Short answer: the best time to post on Facebook in 2026 is noon to 2 pm in your audience's local time, with 6 to 8 pm as a strong second slot, and the best day is Monday. In a random sample of 10,000 Facebook Page posts published through FeedHive, posts published between noon and 2 pm got about 8% more views than the same Page's typical post, and posts published between 6 and 8 pm about 10% more. Monday posts got about 5% more views, while Wednesday was the weakest day (6% below typical). Weekends were not penalized.
That contradicts the two studies most people quote. Buffer names Thursday at 9 am as the best slot of the week, calls noon to 5 pm the weakest hours and Wednesday the best day. Sprout Social recommends Tuesday and Wednesday from noon to 8 pm and says to avoid weekends. Below we show our numbers, why they differ, what moves Facebook views more than the clock, and how to find the best time for your own Page.
The best time to post on Facebook at a glance
- Best time: noon to 2 pm (+8% views compared with the same Page's typical post).
- Second-best time: 6 to 8 pm (+10%, from fewer posts, so slightly less certain).
- Best day: Monday (+5%). Thursday was also above typical in both of our samples.
- Weakest day: Wednesday (-6%), the day Buffer ranks first.
- Weakest time: late night, 10 pm to 6 am. The busiest window, 8 to 10 am, was slightly below typical (-4%).
- Weekends: about one post in six goes out on a Saturday or Sunday, and those posts did as well as weekday posts.
- Bigger than the clock: captions of 800 characters or more got about 15% more views, and multi-photo posts about 11% more. Both beat the gain from picking the best day.
Best time to post on Facebook today, day by day
Find today's row. Our column shows how Page posts published on that day did compared with the same Page's typical post. Buffer lists its best single time for each day and Sprout Social gives a window. All times are local to your audience.
| Day | FeedHive data (views vs typical) | Buffer best time | Sprout Social best window |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | +5% (best day) | 9 pm, then 10 pm, 7 pm | Noon to 1 pm |
| Tuesday | +4% (about typical in our second sample) | 8 am, then 7 pm, 7 am | Noon to 8 pm |
| Wednesday | -6% (weakest day) | 8 am, then 9 am, 6 pm (Buffer's best day) | Noon to 8 pm |
| Thursday | +5% | 9 am (Buffer's best slot), then 8 am, 10 am | Noon to 2 pm and 8 pm |
| Friday | -2% | 8 am, then 7 am, 6 am | Midday |
| Saturday | +3% (about typical) | 10 pm, then 6 am, 9 pm (Buffer's worst day) | No peak time |
| Sunday | -1% (about typical) | 10 am, then 9 am, 8 am | Hard to define (Sprout's worst day) |
Sources: FeedHive analysis of a random sample of 10,000 Facebook Page posts published through FeedHive, July 13 to October 23, 2026 (method below). Buffer, Best Time to Post on Facebook (14 million posts) and Sprout Social, Best times to post on Facebook in 2026 (nearly 2 billion engagements across about 307,000 profiles, all networks), both checked October 27, 2026.
Our practical pick for any day of the week: publish between noon and 2 pm, and put a second post, if you have one, between 6 and 8 pm. Save your most important post for a Monday or Thursday. A Wednesday post still works; it just starts from a slightly lower baseline.
Why our answer differs from Buffer and Sprout Social
The big studies and our data are answering slightly different questions.
Sprout Social measured when engagement happens across hundreds of thousands of profiles, which tells you when people are most active. Buffer ranked time slots by the engagement that posts published in them received across its 14 million posts. Both pool every account together, so a slot can look strong because of who tends to post at that time rather than because posting then helps. A large media Page that always posts at 9 am will lift 9 am for everyone.
We asked a narrower question: when the same Page posts at different times, which of its posts get more views? Every post is compared with that Page's own typical post, and every Page counts equally. That cancels out the gap between a big brand and a local business with a few hundred followers, and it measures the one thing you control, which is when you hit publish.
The studies also disagree with each other. Buffer says mornings win and noon to 5 pm is the weakest part of the day. Sprout says noon to 8 pm is the peak. Adobe Express, which analyzed about 40,000 posts from the top 100 creators on Social Blade, found that Saturday posts earned the most engagement and views, while Buffer and Sprout both call weekends the worst. Our data sides with Sprout on midday and with neither on weekends. If studies with millions of data points cannot agree, there is no single universal best time. Treat every table, ours included, as a starting point for your own test.
What our data shows
The best day to post on Facebook
The day of the week matters less on Facebook than most guides suggest. Every day landed within about 6% of a Page's typical post. Within that narrow range, two results held in both of the independent samples we drew: Monday and Thursday came out above typical, and Wednesday came out below.
Wednesday is also the busiest day, with 19% of all posts. Buffer names it the best day for engagement, so a lot of Pages crowd into it. In our data, that crowding did not pay off.
Weekends are the other surprise. Saturday and Sunday each carry only about 9% of posts, and together those posts got the same views as weekday posts (within 2% of typical in both samples). The advice to skip weekends did not hold up. If you run a business whose customers are free on weekends, such as a restaurant, a shop or an events venue, a weekend post costs you nothing.
The best time of day to post on Facebook
Three things stand out:
- Noon to 2 pm is the most reliable slot. Lunchtime posts got about 8% more views than typical, and 9% more in our second sample. This is exactly the window Buffer calls the start of the weakest part of the day.
- 6 to 8 pm is the other strong window. Early-evening posts got about 10% more views (13% in the second sample). Fewer Pages post then, only about 9% of posts, so there is less competition in the feed.
- The busiest window is not the best. One post in five goes out between 8 and 10 am, the morning slot Buffer recommends. Those posts did slightly worse than typical in both samples.
Late night, from 10 pm to 6 am, was the weakest period in both samples, though few Pages post then. Mid-afternoon (2 to 6 pm) sat close to typical. If your audience is mainly local, there is little reason to post after 10 pm; schedule it for the next lunchtime instead.
What moves Facebook views more than timing
Two content choices beat the best day of the week in our data:
- Longer captions. More than half of the posts in our sample had captions of 250 to 800 characters, a few short paragraphs. Posts with 800 characters or more got about 15% more views than the same Page's typical post, in both samples, and about 12% more reactions and comments. Short captions of 80 to 250 characters did slightly worse than typical.
- Multi-photo posts. About three in four posts in our sample were single-image posts, and they performed right at typical. Posts with several photos got about 11% more views (15% in the second sample) and about 8% more reactions and comments. A multi-photo post published at lunchtime did best of all, at about 18% above typical in both samples.
Put together, a long caption with several photos, published at noon, starts with a far bigger advantage than any change of day. Fix the post first, then the timing.
How to find your own best time to post on Facebook
Averages describe thousands of Pages. Your audience might live in another time zone, work night shifts or simply have different habits. A four-week test will tell you more than any study.
- Check when your followers are online. When you schedule a Page post in Meta Business Suite, the scheduling options include an Active times button that recommends slots based on when your followers were most active on Facebook and Instagram over the past seven days, according to Meta's help page on creating posts in Business Suite. Use it to pick a challenger slot.
- Pick two slots to compare. Your current habit and one challenger, for example your usual 9 am against 12:30 pm, or your usual Wednesday post against a Monday.
- Alternate them for four weeks. Keep everything else as similar as you can: the same kind of post, a similar caption length, the same number of photos and the same number of posts per week.
- Compare views after a few days. Facebook posts keep collecting views after they go out, so wait at least three days before you judge one. Our analysis only used figures captured three or more days after publishing.
- Compare each post with your own typical post, not with another Page's numbers. Look at the median, not the single best post, because one post that takes off can hide a weak pattern.
- Keep the winner and test the next challenger, such as 6 to 8 pm or a weekend slot.
You can read post-level views in your Page's insights in Meta Business Suite. If you publish through FeedHive, FeedHive Analytics lets you compare views and engagement across your posts in one place, which makes the four-week comparison quicker.
How to post at the best time without being online
Lunchtime is when you are probably busy, and 7 pm is when you would rather not be at your laptop. That is what scheduling is for. Meta Business Suite lets you schedule Page posts up to 29 days ahead; our guide on how to schedule Facebook posts walks through every method step by step.
If you post on more than Facebook, FeedHive lets you plan and schedule Facebook Page posts, Reels and Stories from the same calendar as your other channels. Set up recurring posting slots once, for example weekdays at 12:30 pm plus Monday and Thursday at 7 pm, and every post you add to the queue lands in a tested window. The best time differs by network: our data for LinkedIn points to a different pattern, covered in the best time to post on LinkedIn. Plans and the free trial are on the pricing page.
How we measured this
We drew a random sample of 10,000 Facebook Page posts published through FeedHive between July 13 and October 23, 2026. For each post we used the latest views figure Facebook reported for it (the number of times the post entered someone's screen), captured at least three days after publishing. Publish times were converted to the time zone set in the account's FeedHive settings, so every time in this guide is local time.
Each post was compared with its own Page's typical post (the geometric mean of that Page's views), and every Page was weighted equally, so large Pages cannot dominate the results. Pages with fewer than eight posts in the sample or very low typical views were left out, as were posts for which Facebook reported no views. The sample covers feed posts: text, link, photo and multi-photo posts. Reels, videos and Stories are not included. Time windows with few posts are marked as less certain in the charts. We repeated the whole analysis on a second, independent random sample, and we only report day, time, length and format findings that pointed the same way in both. No individual Page or post is identifiable from these results. Third-party figures come from the Buffer, Sprout Social and Adobe Express studies linked above, checked October 27, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best day to post on Facebook?
In our data, Monday is the best day (+5% views compared with the same Page's typical post), with Thursday close behind. Wednesday was the weakest. The gaps are small, though: every day landed within about 6% of typical, so the day matters less than the time and the post itself.
Is it a good time to post on Facebook right now?
If it is between noon and 2 pm or between 6 and 8 pm in your audience's time zone, yes. If it is late at night, schedule the post for the next lunchtime instead. Weekends are fine.
What is the golden hour for Facebook posts?
The golden hour is the idea that the first hour after you publish decides how far a post travels, because early reactions and comments signal that it is worth showing to more people. Meta has not published a fixed window. The useful part of the idea still holds: post at a time when you can reply to comments soon after, which is easier when the post is scheduled rather than published whenever you find a spare minute.
How do I see when my followers are most active on Facebook?
In Meta Business Suite, start scheduling a post and click Active times under the scheduling options. Meta recommends times based on when your followers were most active on Facebook and Instagram over the past seven days. Active times show when people are online, not when your posts get the most views, so test the suggested slot against your usual one.
When should you not post on Facebook?
In our data, late at night (10 pm to 6 am local time) was the weakest period, and Wednesday was the weakest day. The busiest morning window, 8 to 10 am, was also slightly below typical. We found no reason to avoid weekends.
How many times a day should you post on Facebook?
Sprout Social recommends one or two posts a day for most brands. If you post twice, our data suggests splitting them between noon to 2 pm and 6 to 8 pm. Posting less often with longer, multi-photo posts is likely to do more for your views than adding a third short post.
Which time zone should I use?
Your audience's. All times in this guide are in the Page's local time, which works when most of your followers are in your region. If most of them are in another region, use their local time instead. FeedHive schedules posts in the time zone you set for your workspace.
Does the time you post on Facebook actually matter?
Yes, but less than most guides suggest. In our data, the best and worst daytime windows were about 14 percentage points apart on views, and the best and worst days about 12. A caption of 800 characters or more added about 15% on its own. Get the timing right, but do not hold back a good post just to wait for the perfect slot.
