The Best Time to Post on TikTok (2025): Find Your Perfect Times

Ever posted what you thought was your best TikTok video, only to watch it get buried in the algorithm with 100 views? Yes, that happens... And while timing isn't everything on TikTok, but it can be the difference between 100 views and 100,000.

The truth is, while general best practices exist, the real goldmine for maximizing your TikTok reach lies hidden in your own analytics. This guide will show you exactly how to find when YOUR specific audience is most active, plus share research-backed insights for getting started.

When is the best time to post on TikTok?

First, let’s address the question with the broadest answer. You’ve probably seen dozens of articles giving “the best time to post”, and most of them don’t agree.

To cut through the noise, we pulled together posting-time recommendations from seven leading sources (including Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Shopify, SocialPilot, Buffer, Elementor, and HubSpot) to idenfity clear patterns and tendencies emerged. Below you’ll find the consensus posting windows—the times that appeared most often across different reports.

Here’s what the data says in 2025:

Best overall times to post by day:

Based on frequency across six major studies, here are the most consistently recommended times:

The Consensus Across Sources

While the exact hours vary, a clear pattern emerges:

• Afternoons (12–6 PM) remain the safest bet across most days, especially Thursday and Friday.
• Weekends had mixed results. Some reports show Saturdays and Sundays as top performers while others rank them lowest.
• Best overall day: Wednesday, followed closely by Thursday and Saturday.

And here’s a quick heatmap visualization to show where the overlaps are strongest across studies:

Treat these as high-probability windows. They’re a solid starting point if you’re new or don’t yet have analytics to guide you.

Your audience might be night owls in Tokyo or early birds in Toronto. That's why understanding your specific follower activity patterns matters more than any generic schedule. If you’re new and lack data, start with these widely reported windows, then refine with your analytics.

Why “it depends” (and why that’s good news)

Every TikTok audience is unique. Think about it... your followers have specific routines, time zones, and content consumption habits that generic "best time to post" articles can't capture. A teenager in California scrolls at different times than a working professional in New York. International audiences add another layer of complexity.

This is where your account's specific analytics become invaluable. Instead of guessing or following one-size-fits-all advice, you can tap directly into data showing exactly when your followers are online and engaged.

Find your best posting time using TikTok Analytics

Ready to discover when your specific audience is most active? Here's your step-by-step guide to uncovering this goldmine of information right within the TikTok app.

Step 1 — Open your TikTok Analytics

First things first, you need access to TikTok's analytics dashboard inside TikTok Studio. If you haven't already, you might need to switch to your TikTok account type in your settings to Business Account.

1. Go to your Profile.
2. Tap the ☰ menu →
3. Choose the first option: TikTok Studio
4. On TikTok Studio, click on → Analytics‍

Step 2 — Find Your Follower Activity Data

1. In Analytics, tap on the "Followers" tab
2. Then, go to Followers → Follower activity

In the Followers tab inside Analytics page, you’ll see when your followers are most active by hours and days. Note the darkest/peak blocks and the consistent daily patterns over the last week(s).

Heads-up on time zones: some guides note analytics may display in UTC. If times look “off,” compare against your device time or convert from UTC to your audience’s primary time zone. Test and verify with performance.

Step 3 — Layer in Audience Territories

Still in Followers, check Top countries/cities. If your audience spans time zones, plan multiple posting windows that map to each region’s peaks (e.g., US ET and UK evenings).

Step 4 — Cross-check Content performance

Open Overview/Content to spot your top posts and the times they were published. Align future posting with those successful windows (watch views, completion rate, and watch time).

How to Use This in Practice

Now that you've found your follower activity data, it's time to turn those insights into a systematic testing strategy. Here's a strategic method to identify your absolute best posting times.

Build Your Timing Test

1. Select 3 candidate windows per day:
   • A) 30-60 minutes before your hourly peak
   • B) Your secondary peak time
   • C) An early "fresh feed" slot (8-10 AM local time)
2. Post consistently for 2 weeks, balancing content types across time slots
3. Track key metrics:
   • View counts
   • Average watch time
   • Completion rate
   • Shares and saves
   • New followers gained
4. Optimize continuously: Keep the top 2 performing windows, replace the lowest performer with a new time slot

FAQs (quick, practical)

Does posting time really matter on TikTok?
Yes—For You Pages favor fresh content, and both Hootsuite and Sprout show clear “above-average” windows. Still, your analytics > global averages.

What if my peaks are late at night?
Schedule 15–30 minutes before the spike; don’t fear off-hours if that’s when your audience is active. Convert from UTC if needed.

I can’t see Follower activity. Why?
You may need a Business/Creator account and at least 100 followers for audience analytics to populate.

How often should I post?
TikTok’s own guidance suggests 1–4 posts/day to build signal and learn quickly; quality still matters.

Wrap-up

Use published benchmarks to start. Then graduate to your own data in TikTok Analytics—Followers → Follower activity—and lock in the posting windows your audience actually uses. That’s how you turn “best time to post” from a generic guess into a repeatable edge.

After finding your peak times, queue your TikToks to hit those windows automatically. MeetEdgar lets you schedule TikToks, recycle evergreen videos, and keep a steady posting cadence, without living in the app. Try MeetEdgar free and turn those Follower activity peaks into consistent reach and engagement.