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The best time to post on TikTok, day by day

Weekday evenings, about 6 to 9 PM in your audience's local time. That is where 8 studies from 2025 and 2026 agree most. Saturday and Sunday are the weakest days.

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Checked on against 10 sources.

Where 8 studies agree, by day and time of day

Where 8 studies agreeYour audience's local time, as most studies use. A higher score means more studies name that slot.
Strongest slot: Friday, 6-9 PM.
Strongest slot
Friday, 6-9 PM
Best day
Monday
Weakest day
Sunday
The short answer

Post on weekday evenings, 6 to 9 PM local time.

Eight engagement studies published between November 2025 and September 2026 name hours from 6 AM to midnight. The widest agreement is weekday evenings, about 6 to 9 PM in your audience's local time. Weekday mornings (6 to 9 AM) and afternoons (12 to 6 PM) come next. Overnight, 12 to 6 AM, is the time most studies say to avoid.

The studies split on weekends. Buffer calls Saturday the best day and Sunday 9 AM the best single slot, while Sprout Social and Emplifi say to skip weekends. TikTok itself gives no clock time. It points you to Most active times in TikTok Studio and says to use it "to help plan when to post".

Best days
Monday to Friday
Weekdays score close together
Best time
6 to 9 PM
Weekdays, your audience's local time
Worst time
12 to 6 AM
Sunday is the weakest day
By day

The best time to post on TikTok, every day of the week. In your audience's local time.

Best and runner-up posting windows on TikTok for each day of the week, local time, with how strongly the studies agree
DayBest windowRunner-upHow much the studies agree
Monday6-9 PM3-6 PMStrongly: SocialPilot, Metricool, Emplifi, Social Champ
Tuesday6-9 PM6-9 AM or 12-3 PMStrongly: SocialPilot, Metricool, Emplifi, Social Champ
Wednesday6-9 PM3-6 PMStrongly: Sprout Social, SocialPilot, Metricool, Emplifi, Social Champ. The top slot
Thursday6-9 PM6-9 AMSplit: Hootsuite's top pick is Thursday 7-9 AM
Friday6-9 PM3-6 PMStrongly: Buffer, SocialPilot, Metricool, Emplifi, Social Champ
Saturday3-6 PM6-9 PMSplit: Buffer's best day, but Sprout Social and Emplifi say avoid
Sunday9 AM-12 PM3-6 PMThe weakest day; Buffer's single best slot is Sunday 9 AM
Windows compiled from Sprout Social, Buffer, Hootsuite, SocialPilot, Dash Social, Metricool, Emplifi and Social Champ, published November 2025 to September 2026. See the sources below.
The studies

What each study found. They agree on the evening, not on the hour.

Best and worst TikTok posting times in eight studies from 2025 and 2026, with sample sizes
StudySampleBest timesBest daysAvoid
Sprout Social, Mar 20262B engagements, 307K profiles, all networksMon 3-5 PM, Tue 2-6 PM, Wed 1-8 PM, Thu 1-5 PM, Fri 3-5 PMTue to ThuSaturday, Sunday
Buffer, Sep 20267.1M TikTok postsSun 9 AM, Mon 1 PM, Sun 1 PMSat, Mon, SunNone named
Hootsuite, Nov 20251M+ posts, all networksThu 7-9 AM, Sat 10 AM-6 PMThu, SatBefore 6 AM, after 11 PM
SocialPilot, Jan 2026700K TikTok posts8 AM, 2-4 PM, 8 PMTue, Wed, ThuSunday, 11 PM-3 AM
Dash Social, Jan 2026 (2024 data)289K posts, 1,000+ brandsLate night, 9 PM-3 AMSundayWeekdays 2-6 PM
Metricool, Jun 20262.3M TikTok posts6-8 PM, most at 8 PMSunday (by views)2-4 AM
Emplifi, Sep 2026399M posts, all networksMon 8 AM-7 PM, Thu 8 AM-1 PMMon, ThuWeekends, Sunday most
Social Champ, Jun 2026Millions of posts, no count given9-10 PMTue, ThuNone named
Dash Social is the outlier: its 2024 data found late night best and weekday afternoons worst. Buffer's times need no time-zone conversion, Hootsuite's are localized across 118 countries, and Sprout Social and Dash Social use local time.
From TikTok

What TikTok says about timing. No clock time, but a place to find yours.

What TikTok's Creator Academy and Help Center say about when to post
TopicWhat TikTok says
Your own best timeMost active times in TikTok Studio shows the hours and days your audience was most active in the last 7 days. TikTok says to use it "to help plan when to post".
SchedulingTikTok Studio's web version schedules posts up to 30 days ahead, to "make sure you're reaching your viewers when they're most active".
RankingTime zone and day are among the user details the For You feed weighs, but interactions such as watch time "are generally weighted more heavily than others".
LIVE"Choose a time that works best for your audience; consider when they're most active."
From TikTok's Creator Academy and Help Center, read on October 17, 2026.
Tips

Find your own best time. The map is a start, your analytics decide.

  1. Open Most active times

    In TikTok Studio, open Analytics, then the Followers or Viewers tab. Most active times shows when your audience was on TikTok in the last 7 days.

  2. Plan in your audience's time zone

    If most of your viewers live in New York, plan in Eastern Time, wherever you are. Your analytics show their top locations.

  3. Test one slot at a time

    Post similar videos at two times for two to three weeks. Compare views and watch time, not likes alone.

  4. Schedule the evening posts

    The strongest band runs 6 to 9 PM. Schedule ahead so a 7 PM post goes out without you at your desk.

  5. Test weekends before you trust them

    Buffer found Saturday best, Sprout Social and Emplifi say skip it. Try a weekend slot before you move your best video there.

  6. Post a video before you go LIVE

    TikTok suggests posting a video before a LIVE, so viewers can join from the For You feed.

Best time to postClaudeChatGPTOpenClawHermes AgentGrokMusedotsMCP

OmniSocials learns your own best time to post on TikTok, and suggests it when you schedule.

Read More
  • Your Best Times
  • Day-by-Hour Heatmap
  • Schedule Ahead
  • Best Times via MCP
  • Claude & ChatGPT
  • and more
Other platforms

The same guide for every network. Each one has its own rules.

Sources

How we built this guide. Checked on October 17, 2026.

We read the 2025 and 2026 TikTok timing studies from Sprout Social, Buffer, Hootsuite, SocialPilot, Dash Social, Metricool, Emplifi and Social Champ. Together they cover over 10 million TikTok posts, plus cross-network samples from Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Emplifi. Each study gets one vote per day and three-hour block: plus one when it names the block as a best time, minus one when it says to avoid the block or the day. The votes are scaled from 0 to 100, so the map shows where the studies agree, not an engagement rate. Later's page uses only its own account and Sociality.io's repeats an older list, so both are left out, as are surveys of marketers.

  1. Sprout Social: Best times to post on TikTok in 2026Mar 2026About 2 billion engagements across 307,000 profiles on all networks, Nov 2025 to Feb 2026, local time.
  2. Buffer: The best time to post on TikTok in 2026Sep 20267.1 million TikTok posts, median engagement rate.
  3. Hootsuite: The best time to post on TikTokNov 2025Over 1 million posts across networks, localized across 118 countries.
  4. SocialPilot: Best time to post on TikTok in 2026Jan 2026700,000 TikTok posts from 50,000+ accounts, January to December 2025.
  5. Dash Social: Best time to post on TikTok in 2026Jan 2026289,079 posts from 1,000+ brands, all of 2024, local time.
  6. Metricool: When is the best time to post on TikTok in 2026?Jun 20262,314,756 posts from 92,000+ accounts, measured by views.
  7. Emplifi: Best time to post on social media in 2026Sep 2026399 million posts from 754,000 brand profiles across networks.
  8. Social Champ: Best time to post on TikTok in 2026Jun 2026Engagement in the first hour; no exact sample size given.
  9. TikTok Creator Academy: Using analytics as a tool to improve video performanceOct 2026
  10. TikTok Help Center: How TikTok recommends contentRead Oct 2026
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