Best Time to Post on YouTube
YouTube's full weekly shape, hour by hour, in your audience's local time. Long-form and Shorts run on almost opposite schedules, so both are here.
UTC
Detected from this browser — change it if your audience is elsewhere
Peak window
2 PM – 4 PM
on Wednesday
Shown for an audience in UTC. These are the published hours, unconverted. Post 15 to 30 minutes early so you are live when the window starts.
Second widest
2 recommended hours on Monday
2 PM – 4 PM
Third
2 recommended hours on Tuesday
2 PM – 4 PM
Quietest
Sunday
8 AM – 10 AM
Next step · from your AI
Schedule your next YouTube post for Wednesday, 3 PM.
“Schedule my next YouTube post for Wednesday at 3 PM, UTC time.”
The whole week
Every hour, seven days
Source: SocialPilot · audience-local hours
Every day
YouTube's week, day by day
SocialPilot publishes a window for every day of the week, so how wide a day's window is says nothing about how strong it is. The days stay in calendar order, with the best one marked.
- Monday2 hours2 PM – 4 PM
- Tuesday2 hours2 PM – 4 PM
- WednesdayBest day3 PM – 5 PM
- Thursday2 hours3 PM – 5 PM
- Friday2 hours1 PM – 3 PM
- Saturday2 hours8 AM – 10 AM
- Sunday2 hours8 AM – 10 AM
The source
SocialPilot
“Best Time to Post on YouTube in 2026”
301,000+ videos across 27,000+ YouTube channels.
Published 2026-05-01 · audience-local hours
Read the study ↗Why this shape
How YouTube behaves
SocialPilot's analysis puts YouTube's best window for long-form uploads at 2 to 4 PM on Monday and Tuesday, 3 to 5 PM on Wednesday and Thursday, and 1 to 3 PM on Friday, with Wednesday through Friday the strongest days. Weekends shift earlier, to 8 to 10 AM. Uploading before 9 AM on a weekday or after 10 PM on any day is listed among the worst choices.
Those figures come from SocialPilot's study of more than 301,000 videos across 27,000+ channels, measured in the audience's local time. Note that Shorts run on almost the opposite schedule to long-form, so do not reuse this window for them without checking your own analytics.
What to do with it
Upload two to four hours ahead of the peak. YouTube needs time to process and start recommending.
Shorts and long-form have almost opposite best windows, so do not reuse one schedule for both.
Shorts spread across mornings, middays and evenings, while long-form sits in one weekday afternoon block. Plan each on its own clock.
The first 24 to 48 hours of click-through rate shape long-term recommendations. The thumbnail matters more than the minute.
Use YouTube Studio's 'When your viewers are on YouTube' report. It is real data about your channel, not a benchmark.
Premiere or schedule rather than uploading live, so the video lands in the window instead of whenever you finished editing.
Your own numbers
How to find your own best time on YouTube
A published study is a starting point, not your audience. Four steps turn it into your own answer.
- 01
Start at the benchmark
Put your next few YouTube posts inside the peak window: Wednesday, 3 PM – 5 PM.
- 02
Change one thing
Move the time, not the format. Same kind of post, a different window from the grid above.
- 03
Compare like with like
Judge each post on engagement relative to the reach it got, and only against posts of the same format.
- 04
Keep what wins
When one window keeps beating the others, schedule against it. Your own results outrank any study.
YouTube Studio's "When your viewers are on YouTube" report also shows it for your own channel.
The time zone
How the time zone works
Every hour on this page is in your audience's local time, because that is how SocialPilot measures it. Wednesday at 3 PM means 3 PM wherever your followers are, so for them the numbers need no converting.
The only conversion is to your own clock, when you post from somewhere else. Choose the zone where most of your followers live in the selector at the top, and the answer card tells you when to press publish.
Worked example
Your audience · New York
Wednesday, 3 PM
You · Madrid
Publish Wednesday, 9 PM
FAQ
YouTube, specifically
What is the best time to upload a YouTube video?
What is the best day to post on YouTube?
Is the best time to post Shorts different?
Does upload time actually affect YouTube views?
Do I need to convert these times to my time zone?
How do I find the best time to post for my own YouTube account?
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