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

Want to boost your Instagram engagement but feel like you're posting into the void? Timing could be the culprit. You’re probably posting in the dead zones, where your content goes to do the Instagram graveyard shift. Figuring out the best time to post on Instagram can be the difference between getting lost in the feed and connecting with your audience.

Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes engagement, meaning when your followers interact with your content shortly after posting, it’s more likely to reach a larger audience. So, when exactly should you hit publish? Let’s dive into the research and find out.

When is the best time to post on Instagram in 2025?

While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, SocialPilot analyzed over 50,000+ accounts and found that the best times to post on Instagram are between 7-9 am and 11 am-2 pm.

❌ Note: While Sundays see some engagement, Sunday is one of the worst days to post. Engagement tends to drop as people are less active on social media, so it’s best to prioritize other days for important content. Speaking of the worst times to post, you might find this blog interesting: Worst times to post on Facebook. It’s packed with insights to help you avoid those engagement pitfalls.

7 AM – Early morning scroll 🌅

Many people check their phones first thing in the morning—it’s almost instinctual. This time of the day is when they:

• Wake up and scroll through social media platforms before getting out of bed.
• Check notifications and catch up on what they missed overnight.
• Browse Instagram while commuting to work or school (especially if they use public transport).

9–11 am – Mid-morning break ☕

By late morning, most people have settled into their routine, but they take short breaks:

• Office workers and remote employees often grab a coffee and scroll social media as a mental reset.
• Students take breaks between classes.
• Stay-at-home parents may check Instagram while their kids are busy with schooling.

1–4 pm – Afternoon dip 🥪 

Afternoons see another engagement surge, usually peaking around 2 pm. Here's why:

• Lunch breaks (1–2 pm): People scroll while eating, whether at a café, office, or home.
• Post-lunch productivity slump (2–4 pm): Energy levels dip, and people turn to social media for a mental break. Office workers sneak in some scrolling between tasks while students do the same between classes and after classes.

7 pm – Evening wind-down 🍽️ 

By 7 pm, most people are done with work or school and are either:

• Eating dinner and casually scrolling.
• Relaxing on the couch, catching up on content after a long day.

Evenings are one of the most active times on Instagram, as people are mentally winding down and more likely to engage with content.

And guess what? A second source supports this. Shopify consolidated research from multiple platforms and found similar engagement trends.

• Early mornings (6–7 am) saw consistently high engagement, especially on weekdays.
• Mid-mornings (11 am–12 pm) were strong, particularly on Mondays and Thursdays.
• Tuesday mornings (7–10 am) showed high activity, reinforcing the idea that people check Instagram as part of their morning routine.
• Afternoon engagement peaks (around 4 pm on Fridays), likely as people wrap up the workweek.
• Evenings (7 pm on Sundays) saw a spike in activity, but Sundays weren’t the best day for posting overall.

Multiple sources confirm these key time slots, making it clear that morning, midday, afternoon, and evening are prime engagement windows. However, optimal posting times can vary depending on your audience, industry, time zone, and behavior. If you're targeting a global audience, scheduling posts based on when your followers are most active in their respective time zones can make a big difference.

That said, what is the best way to pinpoint your ideal posting time? Check Instagram Insights—it gives you accurate data on when your audience is most active.

What is the best day to post on Instagram?

Buffer analyzed 2 million social media posts and found that Monday and Friday are the best days to post, with Friday leading the pack. Friday’s high engagement could be because people are in a more relaxed, weekend-ready mindset, scrolling through Instagram to unwind, make plans, or look for entertainment. On the flip side, Sunday is the worst day to post, which aligns with SocialPilot’s findings.

Best Instagram posting times by industry

As we’ve mentioned, different industries have their own peak engagement times. Based on an analysis of over 7 million Instagram posts, here’s when businesses should post based on their niche:

Travel & Hospitality:

• Best times: Wednesdays from 12 pm – 2 pm and 4 pm, Sundays from 11 am – 1 pm
• Best days: Wednesdays and Thursdays
• Worst days: None—engagement is pretty consistent across all days

Food & Beverage (Restaurants):

• Best times: Mondays & Thursdays from 10 am – 1 pm, Tuesdays & Wednesdays from 11 am – 2 pm, Fridays from 11 am – 1 pm
• Best days: Weekdays
• Worst days: Weekends

Hospitals & Healthcare:

• Best times: Mondays at 10 am and 1 pm, Tuesdays from 11 am – 4 pm, Wednesdays at 10 am & 3 pm, Thursdays from 10 am – 1 pm, Fridays from 11 am – 3 pm
• Best days: Tuesdays through Fridays
• Worst days: Sundays

Schools & Education:

• Best times: Wednesdays from 2 pm – 4 pm and 9 pm
• Best days: Wednesdays
• Worst days: Sundays

eCommerce businesses

• Best times: Weekdays, 10 am – 2 pm, and Saturdays from 9 pm - 12 pm

Fashion & Apparel:

• Best times: Weekdays 12 pm – 2 pm, 7 pm – 9 pm, Weekends 9 am – 11 am, 5 pm – 7 pm.
• Best day: Saturday

Fitness & Wellness:

• Best times: Weekdays from 6 am – 8 am, 5 pm – 7 pm; Weekends from 8 am – 10 am, 4 pm – 6 pm

If your industry isn’t listed, track your Instagram posts' performance and experiment with different times to see what works best for your audience.

🛎️ For a deeper look into using Instagram for business, check out this comprehensive guide with 10 pro tips to boost your brand presence and engage your audience: How to Use Instagram for Business.

The best time to post Reels on Instagram

Instagram Reels have a different engagement pattern than regular Instagram posts. One source reports that Mondays and Thursdays see strong engagement around lunchtime. Tuesdays and Wednesdays peak in the morning before noon. 

Fridays show a unique post-lunch surge from 2 pm – 4 pm, likely as people start winding down for the weekend. Saturdays follow the early morning trend, while Sundays remain slow until early evening, making the 6 pm – 8 pm slot your best bet.

Another source reported that these time slots consistently see higher engagement:

• Morning scroll: 6 am – 9 am
• Lunchtime break: 12 pm – 2 pm
• Evening unwind: 6 pm – 8 pm

⏸️ While we’re on the topic of Instagram Reels, if you’ve ever been swiping through and wanted to pause one (we know it can be tricky), check out this quick guide on how to do just that.

The best time to post Stories on Instagram

Instagram Stories thrive on real-time engagement, so timing is everything. To keep your audience hooked, post when they’re already scrolling. 

Analyzify suggests capitalizing on the early-morning scroll between 6 am and 8 am when users instinctively check their feeds right after waking up.

As the day progresses, lunchtime becomes another prime window. Iconosquare highlights 11 am to 1 pm as a strong engagement period, especially for B2B content. In comparison, Hopper extends this to 11 am – 2 pm, reinforcing the lunch break as a sweet spot for grabbing attention.

Evenings also see a surge in activity. Iconosquare recommends posting between 6 pm and 9 pm, while Analyzify notes another engagement spike from 8 pm to 10 pm, as users unwind with a final scroll before bed. Hopper further emphasizes Fridays and weekends, when people spend more time on the app, eager to check in on their friends and followers.

Interesting read 💡 Check out our guide on Instagram post sizes for perfectly optimized content. It covers everything from Stories and Reels to images and videos, so your content always looks sharp and engaging—ready for when your audience comes online ;)

How to find the best posting time for your audience

Finding the perfect time to post on Instagram can significantly impact your engagement and reach when promoting on Instagram. To optimize your posting schedule, you need to analyze the performance of your posts on different days and times. Here's how you can leverage Meta's native analytics tools to discover the best times for your audience:

#1 Use Instagram Insights 

NOTE ⚠️ Instagram Insights are only available to business accounts and creator accounts. If you have a personal account, you can easily switch to a professional Instagram account by following the steps outlined in our blog. While you’re at it, we recommend getting verified on Instagram to boost your business account’s credibility.

Instagram’s built-in analytics show when your followers are most active. Here’s how you locate them:

1. Tap the burger menu icon in the top right corner of your Instagram profile.

2. Select Insights from the menu.

3. Explore the Audience section to see when your followers are most active.

#2 Experiment with different times 

There’s no universal “best time” to post—every audience is different. Start by testing posts at various hours, including mornings, lunch breaks, evenings, and weekends. Track engagement metrics like likes, comments, and reach to identify patterns. You might find that your audience is more active at unexpected times.

#3 Analyze engagement trends 

Pay close attention to how your content performs on different days. Are your videos getting more traction on Mondays? Do your carousels perform better on Thursdays? Recognizing these patterns allows you to fine-tune your posting schedule and maximize engagement.

🛎️ If you're thinking about giving some of your organic posts a quick push through paid promotion, you might wonder—does boosting posts on Instagram actually work? We’ve written a guide for insights into the pros and cons of boosting Instagram posts.

#4 Consider your audience’s routine 

Think about your followers' daily habits. Are they professionals scrolling during their commute or lunch break? Are they night owls who engage with content after work? Aligning your posts with their natural routines increases the likelihood of interaction.

#5 Use third-party tools 

While Instagram Insights provides a solid starting point, third-party analytics tools take it to the next level for serious analytics enthusiasts. These platforms are built specifically for in-depth analysis, uncovering patterns and trends you might overlook or struggle to piece together.

Instead of manually sifting through data and trying to make sense of trends, these tools do the heavy lifting for you—organizing key metrics into easy-to-read dashboards and highlighting peak posting times. These tools are necessary if you want a data-backed posting strategy without the headache.

If you're running Meta ads, Madgicx’s Auction Insights tool takes the guesswork out of optimization. With the Days & Hours widget, you can pinpoint exactly when your ads drive the best results—so you're making data-backed decisions instead of shooting in the dark and wasting your budget.

But timing is just one piece of the puzzle. Madgicx gives you a full breakdown of engagement rates, conversion metrics, and campaign effectiveness, plus real-time updates to help you adapt on the fly. You can also analyze performance by placement type, device, and platform—because peak posting times aren’t the same across the board. 

And here’s the kicker: Madgicx lets you benchmark your performance against Facebook’s metrics. Instead of obsessing over engagement, conversion, or quality rankings without context, you’ll see whether optimizing for these numbers is worth your time. If an ad isn’t performing well, the quality ranking can hint at what’s wrong and how to fix it—saving you valuable time.

Ready to get serious about your Meta ad analytics? Get started with Madgicx’s 7-day FREE trial.

FAQ - the best time to post on Instagram

It’s time for some of the most common questions about the best times to post on Instagram.

What is the best time of day to post on Instagram? 

The ideal posting time depends on your industry and where your content appears, but some trends hold across the board. The early-morning scroll (7 am – 9 am) is a prime window as people check their phones before starting their day. Lunchtime (11 am – 1 pm) is another hotspot when users take a break to browse, and evening wind-down sessions (7 pm – 9 pm) see high engagement as people relax and scroll after work.

What is the most active time on Instagram? 

Based on multiple sources, the best times to post on Instagram for engagement follow daily routines. Early mornings (6–7 am) see high activity as people check their phones first thing. Mid-morning (10–11 am) aligns with break times for office workers and students, while the afternoon (1–4 pm, peaking at 2 pm) benefits from lunch breaks and productivity dips. 

Evenings around 7 pm mark a wind-down period, making it one of the most active engagement windows. Notably, Friday at 4 pm experiences a peak as people wrap up the workweek, while Sunday at 7 pm sees a late spike, though overall engagement on Sundays remains relatively low.

What time zone is most active on Instagram? 

The most active time zone on Instagram depends on your target audience. Posting during peak engagement hours in multiple central time zones (EST, PST, and GMT) can help maximize visibility if you're reaching a global audience. However, if your audience is concentrated in a specific region, aligning your posting times with their local peak hours is best.

Conclusion

Timing your Instagram posts right can make all the difference in engagement. While weekday mornings and evenings tend to perform well, the real secret lies in understanding your audience’s habits and what content they want to see. Don’t forget to seek inspiration for Instagram post ideas, stay on top of industry trends, and keep up with Instagram updates to really understand what makes your audience click.

Finally, use insights from Instagram analytics and third-party tools, test different posting times, and refine your strategy based on what works best for your specific followers.  

Now, go forth and post wisely! 🖖