Best Time to Post on YouTube: Studies Compared by Day

When is the best time to post on YouTube? It depends on when your viewers are online, and studies do not agree on one hour. This page compares the best times to post on YouTube by day for 2026 and shows today's window on your clock.

Updated 2026-10-28Sources citedFree · no signupReviewed by Ghassen Daoud

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Where published studies overlap on YouTube

A window is listed only when at least two independent studies cover the same hour for at least one hour. Times are the audience's local time, as the studies measure them. Studies from the same publisher count once. Nothing here is averaged.

Overlap of independent studies by weekday, YouTube
Day	Result	Overlap window (audience local time)	Studies
Monday	Sources disagree	None	Buffer, SocialPilot
Tuesday	Sources disagree	None	Buffer, SocialPilot
Wednesday	Corroborated	3 pm to 4 pm	Buffer, SocialPilot
Thursday	Sources disagree	None	Buffer, SocialPilot
Friday	Sources disagree	None	Buffer, SocialPilot
Saturday	Sources disagree	None	Buffer, SocialPilot
Sunday	Corroborated	9 am to 10 am	Buffer, SocialPilot

Studies behind the YouTube times

Each row is a published study we read on the date shown. Several publishers sell scheduling or analytics software, so treat them as vendor data. Collabios has no performance data of its own on this topic.

Source studies for YouTube: publisher, date, sample, metric and time-zone basis
Publisher	Published	Sample	Metric	Time zone	Read on
Buffer	2026-07-24	About 1.8 million videos posts, Long-form videos and Shorts combined, Buffer analysis, global, Not stated on the page	Median engagement rate	Audience local time	2026-10-28
SocialPilot	Date not shown on page, read 2026-10-28	301,000 videos from 27,000+ channels posts, Videos published through SocialPilot Scheduler, global, Not stated on the page	Median engagement rate	Audience local time	2026-10-28
RecurPost	2026-09-29	More than 2 million videos posts, RecurPost own data, global, Shorts not split out, 2024 to 2026	Views	Not stated	2026-10-28
vidIQ	2026-06-23	40.2 million long-form uploads posts, US uploads only, analysed by day of week, Not stated on the page	Views	Not stated	2026-10-28

Best time to post on YouTube by day

Best time to post on YouTube on Monday

No window is corroborated for Monday. Buffer lists long-form slots at 7:00, 9:00 and 22:00, while SocialPilot lists 14:00 to 16:00, so the two do not overlap. Check your own most active times.

Best time to post on YouTube on Tuesday

No window is corroborated for Tuesday. Buffer lists long-form slots at 8:00, 9:00 and 11:00, while SocialPilot lists 14:00 to 16:00. Check your own most active times before fixing a slot.

Best time to post on YouTube on Wednesday

Buffer and SocialPilot overlap on Wednesday for long-form videos. The tool shows the overlap, which sits in the afternoon on the audience clock. It is a thin result from two sources.

Best time to post on YouTube on Thursday

No window is corroborated for long-form videos on Thursday. Buffer lists 7:00 and 17:00 to 19:00, while SocialPilot lists 15:00 to 17:00. Check your own most active times.

Best time to post on YouTube on Friday

No window is corroborated for Friday. Buffer lists long-form slots at 11:00, 12:00 and 15:00, while SocialPilot lists 13:00 to 15:00. They touch at 15:00 but do not overlap by an hour.

Best time to post on YouTube on Saturday

No window is corroborated for Saturday. Buffer lists long-form slots at 10:00, 12:00 and 15:00, while SocialPilot lists 8:00 to 10:00. Check your own most active times.

Best time to post on YouTube on Sunday

Buffer and SocialPilot overlap on Sunday morning for long-form videos. The tool shows the overlap on the audience clock. It is a thin result from two sources.

What YouTube says about timing

The "When your viewers are on YouTube" report shows when viewers are online across YouTube in the last 28 days, and the page suggests using it to build community, schedule a Premiere or plan a live stream. It does not state a time zone or recommend a posting hour. YouTube Help (Google): Understand your YouTube audience (read 2026-10-28).

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Frequently asked questions

No single hour wins. Buffer and SocialPilot overlap on Wednesday afternoon and Sunday morning for long-form videos, on the audience clock. Treat that as a starting point and confirm it in your own analytics.

It is the time your own viewers are online. Studies disagree: Buffer favours Sunday morning and SocialPilot favours weekday afternoons. Timing effects are also small, vidIQ found.

Published studies point to different hours. RecurPost reports weekday midday for long-form without stating a time zone. Use the day sections and your own chart rather than one hour.

The effect is small. vidIQ reports the gap between the best and worst upload hours shrank to within a few percent by day 30. Day of week and content matter more than the exact hour.

It follows where your viewers are, not a national rule. The studies here are global and none is split by country. Pick your audience location and the tool shows the window on their clock and yours.

This tool does not give Shorts windows. Buffer and SocialPilot publish separate Shorts tables that differ from their long-form ones, so the best time to post Shorts on YouTube is not covered above. Check Shorts in your own analytics.

Open YouTube Studio, then Analytics, then Audience, and read the chart of when your viewers are on YouTube. Use the times above as a starting point, then test a few slots and compare.