What is the best time to post on Instagram in 2025?
Well, Instagram has been around since 2010, and a lot has changed since then.
When it first started out, Instagram was a simple platform to share photos with your friends and family; these photos appeared in chronological order as users posted them.
Now, with the expansion of Instagram for business and marketing purposes, things have changed.
Because Instagram wanted to provide users with an experience that was tailored to their needs, Instagram changed its infamous algorithm to reflect the content that users actually wanted to see.
This is why it’s vital to know the best time to post on Instagram.
While no one has quite figured out how to outsmart the algorithm, it’s widely known that posts that users interact with or view frequently will appear higher up in the newsfeed.
This has changed the game completely and placed Instagram engagement as the prime goal of content strategy.
If you want to get more Instagram followers and increase the reach of your content, you have to create content that encourages users to view and interact on a regular basis.
After all, how disappointing would it be if you spent loads of time creating content that, ultimately, no one saw?
In order to get your content out to your target audience with the highest chance of engagement, the best thing you can do is identify the best time to post on Instagram and stick to a set content posting schedule.
Our in-depth guide will help you to understand the best Instagram posting times by day, industry, your own tests, as well as how to create seamless posting schedules using three of the most prominent Instagram schedulers around.
Let’s do this!
Best Time to Post on Instagram by Day of the Week
Each particular Instagram account has its unique audience with followers based in different cities and located in various time zones.
Understanding the best time to post on Instagram is vital for your content’s success.
Even though there are unique elements that go into your account’s optimal posting times, there are some general beliefs about which times align with increased Instagram engagement.
In Later’s analysis of 12 million Instagram posts across time zones with an array of global followers, they aimed to find the best overall posting times.
The results of Later’s study led to the following conclusion about the best time to post on Instagram according to the days of the week:
- Monday: 6am, 10am, and 10pm EST
- Tuesday: 2am, 4am, and 9am EST
- Wednesday: 7am, 8am, and 11pm EST
- Thursday: 9am, 12pm, and 7pm EST
- Friday: 5am, 1pm, and 3pm EST
- Saturday: 11am, 7pm, and 8pm EST
- Sunday: 7am, 8am, and 4pm EST
This gives you a basic overview of the best time to post on Instagram, and that’s a good starting point.
What’s more, the most active days that can bring you Instagram results through your posts are said to be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, in general.
These can help you to gain an initial understanding of what might work for you, but it’s better to hone in on your specific account and take a look at your industry as well as personal tests.
Next, we’re going to explore the best time to post on Instagram by industry.
Best Time to Post on Instagram by Industry
As we mentioned in the previous section, the best time to post on Instagram does vary by account; that said, there are ideal posting times for different industries as a whole.
Make sure you understand your industry posting times as an initial step.
Below we’ve used research from Sprout Social to categorize the best time to post on Instagram by industry.
Retail and Consumer Goods
With Instagram being the powerhouse for marketing and in-app shopping, it’s now more important than ever for retail businesses and brands to take advantage of optimal posting times.
After all, 80% of Instagram users have decided whether or not to buy a product with the help of the platform.
If you want to reach an audience that will generate more revenue for your business through Instagram shopping, you should note the following advice about the best time to post on Instagram for retail:
- Best time: Wednesday afternoon (3pm) and Friday (11am-12pm)
- Best day: Wednesday
- Worst day: Sunday — people are typically making the most of the remaining weekend hours and not glued to their social media accounts.
- Lowest engagement: Late night and early morning— most people are sleeping at these times and aren’t active on social networks.
Many business accounts in the retail industry have concurred that you want to catch your audience when they’re relaxed and engaged on the platform since they’ll be more likely to buy something.
This includes time frames in the late morning or evening, and spreads across weekdays.
You can narrow this information to work for your account by reviewing the above recommendations and doing your own tests; analyze your Instagram insights and see which posts produced results.
Always consider your target demographic and their behavior.
How can you get them to check out your content and when are they likely to be online and willing to make a purchase?
This knowledge will come with time.
Below are posting strategies from our contact in the retail industry.
What Is the Best Time to Post on Instagram for Retail?
Personally, the best time is to post in the morning or evening, with the best days of the week being Sunday through Thursday.
It makes sense: people are resting, scrolling through Instagram, and after work, people are browsing once again.
On Fridays and Saturdays, it’s logical that people are out and about doing what they need to take care of.
How Did You Come to That Conclusion?
I did a lot of A/B testing, trial and error, and referencing Instagram insights via the Instagram app. I also used a few third-party tools for analytics.
Do You Use Third-Party Analytics Tools, or Only Instagram Analytics?
I use Iconosquare for more in-depth analysis, and like to take advantage of Later for scheduling posts, as they also give you suggested best posting times.
Do You Have Any Tips for Readers Posting on Instagram in The Retail Industry?
The most important thing is to consider your target demographic. You should make your decisions based on their behavior.
What is the best way to engage with them, and when are they likely to be most engaged?
Media & Entertainment
It’s virtually impossible to imagine the media and entertainment industry without social media.
News outlets, blogs, musicians, artists, actors, and so many more entertainers are using the platform to get their content discovered and build a huge fan base.
Creating a solid content strategy that helps to promote your creative endeavor is of utmost importance, but if you don’t get this content seen by anyone, it’d be quite difficult to gain more followers, supporters, and fans.
Knowing the best time to post on Instagram for media and entertainment can get your content seen by people in your target audience and appear in their feed regularly.
- Best Time/Day: Friday (9am EST)
- Best Engagement: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (8-5pm EST)
- Lowest Engagement: Saturday and Sunday — most people aren’t focused on their social media during the weekend and may find less interest in entertainment posts because they are out and about in the real world. They may see your post, but may not interact with it.
One of the best things you can do for your entertainment or media Instagram account is to do A/B testing with similar content types and see when it performs best.
You can also engage your users via Instagram stories to see what type of content they want to see more of and get them actively interested in your content and posts.
Take risks and always use Instagram consistently to showcase who you are and what your entertainment value is.
Here’s some tips on Instagram posting times from our contact for the entertainment industry:
What Is the Best Time to Post on Instagram for Entertainment?
For entertainment, I believe that the best time to post on Instagram is typically in the morning, more specifically weekend mornings, as well as mid- to late- evenings during weeknights.
How Did You Come to That Conclusion?
The most effective thing I did was test out similar content pieces at different times to see which performed best.
Do You Use Third-Party Analytics Tools, or Only Instagram Analytics?
I mainly use Instagram insights but also use Hootsuite to manage posting times and messaging.
Do You Have Any Tips for Readers Posting on Instagram in The Entertainment Industry?
Understand the type of content that your audience is looking for, but don’t be afraid to try out new things and follow trends in the industry.
Do plenty of A/B testing to see which type of content boosts your engagement.
Take risks and be fresh— if anything, you can delete your post later if you come to regret it. You never know what will work and what won’t, and that’s what could launch your account to viral status.
Tech
The best posting time on Instagram for tech can be a difficult industry to nail down, mostly because it’s a global industry and peak times can vary greatly.
If you want to gain consistent and impactful engagement on your Instagram posts for tech, you should focus on the following time frames and days.
Here you can find the best time to post on Instagram in tech:
- Best Time: Wednesday morning at 6am or 9am
- Best Day: Wednesday mid-morning, Friday morning from 7-10am, Saturday morning from 7-11am
- Worst Day: Sunday — most people aren’t as active on social media on Sunday in this industry.
It’s important that you do your own content testing and understand who your target audience is so that you can adjust your posting times accordingly; check out the Instagram insights audience section to understand more about them and when they’re on Instagram for best results.
Non-Profit
Nonprofits need to continue to build support for their endeavors, so using Instagram to ramp up your cause is definitely recommended.
Facebook can help you to promote any relevant events and Instagram can simultaneously give people insight into your projects and any other issues that relate to your cause.
Here is the best time to post on Instagram for nonprofits:
- Best Time/Day: Wednesday at 2pm
- Best Engagement: Wednesday between 1pm to 4 pm
- Lowest Engagement: Saturdays and Sundays
It’s important to build your credibility and authority through your nonprofit’s Instagram presence.
That way, when people see your content, they trust you to give them correct and valuable information and will be more likely to participate in or support what you are working for.
Education
There are many possibilities for those in education to use Instagram in the classroom, as well as outside of it.
Teachers and educational resource creators can promote their businesses or share methods, colleges and schools can promote an active community and also attract new students, and districts or large-scale organizations can keep people posted on news and important events.
Because people involved with education often have busy schedules, here are some ideas for the best posting times on Instagram for education:
- Best Time/Day: Friday mornings at 10am
- Consistent Engagement: Wednesday through Saturday from 10am to 8pm
- Highest Engagement: Wednesday / Friday mid-morning and Saturday nights between 6-8pm
- Worst day: Sunday — people in this field are usually relaxing and/or preparing for the week to come.
Having informational and fun content is really important in education.
Make sure that you get people excited and make them feel like a part of the community— always show enthusiasm for building relationships and encourage people to share content with friends and have conversations through comments on your posts.
Healthcare
Many healthcare providers or practices use Instagram to help build their reputation and attract new clients.
It’s important to establish a solid presence so that in the event people are looking for services in their area or want to check out your reputation, you have strong visibility on Instagram.
If you’re in healthcare, this is the best time to post on Instagram:
- Best Time and day: Tuesday at 8am
- Best Engagement: Weekdays from 9am-3pm
- Lowest Engagement: Saturdays and Sundays
Keep in mind the busy schedules of people looking for healthcare services and also the busy schedules of those working in healthcare.
A good idea is to post very actively and frequently so that you can establish a very perpetual presence and get seen by many different people no matter when they’re browsing Instagram.
Our contact gave us her best practices on best Instagram posting times for the healthcare industry:
What Is the Best Time to Post on Instagram for Your Industry?
Our organization has found that the best time to post on Instagram for healthcare is in the early morning, sometime between 7-9am.
How Did You Come to That Conclusion?
One of the most important factors was considering the schedule of nurses, students, and other healthcare professionals.
Many people in the healthcare industry work long shifts, and almost all of them are either getting off work or going into work in the early morning hours, making 7-9am the optimal time to post.
Do You Use Third-Party Analytics Tools, or Only Instagram Analytics?
We have only taken advantage of Instagram insights to date, as we’ve found it to be enough to gage the best time to post on Instagram.
Do You Have Any Tips for Readers Posting on Instagram in The Healthcare Industry?
Keep your content professional and captivating, and post content multiple times a day.
It can be helpful when people are looking to your account for advice, regardless of the time zone, as healthcare is especially global.
It’s also a good idea to avoid confusing or isolating medical terms, as it can turn people off to your content.
Don’t forget to show your personality and entertain where you can!
Professional Services
Social media accounts that are related to professional services typically post content that helps to educate their followers through videos, blogs, tutorials, and other social media networks.
The Instagram post is meant as a guide to funnel traffic to outside networks or websites.
People who are looking for professional services have been shown to be most active in the early morning, but you may still gain traction throughout the day such as during lunch breaks or even in the evening.
Below is the best time to post on Instagram for professional service accounts:
- Best Time: Any day between 9am and 10 pm
- Best Day: Weekdays, specifically Tuesday, Wednesday, and Fridays.
- Lowest Engagement: Saturdays and Sundays— many people are relaxing on the weekends and leave productive tasks for the weekdays.
Because many professional services include businesses that are related to law, banking, health, etc., their target audience is likely to be more active during the week.
One great strategy to build a stronger relationship with your followers is to feature the people behind your business.
Instagram content that features people gets higher engagement, so if you show the people who help make your services possible, your followers can create a bond with them and will be more likely to engage with your posts, trust your brand, and also potentially choose your services over others.
Our contact shared with us some of his expertise in posting times for the professional service industry:
What Is the Best Time to Post on Instagram for Your Industry?
Most professional services, no matter if they’re banking, legal, financial, or other, are engaged mostly during the work week, that is Monday-Friday.
People in the professional services industry take time on the weekend to disconnect as much as possible, which means their interest is lower.
How Did You Come to That Conclusion?
This was our initial hypothesis, and we were able to reach this conclusion by testing it out, using Instagram insights to validate through data.
Do You Use Third-Party Analytics Tools, or Only Instagram Analytics?
Instagram insights has been our go-to, and we also use HypeAuditor to check out our clients and competitors to follow industry trends.
Do You Have Any Tips for Readers Posting on Instagram in The Professional Service Industry?
Don’t forget to include people in your content— feature those at your organization and produce content that doesn’t just include motivational text or graphics.
We’ve found that most of our content with people gets a better reaction in terms of engagement.
People want to connect with other people, and when you tell a story about someone at your organization, you humanize your Instagram.
Users really enjoy that content, from our experience.
Food & Beverage
The food and beverage industry is a big one on Instagram— people can’t get enough of delicious food posts and restaurant features that call their name.
Instagrammers also use the platform to discover new places to eat in their area or in places they travel to, so having a strong and active presence is important.
People are likely to engage with food and beverage posts around mealtimes; professionals take lunch breaks in the middle of the day, so engagement or traffic can increase during this period.
Here is the best time to post on Instagram for food and beverage:
- Best Days: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
- Best Hours: Noon- many people are checking their phone on their lunch breaks; this can ultimately extend even to 3pm depending on who your audience is.
- Best Engagement: Friday is a great day for engagement due to the beginning of the weekend and users looking for great food and drink over the weekend.
- Lowest Engagement: Saturday nights and Sunday mornings
For the food and beverage industry, having extremely high-quality shots that truly feature your location and gastronomy is important if you want to gain traction in the industry.
You want to keep your content as authentic and organic as possible as well.
Below you’ll find insight into Instagram posting times for the food and beverage industry from our contact.
What Is the Best Time to Post on Instagram for Your Industry?
After tireless research and analytics, our team has concluded that the best time to post on Instagram is roughly around 12pm in the time zone that we’re targeting.
For example, if your target audience is located in Los Angeles, you should aim to post at 12pm PST.
If your audience is located in Miami, you’d want to change that to 12pm EST. No matter where you’re based, you should post at the right time for your target audience.
How Did You Come to That Conclusion?
We did a lot of A/B testing using the Instagram analytics feature directly located within the Instagram app.
Once I understood the general behavior of my audience and when they were likely to be online, I could tailor my posting schedule accordingly.
Do You Use Third-Party Analytics Tools, or Only Instagram Analytics?
We currently use Instagram analytics exclusively, but are looking to expand our posting strategy to an Instagram scheduler such as Later or Loomly so that we can delegate our work better and implement social listening.
We’re also considering Sprout Social, since they have some of the best listening tools out there.
Do You Have Any Tips for Readers Posting on Instagram in The Food and Beverage Industry?
At first, we were focused on just pumping out as much content as possible, which ultimately cut into the quality of our content.
One thing that has been effective is shooting all of the content at once, and then editing it until it matches our brand aesthetic.
We always ensure that our content is up to par, so even if we only use 60% of the content we shot, we consider that a success.
Keep your content fun and engaging as well— nobody likes pushy, salesy content.
Use organic content and create engaging captions that encourage your audience to feel like a part of the community.
This will drive much better results than beating your followers and viewers over the head with sales tactics.
Travel & Tourism
Another wildly successful niche on Instagram is travel and tourism.
People flock to the platform to find out about different sites, hotels, tours, and more; they also use it to satisfy their wanderlust when they’re not able to travel.
For this reason, there’s a lot of demand for travel and tourism content, but there are still certain times when this particular target audience is more likely to engage.
Here is the best time to post on Instagram for travel and tourism content:
- Best Days: Fridays, Tuesday, and Wednesdays
- Most Engagement: Between 11am-1pm and 9am-10am
You should consider where the majority of your Instagram audience is located; it may be especially tough because you might have quite a bit of international followers. Decide based on the majority of your audience.
Evenings are generally thought to be a good time if you have a lot of people based around the globe; it’s one of the times where a large amount of people around the globe are likely to be online.
This is what our contact told us about Instagram posting times for the travel industry:
What Is the Best Time to Post on Instagram for Your Industry?
It can vary quite a bit, and the Instagram algorithm makes it tough to decisively identify the best time to post on Instagram.
It really depends on your Instagram audience, where they are located, and then balancing your posting schedule.
It’s not going to do you any good if you’re posting content when most of your followers are asleep.
That said, evenings have worked best for me, as most people are either finishing work and browsing Instagram, or getting their day started.
Try to find a balance between time zones if you have a global audience.
How Did You Come to That Conclusion?
Over the course of a few weeks I posted content at different times and checked Instagram analytics to see which ones performed best and aligned with my audience’s online times.
Do You Use Third-Party Analytics Tools, or Only Instagram Analytics?
I have only used Instagram insights because I feel that it’s given me all of the most important data in an easy, go-to format.
Do You Have Any Tips for Readers Posting on Instagram in The Travel Industry?
Use the right hashtags, geotags, and mentions. Always add as much detail to your posts as possible so that your followers and viewers can check out the destination, hotel, restaurant, landmark, or anywhere else you might find yourself.
Also, don’t forget to engage and be active with your followers!
Respond to comments and encourage your followers to interact with you via Instagram stories, DMs, and comments.
How to Find the Best Time to Post on Instagram Through Personal Experimentation
Now that we’ve explored some general guidelines about the best Instagram posting times by day as well as by industry, there’s one final thing we need to discuss about the best time to post on Instagram— there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer.
You have to use your tools to see how your content is performing and adjust accordingly.
Your Instagram strategy will never be one and done: it’s constantly evolving.
Instagram knows how important its platform is for brands and businesses, which is why they introduced the professional account type and offered their invaluable Instagram insights to all of those accounts.
Having a professional account on Instagram costs you nothing and can give you access to additional tools to help your profile thrive.
You’ll be able to see many different data points about your followers, when they’re active on Instagram, and their overall demographics.
Studying these analytics can help you to have even more clarity about the best time to post on Instagram to maximize reach and engagement.
Not only that, when you understand your platform and your target audience, you can gain even better results.
That said, if you don’t have a professional Instagram account, you can get one by navigating to Settings and then scrolling all the way to the bottom to tap Switch to Professional Account. Follow the prompts and you’re good to go.
In addition to regularly monitoring your Instagram insights, you should be setting up A/B testing with similar content types.
Once you gain a general idea of when you think your posting times will be best, you can then set up a variety of tests to see which times deliver the best results.
Do this for a few weeks so you can ensure that your data is valid and it’s not just based on a one-off result.
This is vital if you truly want to understand the best time to post on Instagram for you, and not just a general industry standard.
How to Schedule Instagram Posts Using the Most Popular Scheduling Tools
Don’t have the time or energy to experiment with Instagram posting times?
No time to monitor your Instagram engagement meticulously, checking insights to understand the best time to post on Instagram? Don’t worry.
Popular scheduling tools help you to avoid this tedious work.
They give you recommendations on the best time to post on Instagram in direct correlation with your Instagram account and your target audience.
Later
Later makes it easier than ever to find the best posting times for your industry, and more specifically, your own account.
When you use Later, you’ll have access to their “Best Time to Post” feature, which gives you insight into your account’s best posting times.
Later will automatically calculate the times that your Instagram followers are most active, informing you of the optimal scheduling times if you want max engagement.
Later’s “Best Time to Post” feature is only available with their business plans, so you’ll have access to that and unlimited post scheduling + additional features at only $16/month to start.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social offers a variety of valuable social media tools to business Instagram users, including the best time to post on Instagram for your particular account.
You can not only find out when to post, but also set up your posts for scheduling and auto-posting content.
How can they do this? Joel Booth, the Senior Data Scientist at Sprout Social gave us the know-how.
He says, “The algorithm can look at more messages, more engagements, and more factors over a far wider range of time than a person to pinpoint those ideal times to send a message and how those times change week to week.”
In addition to tools for listening and engagement, Sprout Social is a welcome addition to your Instagram strategy.
SocialBee
For an affordable and intuitive Instagram scheduling tool, SocialBee has a lot to offer.
You can use SocialBee to share not only to Instagram but also to Facebook, Twitter, Google My Business, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
You’ll be able to customize posts to match different formats and requirements across the social networks, which helps your content to have maximum performance on all platforms.
In addition, you can set up a posting schedule for all of your profiles with real-time previews as you edit.
They offer a great mix of content categories and give you the option to recycle evergreen posts as well as set expiry times for content you want to disappear after a set period.
You can access the SocialBee free trial to test out their services.
Social Media Success
With the new Instagram algorithm, content quality isn’t the only factor in how well your content performs these days.
You need to ensure you know the best time to post on Instagram for true success.
Now that you have a deeper understanding of the best time to post content based on your industry, don’t forget to find an effective editing app so that you can optimize the quality of your content.
One great option is Canva due to its versatility and array of editing features.
After reading our ultimate guide to the best time to post on Instagram, you can optimize your posting schedule, drive engagement, and gain more followers, ultimately allowing you to monetize your Instagram account regardless of what industry you are in.
