Best Times to Post on Instagram in 2025

December 23, 2024 By Janne Smith No Comments 11 minutes

Have you ever spent countless days and poured your heart into crafting the perfect reel, maybe with the Eiffel Tower all lit up in the background, only to see it receive just a few likes and maybe zero comments? How does it feel to see your post’s glow up getting cancelled? But imagine how rewarding it would be to know the best time to post on Instagram and really connect with your audience.

Instagram is a hub for over 2 billion users, but not all are planning a trip to France; some might just want to buy cat food. And posting your content without knowing when your target audience is active is where good intentions meet bad algorithms. However, knowing the best times to post on Instagram reels can save you the hassle.

That said, this guide will briefly walk you through the best times of days to post on Instagram in 2025 and answer other frequent search queries to ensure your posts never get swiped left.

Table of Contents

• The Best Times to Post on Instagram in 2025
• What are the Best Times to Post Instagram Reels
• Best Time to Post Instagram Carousels
• What Is a Good Posting Schedule for Instagram by Industry
• When Should You Not Post on Instagram
• Mastering Instagram Engagement
• Know Your Audience
• Learn from Your Competitors
• Leverage Instagram’s Latest Features
• Play with Content Formats and Posting Times
• Time the Posts Perfectly for Maximum Impact
• Say It Right with Captions That Capture Attention
• Focus on Genuine Engagement
• FAQ’s
• Conclusion

Note: Now that you know about the best times of day to post on Instagram, you can connect to a VPN like FastestVPN to reach your region-specific audience. For example, you can connect to a US server and post about the Met Gala from the Netherlands–your post will reach the US audience. A VPN connection disguises your virtual identity based on the server you connect to. However, you must only use a trusted VPN, and we recommend FastestVPN.

The Best Times to Post on Instagram in 2025

Before you exhaust your search engine, we collected the data from the following sources to find the best times of day to post on Instagram:

• Hootsuite
• Buffer
• Shopify
• Later
• Influencer Marketing Hub
• Sprout Social

Simply put, the best times to post on Instagram are from Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. and 12 p.m., but we’ve got other days of the week on the list too. However, we’ve got a brief breakdown of days and times of those days to post on Instagram to maximize engagement. Here’s a quick rundown:

While numbers can tell so much, yet, so little. Here’s a breakdown and analysis of the above-mentioned data of what makes them the best times of day to post on Instagram:

The Best Times to Post on Instagram on Monday

11 a.m. – 12 p.m. are the best times to post on Instagram on Monday due to a strong audience presence, and according to the sources mentioned above, posts attracted highest engagement during these times.

The Best Times to Post on Instagram on Tuesday

7 a.m – 10 a.m. are the best times to post on Instagram on Tuesday, as the posts made by the top social media service platforms performed the best during these timings.

The Best Times to Post on Instagram on Wednesday

As per the 6 aforementioned sources, posts made at 11 a.m. performed the best before noon on Wednesday.

The Best Times to Post on Instagram on Thursday

On Thursdays, the early bird catches the worm. 7 a.m., 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. are the best time to post on Thursdays.

The Best Times to Post on Instagram on Friday

It’s a Friday, and everyone’s on social media by the afternoon and the night, making 4 p.m. the best time to post on Instagram on Friday.

The Best Times to Post on Instagram on Saturday

7 a.m. is the best time to post on Instagram on Saturday.

The Best Times to Post on Instagram on Sunday

It’s a lazy Sunday; most will be either sleeping or spending their day out. Although it’s not a great day to post, 7 p.m. is still a good time if you plan to do so.

What are the Best Times to Post Instagram Reels

Since 2021, Instagram has shown an inclination towards reels, meaning, the algorithm prioritizes them. This algorithm emerged from the growing competition with other social media giants, like TikTok. However, you can’t post a reel at the wrong time and expect it to go viral. Instead, according to Later, 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. are the best times of day to post on Instagram reels on Monday.

Best Time to Post Instagram Carousels

Carousels are mostly on Linkedin, but they can boost numbers on Instagram, too if posted on the right time. Instead of Carousels, Instagram has a fancier name for it–the Photo Dump. And, the rising trend of it makes Instagram increase the number of photos 20 from 10.

Tuesday is the best time post Instagram carousel, mostly at 5 AM. And since that’s super early, you might want to schedule your post for a better chance at your post reaching your target audience.

What Is a Good Posting Schedule for Instagram by Industry

For example, you’ve got 2 products: a cereal and a software product. Which product would you post about at 6 in the morning?

It must be the cereal because that’s when most people will engage with breakfast posts instead of software products during an early rise. Simply put, posting without your target audience present makes your post go from top shelf to the bottom of the digital heap.

That said, here are the best times to post on Instagram reels for maximized engagement based on your business type:

When Should You Not Post on Instagram?

You might have guessed it from the above-mentioned timing analysis already: Sundays are not for the Gram. It’s the least effective time to post on Instagram unless the stars are on your side. According to MailChimp, it’s mostly because of people avoid social media usage on Sundays and spend their day outside or with their close ones. Whereas, Mondays are better for higher post engagement and the best times to post on Instagram reels.

On the other hand, the significance of knowing the best times of day to post on Instagram and the right day to post also come from paid posts. While everyone’s using it for engagement, most businesses sell their products, run their ads and spend their days creating a post that goes viral only to hit the sales target. And, posting on a bad day will make all your efforts go down the drain–in seconds!

Mastering Instagram Engagement: A Quick Guide

Posting without an Instagram strategy (such as the best times of day to post on Instagram) is nothing lesser than shooting in the air–it’s always without an aim. And, this will result in zero engagements unless you get lucky with a post. Now that you know about the Instagram post timings, here’s a comprehensive blueprint of mastering Instagram engagement.

Know Your Audience: Leverage Instagram Insights

Before posting anything, take a deep dive and analyse your audience. For instance, you can’t be a VPN product using the same marketing strategy as Stanley Quenchers. Instead, start drafting answers to:

• Who is your audience?
• What kind of content makes them double-tap?
• Why are they online?
• When are they online and scrolling?

Get cozy with the numbers and check their age, location, gender and activity patterns during the day and midnight. This will also help give insight into best times to post on Instagram reels. Know your audience to ensure that every post will catalyze the engagement stats.

Learn from Your Competitors – Spy, Strategize, and Shine

Use Instagram insights to understand who your audience is, what they like, and when they’re active. You can monitor their content engagement using different tools, such as:

• Sprout Social
• Hootsuite

Leverage Instagram’s Latest Features – Ride the Wave

It’s always the algorithm, similar to Google Web Vital Updates, Instagram and other social media platforms have algorithmic updates and you must follow them to drive engagement on your posts, such as find the best times of day to post on Instagram. Moreover, Instagram keeps rolling out new features that you can leverage to maximize interaction and engagement on your posts.

For example, you can now add notes in the posts you send. Meanwhile, you can add notes on your profile as well that your friends can see through the Messages section. Or, you might want to post reels instead of posts (preferred by Instagram) for improved engagement.

Play with Content Formats and Posting Times

While reels might just do the trick for some, carousels do it for others. This is where A/B testing steps in. Experiment with different content formats to see which type works for you. For example, you can be a software development company and post interactive corporate reels with your audience to glass-break the formal impression, which might work great.

As a takeaway, experiment with:

• Posting times
• Different content formats
• Content optimization

Time the Posts Perfectly for Maximum Impact

Schedule your posts according to the best times to post on the Gram. And, the references as mentioned earlier, tested timings and proved that these times are optimal to post on Instagram for maximum engagement.

For example, you can use post-scheduling tools, especially if you’re a digital agency operating multiple brands. You can use tools, such as

• Hootsuite
• Buffer
• Later
• Sprout Social
• Planoly

Say It Right with Captions That Capture Attention

“Kickstart your day with a bowl of our cereal.”

OR

“Is that Cereal-ously how you kickstart your morning? Grain expectations by crunching into your morning! (#CerealouslyGrainMornings!)

If you’re from the tech, you might love the first caption, but being a cereal brand, it’s either the second caption with a creative image or a boring stats drop.

Craft compelling captions that go best with your brand voice and encourage engagement. Moreover, depending on the industry and the insights gained from the earlier steps, you can use humor, wit, or a clear Call-to-Action (CTA).

Focus on Genuine Engagement – Keep It Real

Let’s keep it real–unless you want to get swiped left like last time. For example, showing a Behind the Scenes reel of the people behind the screen, aka marketers, or the cereal production shots. This will help you gain a loyal community and a brand-consumer interaction where the consumers feel like they’re interacting with a human brand.

FAQs – The Best Times to Post on Instagram

Final Note

Conclusively, the best times to post on Instagram are weekdays, such as Monday, 9 in the morning. Furthermore, the other weekdays have their specific peak hours as well. Our guide walked you through a brief tabular list of the best times to post on IG.

However, if you plan to reach the audience of a specific region, such as the US while living in the UK, then it’s best to connect to a trusted VPN, like FastestVPN. Once connected, your virtual IP will change according to the server you connect to, and your posts will reach the desired audience.

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