Best time to post on Facebook in 2026: three studies compared

What each study found

Every row is a separate published study, read and checked on the date in the byline. Times are the local time of the accounts in each study unless the time-zone column says otherwise.

Where the studies agree

Days are where the studies meet: Buffer’s best are Wednesday, Thursday and Tuesday; Sprout’s Monday to Thursday, strongest Tuesday and Wednesday.^[1][2] Both rate the weekend lowest.

Hours rarely overlap, and never across all three. The pairs: Buffer and Hootsuite on Friday and Saturday 6 AM and Sunday 8 AM; Buffer and Sprout on Tuesday 7 PM and Wednesday 6 PM.

Where they disagree, and why

Buffer calls afternoons, 12–5 PM, “generally the worst times to post”; Sprout’s peak is 12–8 PM; Hootsuite’s page says the best time is 5 AM on Tuesdays while its own all-networks page says 9 AM on Tuesdays.^[1][2][3][4]

• Metric: Buffer counts reactions, comments, shares and likes and uses the median. Sprout and Hootsuite don’t define engagement. Early-morning posts face less competition in the feed, which can lift a rate.
• Accounts: each study sees only its own customers, a different mix of brands, small businesses and creators for each tool.
• Period: only Sprout gives one (three winter months, late 2025 to early 2026).

Day by day

Each study’s picks for each day, in local time.

Worst times to post on Facebook

• Saturday (Buffer) and weekends (Sprout).^[1][2]
• 12–5 PM on most days (Buffer).^[1]
• 4–7 AM (Sprout), the same hours Hootsuite rates best.^[2][3]
• After 10 PM (Hootsuite’s FAQ).^[3]

By format

Only Hootsuite gives numbers by post type, and not by hour: status posts 0.11% engagement rate, photos 0.12%, videos 0.08%, links 0.04%.^[3] No study splits Reels timing with a stated sample.

Your audience is different: find your own golden hour

Every study above averages thousands of accounts. Your followers live in their own time zones and keep their own routines, so treat the windows as a first guess and check your own numbers.

In Facebook’s own analytics

1. Open Meta Business Suite (business.facebook.com or the app) for your Page and go to Insights to see reach and engagement for each post.
2. When you schedule a post in the Business Suite planner, look for suggested active times: Meta suggests slots from your audience’s past activity. The label and menu change often, and we couldn’t confirm the exact wording in Meta’s help centre.
3. Compare your last month of posts by hour: morning, midday and evening, same weekdays.

With Octoque

Octoque’s starting hour for Facebook is 13:00 in your audience’s local time.

That is 1 PM, inside Sprout’s Tuesday and Wednesday 12–8 PM, but in the 12–5 PM block Buffer finds weakest. If your Page behaves like Buffer’s accounts, move Facebook to 8–9 AM; you can set any time per platform.

Tell Octoque where your audience lives (up to three regions) and that hour follows their clock, not yours. Once you have a few posts, your own results take over from the starting hour. You can always pick a time yourself, post right away, or add the post to your queue. See how golden hour works.