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The best time to post on YouTube, day by day

Afternoons, about 12 to 6 PM in your audience's local time, and weekend late mornings. That is where 5 studies from 2026 agree most. Saturday is the strongest day, Wednesday the weakest.

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Checked on against 9 sources.

Where 5 studies agree, by day and time of day

Where 5 studies agreeYour audience's local time, as Buffer, SocialPilot and Dash Social use it. A higher score means more studies name that slot.
Strongest slot: Saturday, 9 AM-12 PM.
Strongest slot
Saturday, 9 AM-12 PM
Best day
Saturday
Weakest day
Wednesday
The short answer

Post between 12 and 6 PM local time. Saturday is the strongest day.

Five studies published between June and October 2026 name different hours, from 4 AM (Dash Social) to 9 PM (Buffer, for Shorts). The widest agreement is the afternoon, roughly 12 to 6 PM in your audience's local time, plus weekend late mornings. Overnight, about 12 to 6 AM, scores lowest, and Wednesday is the weakest day.

YouTube says the hour matters less than you might think: "Publish time is not known to impact a video's long-term performance." Posting when your audience is most active can help early views, so check the When your viewers are on YouTube report in YouTube Analytics. Live streams and Premieres are the exception, where the time does matter.

Best days
Saturday, Sunday
Weekends lead in vidIQ's 40M videos
Best time
12 to 6 PM
Your audience's local time
Worst time
12 to 6 AM
Wednesday is the weakest day
By day

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

Best and runner-up posting windows on YouTube for each day of the week, local time, with how many of five 2026 studies name them
DayBest windowRunner-upHow much the studies agree
Monday3-6 PMMorning or evening, tied3 of 5: Buffer, SocialPilot, Metricool
Tuesday6 AM-12 PM6-9 PM3 of 5: Buffer, SocialPilot, Dash Social
Wednesday3-6 PM12-3 PMWeakly: the weakest day for vidIQ and for Buffer's long videos
Thursday3-6 PM6 PM-12 AM3 of 5: Buffer, SocialPilot, Metricool
Friday9 AM-3 PM3-6 PM3 of 5: Buffer, SocialPilot, Dash Social
Saturday9 AM-12 PM, 3-6 PM12-3 PM4 of 5. The best day
Sunday12-3 PM3-6 PM4 of 5, but Dash Social calls Sunday a weaker day
Windows compiled from Buffer, SocialPilot, Dash Social, vidIQ and Metricool, published June to October 2026. See the sources below.
The studies

What each 2026 study found. They agree on the afternoon, not on the hour.

Best and worst YouTube posting times in five 2026 studies, with sample sizes
StudySampleBest timesBest daysAvoid
Buffer, Jul 20261.8M videosLong videos: Sun 10 AM, weekday mornings. Shorts: evenings, Fri 4-7 PMLong: Sun, Tue, Mon. Shorts: Fri, Sat, ThuLong: Wed, Thu. Shorts: 12-5 PM
SocialPilot, Jul 2026301K videos, 27K+ channelsLong videos: weekdays 2-5 PM, weekends 8-10 AM. Shorts: mornings and middayWed, Thu, FriBefore 9 AM on weekdays, after 10 PM
Dash Social, Oct 2026235K+ brand postsThu 4 AM; 9 AM on most daysNo ranking6-7 AM; Sunday
vidIQ, Jun 202640.2M US long videosThe hour barely mattered by day 30Sun (+3.5%), Sat (+2.2%)Wednesday (-2.2%)
Metricool, Jul 2026799,718 videosShorts: 2-6 PMNo day rankingNot stated
vidIQ compared each video's 30-day views with its own channel's average, so its day effects are small: under 6% between the best and the worst day.
Long videos vs Shorts

Do Shorts need a different time? Maybe, but the studies disagree on which.

What the 2026 studies say about posting times for YouTube long videos, Shorts, live streams and Premieres
FormatWhat the studies say
Long videosBuffer: Sunday 10 AM and weekday mornings. SocialPilot: 2-4 PM on weekdays, 8-10 AM on weekends. vidIQ: weekends do slightly better, and the hour barely matters.
ShortsBuffer: evenings, Friday 4 PM best. SocialPilot: mornings and midday. Metricool: 2-6 PM. Dash Social: 4 AM and 9 AM. No two agree.
Live and PremieresYouTube: "publish time is important for formats such as Live and Premiere videos". Use the When your viewers are on YouTube report.
What changed

What changed for timing. Views now count from the first second.

  1. Aug 2026

    Views count the moment a video starts

    YouTube: "Beginning August 24, 2026, views are counted the moment a video starts to play across all formats." Studies with earlier data used the old count. Source

  2. Mar 2025

    Shorts views count every play

    From March 31, 2025, a Short's views count every start or replay, with no minimum watch time. The old count became "engaged views". Source

Tips

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

  1. Open When your viewers are on YouTube

    In YouTube Analytics, this report shows when your viewers were online across YouTube in the last 28 days.

  2. Plan in your audience's time zone

    The studies use local time. If most viewers live in New York, plan in Eastern Time, wherever you are.

  3. Time live streams and Premieres

    YouTube says publish time matters for Live and Premieres. Start them when most of your viewers are online.

  4. Do not chase the minute

    vidIQ found exact upload times "had little effect on 30-day views". A strong video at a fair time wins.

  5. Judge a slot after 10 days

    Metricool found 83% of interactions came in a video's first 10 days. Compare slots on those numbers.

  6. Schedule the weekend uploads

    Saturday and Sunday score well. Schedule them ahead so a Saturday morning video goes out without you.

Best time to postClaudeChatGPTOpenClawHermes AgentGrokMusedotsMCP

OmniSocials learns your own best time to post on YouTube, 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 2026 YouTube timing studies from Buffer, SocialPilot, Dash Social, vidIQ and Metricool, about 43 million videos together. Each study gets one vote per day and three-hour block: plus one when it names the block as a best time for long videos or Shorts, minus one when it says to avoid the block or the day. vidIQ ranks days only, so its votes cover whole days; Metricool gives one Shorts window, counted on every day. The votes are scaled from 0 to 100, so the map shows where the studies agree, not an engagement rate. Later, Sprout Social and Hootsuite publish no YouTube study of their own for 2025 or 2026, so they are not in it.

  1. Buffer: The best time to post on YouTubeJul 20261.8 million Shorts and long videos, median engagement by hour and day.
  2. SocialPilot: Best time to post on YouTube in 2026Jul 2026301,000 videos from 27,000+ channels, engagement per view.
  3. Dash Social: Best time to post on YouTube in 2026Oct 2026235,000+ posts from 600+ brands, June 2025 to May 2026.
  4. vidIQ: Best time to post on YouTube: what 40 million videos showJun 202640.2 million US long videos, 30-day views against each channel's average.
  5. Metricool: When is the best time to post on YouTube?Jul 2026799,718 videos from 71,177 channels.
  6. YouTube Help: YouTube frequently asked questionsRead Oct 2026"Publish time is not known to impact a video's long-term performance."
  7. YouTube Help: When your viewers are on YouTube reportRead Oct 2026
  8. YouTube Help: How video views are countedRead Oct 2026
  9. TeamYouTube: An update to how Shorts views are countedMar 26, 2025
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