Best time to post on TikTok in 2026: six studies, compared

Six studies name different best times to post on TikTok, from weekday afternoons to Saturday. Their data and methods side by side, and how to find your own.

PostDaily has no TikTok timing data of its own, so this page doesn't draw a heat map. It sets the 6 studies people quote side by side, with what each measured and when, and reads them against what TikTok itself says. Every study was read on its publisher's site on 12 November 2026. Five analyse their customers' posts; HubSpot's is a survey of marketers. Later's TikTok page is left out, because its times come from Later's own account rather than a study.

Six studies, side by side

Where they agree

• The small hours are weak. Metricool (2–4 am), CoSchedule (2–5 am and 11 pm–1 am) and Hootsuite (weekends before 7 am) all name them among the worst times.
• Evenings hold up. Metricool's best hours are 6–8 pm, HubSpot's survey puts 6–9 pm first, CoSchedule lists 7–10 pm among its three windows, and Buffer says evening hours outperform the rest of the day.

Where they disagree, and why

On the day, they split down the middle. Sprout Social calls weekends the worst days, Sunday most of all, while Buffer finds Saturday the best day, HubSpot's survey ranks Saturday, Friday and Sunday first, and Metricool's single best slot is Sunday at 8 pm. On the hour, Sprout Social's best window, 2–6 pm, overlaps the window Buffer finds weakest, noon–5 pm. The methods explain most of it:

• They measure different things. Metricool counts views, Buffer the median engagement rate, and HubSpot asks marketers. Sprout Social, Hootsuite and CoSchedule don't define the engagement they measure.
• Different samples. Sprout Social's sample covers six networks, Hootsuite quotes the same 1 million posts on its pages for other networks, and CoSchedule's TikTok page gives no sample at all.
• Different years. Hootsuite's page is labelled 2025 data and HubSpot's was last updated in November 2024, while Buffer's and Metricool's are from 2026.
• None is an experiment. Accounts choose their own posting times, so the hour is mixed up with who posts at it.

What TikTok says

TikTok publishes no best time to post. Its Creator Academy article on analytics (October 2026) says the Viewers and Followers tabs show your audience's most active times over the last 7 days, and to "use it to help plan when to post", then check what worked. Another Creator Academy article says TikTok Studio on the web schedules posts up to 30 days ahead, so they can go out when your viewers are most active.

TikTok's explainer of the For You feed lists interactions, video information and device and account settings as ranking signals, and doesn't mention when a video was posted. Several studies say you need a Business or Creator account to see analytics; TikTok's current Creator Academy page says analytics comes with a Personal account too.

How to find your own best time

1. 1In the TikTok app, open your profile, then the menu, TikTok Studio and Analytics. On the web, use the Analytics tab in TikTok Studio.
2. 2On the Followers or Viewers tab, read Most active times: the hours and days your audience was most active over the last 7 days.
3. 3Pick two or three slots: one in the busiest hour, one just before it, and one quieter time.
4. 4For four weeks, post similar videos in those slots.
5. 5Compare views and engagement per video, not totals, and keep the slot that wins clearly. Check Most active times again every few weeks, because it covers only the last 7 days.

In PostDaily, the assistant can suggest a time from your own workspace's engagement over the last 90 days and set up the schedule, and each channel has its own weekly posting times for the queue to fill. Let the assistant pick a posting time shows how, and how to schedule TikTok posts covers the scheduling itself. The same comparison for Instagram is in the best time to post on Instagram.

TikTok timing questions

Last checked Nov 12, 2026 against each study's own page and TikTok's Creator Academy.