Best time to post, for your account
Not a generic chart. An agent reads your posts, your topic and your industry, then picks your best hours this week.
How it works
Add what you know
Your handle shows what works for you. Your topic and industry show when your audience is talking. Any one is enough.
Watch the agent work
It reads your posts, counts posts about your topic and your industry every hour for 7 days, and checks when the top posts went up.
Get your three slots
Each one says why it won, with the whole week as a heatmap and a calendar reminder.
Add your handle, your topic and your industry. The agent reads your recent posts, counts when people post about your topic and across your industry hour by hour, checks when the top posts went up, and gives you three slots in your time zone.
Use it for best time to post on Instagram, best time to post on TikTok, best time to post on X, best time to post on YouTube and posting schedule.
How the agent picks your times
Every run reads live data, at the moment you press the button. The agent works through up to four signals at the same time, and you can watch each one finish:
Your recent public posts on the network you picked. Each one is compared with your own typical post, so a post at 9 AM that did twice your usual engagement counts for more than one that did half. One viral post can't decide the week: no post counts for more than five times your usual.
The exact number of posts about your topic on X in each of the last 168 hours. X is the one network where every public post can be counted, so this shows when your audience is awake and talking.
The same hourly count across everyday words for your industry, like recipe, restaurant and coffee for food and drink. It fills in the picture when your topic is small.
The top recent posts about your topic on X and TikTok, and the hour each one was published, weighted by how much engagement it earned.
The agent turns every signal into a score for each hour of the week in your time zone, blends them (your audience counts most, then your own posts, then your industry and the top posts), and picks the three best hours, at least three hours apart. Each slot lists the reasons it won, so you can judge it yourself.
Why generic charts don't work
Most "best time to post" charts average millions of accounts. Your audience isn't the average: a gaming brand, a bank and a coffee shop have followers who are online at very different hours. This tool uses your own posts and your own topic, so the answer fits you, and it shows the reason behind every slot.
Best times by network
Feed posts keep getting reach for a day or two, so the first hour matters less than posting when your followers scroll.
The For You feed tests a video with a small group first. Post when that group is awake and active.
Posts move fast. Timing matters more here than anywhere else, so match the hours when your topic is busiest.
Videos are found through search for weeks. Publish a few hours before your audience's peak so the video is ready when they arrive.
Best times by industry
Industries keep different hours, because their audiences do. These are patterns to check against your own heatmap, not rules. Pick your industry above to see the live count for this week.
People talk about food around meals: planning lunch late morning, and dinner and recipes in the evening. Weekend brunch is its own peak.
Browsing picks up in the evening and on weekends, and around paydays and sales. Drops do best when shoppers are free to click.
Work hours on weekdays, early in the week. Launch posts land better in the morning in your buyers' time zone.
Late afternoon into late night, and all day on weekends. Big releases and patch days shift everything.
Clustered around market hours on weekdays, with personal finance busier in the evening and on Sundays.
Dreaming and planning happen in the evening and on weekends. Deals do best before the workday starts.
Early mornings and early evenings, when people work out, plus a Monday spike as people restart routines.
School hours and late evenings, when people study. Sunday evening is often busy as the week starts.
Reading your heatmap
Each square is one hour of the week, from Monday at midnight to Sunday at 11 PM, in your time zone. Darker squares scored higher. Your three slots are green. When you add your handle, a white dot marks each hour you posted recently, so you can see whether you've been posting when your audience is around. A long dark band is a good window to keep posting into; a single dark square on its own is worth testing before you rely on it.
What to post in your slot
Timing gets a post seen; the post itself has to earn the engagement. Use the slot for your strongest post of the week. Pair it with hashtags people actually use, and when the replies arrive, answer them fast: a reply in the first hour keeps the conversation going. The AI reply generator helps you answer in seconds, and the engagement rate calculator shows whether the new time is working.
How to test your slots
Pick one slot and post there for two to three weeks, keeping the type of content the same. Compare engagement with your usual posts. Keep the slot if it wins, and try the next one if it doesn't. Run the tool again after a launch, a new campaign or a change in who follows you.
More free tools
All free tools →Name generator
Brand and handle ideas, each checked live for the .com and on Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube.
Social listening report
Volume, engagement, themes and sentiment for any keyword across X, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and news.
Share of voice
You vs up to 3 competitors, by channel and by theme.
Questions
How does the best time to post tool work?
An AI agent reads up to four things at once: your account's recent posts and how each one did, how many posts about your topic went up on X in every hour of the last 7 days, the same hourly count across your industry, and when the top posts about your topic were published on X and TikTok. It scores all 168 hours of the week and picks your three best.
Does it use my industry?
Yes. Pick one or type your own, like dog grooming or B2B payroll. The agent works out a handful of everyday words people use about it, like recipe, restaurant and coffee for food and drink, and counts them on X, hour by hour, for the last 7 days. It's a live count, not a benchmark from a report, and the result shows which words it counted.
How fresh is the data?
Everything is read when you press the button: your latest public posts, and counts for every full hour of the last 7 days on X. Nothing comes from a yearly study.
Is this based on my own account?
Yes, when you add your handle. Your posts are compared with your own usual engagement, so a big account and a small one get answers that fit them. Without a handle, the times come from when people post about your topic.
What time zone are the times in?
Yours. The page reads your browser's time zone and shows every slot and the whole week in it.
Why count posts on X for Instagram or TikTok?
X is the one network where every public post can be counted exactly, hour by hour. When people talk about a topic on X tends to match when they are online and talking about it elsewhere too.
How often should I check?
Run it again every month or two, and after a big change like a launch or a new audience. Then test the slots: post at one of them for a few weeks and compare.
The free tools take a snapshot. Sift runs all day.
Sift gives social teams AI agents that read every conversation, answer customers, flag what's growing and write the weekly report. The free tools run on the same agents.
- InboxEvery DM, comment and mention in one place, sorted by what needs a reply.
- AI repliesDrafts in your voice that go out when your team approves them.
- TrendsA heads-up when a topic about you starts to grow.
- SiftGPTAsk anything about your conversations and get the answer with the posts.