Study comparison, reviewed 24 October 2026

Best time to post on TikTok, Instagram and LinkedIn

Three large studies publish posting-time recommendations: Buffer, Sprout Social and Hootsuite. They use different data, different engagement measures and different ways of handling time zones, so their answers do not match. This page puts their published findings side by side, network by network, and shows how to turn them into a test on your own account.

All three studies were re-read on their official pages on 24 October 2026. The figures below are copied from those pages, with the publication date each one displays. Times are local to the audience, as each study states. Cascads did not run these studies and does not add its own engagement figures.

The short answer

There is no single best time. On TikTok the studies contradict each other: Buffer (more than 7.1 million posts) names Sunday at 9 a.m. and Saturday as the best day, Sprout Social (nearly 2 billion engagements) recommends Tuesday to Thursday from 2 to 6 p.m. and says to avoid weekends, and Hootsuite (over 1 million posts) names Thursday 6 to 9 a.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Instagram and LinkedIn they agree more: midweek, during the working day. Start from a midweek slot, then compare two slots on your own posts for at least two weeks.

Cascads is an IVRYN product for teams that produce social content for several brands. The Solo plan costs EUR 59 per month for 1 brand and 600 credits, Cascads covers 10 networks, 7 of which require platform approval, and a workspace can require human approval before anything is published.

Know what each study measured

A recommendation is only as good as its data. Each study counts different accounts, periods and engagement signals.

Posts published through Buffer

Buffer

Median engagement rate by day and hour. Buffer says its data scientist normalised times so they apply in your own time zone.

Public fact: TikTok: more than 7.1 million videos, carousels, photos and text posts (14 September 2026). Instagram: 9.6 million posts, part of a 52 million post study of 200,000+ accounts from January 2024 to December 2025. LinkedIn: over 4.8 million posts (9 September 2026).

Verify: Buffer customers skew towards small businesses and creators who schedule in advance.

Engagements on Sprout Social customer profiles

Sprout Social

Peak engagement windows in the audience local time, from one 2026 analysis covering six networks.

Public fact: Nearly 2 billion engagements across 307,000 profiles of about 30,000 Sprout Social customers, collected from 27 November 2025 to 27 February 2026, published 31 March 2026.

Verify: A winter window of three months, and customers skew towards larger brands and teams.

Business posts analysed with Critical Truth

Hootsuite

Best windows by day, with the time of day localised across the 118 countries in the sample.

Public fact: Over 1 million social posts from businesses of all sizes. TikTok and LinkedIn pages dated 19 November 2025 (LinkedIn heatmaps cite Q4 2024 data), Instagram page dated 14 July 2026.

Verify: The LinkedIn page gives two different overall answers, 8 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 6 a.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

What each study recommends, network by network

Read across a row to see where the studies agree. Times are in the audience local time.

Posting time recommendations published by Buffer, Sprout Social and Hootsuite, read on 24 October 2026
Network	Buffer	Sprout Social	Hootsuite
TikTok, best slot	Sunday 9 a.m. (single best time of the week)	Tuesday to Thursday, 2 to 6 p.m.	Thursday 6 to 9 a.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
TikTok, days	Saturday best, then Monday and Sunday	Weekdays. Avoid Saturday and Sunday. Sunday is the worst day	No single best day. Monday 5 p.m., Tuesday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wednesday and Friday 4 to 6 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Instagram, best slot	Thursday 9 a.m.	Monday 2 to 4 p.m., Tuesday 1 to 7 p.m., Wednesday 12 to 9 p.m., Thursday 12 to 2 p.m.	No single best time. Monday 3 to 9 p.m., Tuesday 5 to 8 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m., Wednesday 5 p.m., Thursday 4 to 5 p.m.
Instagram, days	Wednesday best, then Thursday and Tuesday	Tuesday and Wednesday highest. Saturday lowest, Sunday among the worst	Saturday 11 a.m. and around 5 p.m., Sunday 12 to 3 p.m.
LinkedIn, best slot	Wednesday 4 p.m.	Tuesday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday 11 a.m. and 1 to 5 p.m.	Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 to 9 a.m. in the summary, 4 to 6 a.m. in the body
LinkedIn, days	Wednesday best, then Thursday and Friday	Weekdays. Saturday and Sunday are the worst	Thursday 2 p.m., Friday 8 p.m., weekend early mornings

Why the studies disagree

The three datasets describe different populations. Buffer measures posts scheduled through Buffer, Sprout Social measures engagements on its customers profiles over one winter quarter, and Hootsuite measures business posts across 118 countries. A creator who posts on weekends and a brand team that posts during office hours produce different patterns, and each tool attracts a different mix.

They also measure different things. Buffer ranks slots by median engagement rate. Sprout Social and Hootsuite report peak windows of engagement. A slot with fewer posts can show a higher rate simply because less content competes for attention, which helps explain why Buffer favours weekend slots on TikTok while Sprout Social advises against them.

Where they agree

For Instagram, all three point to midweek. Buffer ranks Wednesday first and Thursday 9 a.m. as the best single slot, Sprout Social sees the highest peaks on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Hootsuite lists daytime and early evening windows on weekdays.

For LinkedIn, all three favour weekdays, with Tuesday and Wednesday named by every study. They disagree on the hour: Buffer favours the afternoon (4 p.m. on Wednesday), Sprout Social the late morning and early afternoon, and Hootsuite the early morning.

Turn the studies into a test on your own account

Pick two candidate slots per network: one that two studies agree on and one that fits your audience habits. Post comparable content in each slot for at least two weeks, alternating so that no slot always gets the strongest post, and compare the same metric each time, for example views after 24 hours or engagement rate after 48 hours.

Use the audience activity view of each network analytics, where your account has access to it, to see when your own followers are online. Your followers are the population that matters, not the average customer of a scheduling tool.

Handle time zones and several brands

Every study expresses times in the audience local time. If an account serves several countries, schedule for the zone where most of the audience lives, or split by market. When one team runs several brands, record the publication time and the network response for every post so that each brand slot test stays separate.

Cascads keeps the provider response and remote identifier as delivery evidence for each publication, which gives a clean list of what went out and when. Engagement still has to be read in each network analytics.

Studies and evidence boundary

Every figure on this page comes from the study pages below, read on 24 October 2026. Cascads does not claim that any slot will raise your reach.

Buffer, best time to post on TikTok (published 14 September 2026)Reviewed 24 October 2026
Buffer, best time to post on Instagram (updated September 2026)Reviewed 24 October 2026
Buffer, best time to post on LinkedIn (published 9 September 2026)Reviewed 24 October 2026
Sprout Social, best times to post on TikTok (updated March 2026)Reviewed 24 October 2026
Sprout Social, best times to post on Instagram (updated March 2026)Reviewed 24 October 2026
Sprout Social, best times to post on LinkedIn (updated March 2026)Reviewed 24 October 2026
Hootsuite, best time to post on TikTok (19 November 2025)Reviewed 24 October 2026
Hootsuite, best time to post on Instagram (14 July 2026)Reviewed 24 October 2026
Hootsuite, best time to post on LinkedIn (19 November 2025)Reviewed 24 October 2026

FAQ

Best time to post: questions

What is the best time to post on TikTok in 2026?

The studies disagree. Buffer names Sunday at 9 a.m. and Saturday as the best day, Sprout Social recommends Tuesday to Thursday from 2 to 6 p.m. and avoiding weekends, and Hootsuite names Thursday 6 to 9 a.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Test a weekday afternoon against a weekend slot on your own account.

What is the best time to post on Instagram?

Midweek. Buffer names Thursday at 9 a.m. with Wednesday as the best day, Sprout Social sees the highest peaks on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, and Hootsuite lists weekday afternoon and early evening windows.

What is the best time to post on LinkedIn?

Tuesday or Wednesday during the working day. Buffer names Wednesday at 4 p.m., Sprout Social Tuesday to Thursday from late morning to late afternoon, and Hootsuite early morning on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Which time zone do these times use?

The local time of your audience. Each study says it normalised or localised times, so 9 a.m. means 9 a.m. where your followers are.

Continue with the publishing workflow

Schedule the test with one real brand

Connect one eligible channel, plan both slots and keep delivery evidence for each post before comparing results.

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