on these tips and tricks on scheduling or publishing your Instagram content. 

One of the underlying takeaways in this article about finding the best time to post on Instagram, which most people ignore, is that A/B testing can go a long way. 

It’s not ideal to blindly follow every tactic you read online. Digital marketing is a massive industry, and everyone has opinions—and sometimes, those opinions contradict the results. 

So it’ll be wise to do your litmus testing before going all-in on any strategy. 

Let’s say most studies show that Tuesday and Wednesday are the best days to post on Instagram or at least that these two days have better user engagement than other days. What we need to do is test out Monday and Thursday just to see what happens on these days.

Anyway, if you haven’t opted for a social media scheduling tool, check out ContentStudio. It’s an all-in-one social media management tool that provides several social media tools under one umbrella.

Read More: Top 10 Instagram planning apps you must have in 2024

Would you choose the best time to post on Instagram?

We discussed this in detail and shared several references that point out that certain days of the week are better for Instagram posting than others. 

We mentioned several sources and studies that indicate that these suggestions are worth paying attention to for brands and influencers, especially those who want to win on Instagram. So it’s up to you how you capitalize on this tutorial on Instagram publishing. 

Noticeably, it seems like the weekend isn’t a great time to post on the Instagram platform. However, weekdays are quite suitable to post on Instagram from the user engagement and activity standpoints.

There is no doubt that choosing the best time to post on any social media platform could turn the tables for anyone trying to get traction and followers. So, it won’t be a bad idea to look into the tips and tricks for posting on Instagram at the right time. 

If your current Instagram strategy isn’t fruitful, then try out choosing the best time to publish on Instagram and see if it works for you. 

Would you choose the best time to post on Instagram or still ignore this strategy of opting for the optimum time to post on Instagram?

Feel free to let us know on social media platforms.

FAQs

What is the worst time to post on Instagram?

The worst time to post on Instagram is Monday at 1 AM and Saturday at 10 AM.

Should I post on Instagram in the morning or at night?

Posting in the morning is the best time to post on Instagram as compared to posting at night.

When should you not post on Instagram?

You shouldn’t post on Saturday.