Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2026 (By Day)
Sprout Social’s 2026 data shows the best times to post on Instagram are Mondays 2 to 4 p.m., Tuesdays 1 to 7 p.m., Wednesdays 12 to 9 p.m., and Thursdays 12 to 2 p.m., all in local time. Weekends are the weakest days. Use these windows as your starting test and schedule them with Postqued from $9/month: unlimited posts across 10 platforms, timezone-aware scheduling, and Instagram analytics to see which slot wins for your account.
What are the best times to post on Instagram by day?
Sprout Social analyzed nearly 2 billion engagements across about 307,000 social profiles between November 27, 2025 and February 27, 2026. All times are in the audience’s local time.
| Day | Best windows (local time) |
|---|---|
| Monday | 2 to 4 p.m. |
| Tuesday | 1 to 7 p.m. |
| Wednesday | 12 to 9 p.m., plus 11 p.m. |
| Thursday | 12 to 2 p.m. |
| Friday | No significant peak |
| Saturday | Lowest engagement of the week |
| Sunday | Among the worst days to post |
Best days: Monday through Thursday. Worst days: Saturday and Sunday.
How do you test these times on your own account?
Benchmarks are averages across thousands of brands. Check them against your own followers.
- Open Instagram Insights. Professional accounts with at least 100 followers can see when followers are most active and where they are.
- Pick two or three candidates: one or two windows from the table plus your own peak follower hour.
- Publish comparable posts in each window at least three times over four weeks.
- Measure each post after the same interval and compare medians for reach and your goal action (shares, saves, profile visits, or website taps).
- Keep the window that wins.
Test Reels, carousels, feed images, and Stories separately. If every evening post is a Reel and every morning post is a product photo, you are testing format, not time.
Which time zone should you use?
Use the time zone where your followers are. Instagram Insights shows top locations, and Sprout’s windows are local time, so a 1 p.m. Tuesday slot for a London audience is 1 p.m. UK time. For a split audience, schedule for the largest market first and test a second window for the next region.
How do you schedule Instagram posts to these windows with Postqued?
- Every format. Schedule feed posts, carousels, Reels, and Stories.
- Pick the time and time zone. Set Wednesday 12 p.m. in your audience’s zone and Postqued publishes at that moment.
- Unlimited posts. Fill every test window on any plan without a post cap.
- First comment. Add a first comment when you schedule.
- Instagram analytics. Compare results per post in Postqued to confirm your best window.
- Cross-post. Send the same content to TikTok, Facebook, Threads, and the rest of the 10 supported platforms.
Start scheduling Instagram posts on the $9/month Solo plan with a 7-day free trial.
Final recommendation
Start with Sprout Social’s 2026 windows: weekday afternoons from Monday to Thursday, with Wednesday 12 to 9 p.m. the widest slot. Add your own peak follower hour from Insights, test for four weeks by format, and let Postqued publish to the winner every week.
For every network’s windows in one table, read the best time to post on social media.
Sources
- Sprout Social: Best times to post on Instagram in 2026
- About Instagram Insights
- View insights on Instagram
Schedule Reels, carousels, and Stories into your test windows on Solo at $9/month. Start a 7-day free trial.