The best time to post on YouTube is Sunday between 8 and 11 AM, in your local time, and 9 AM is the single best hour. In our data from 9,500+ YouTube videos scheduled with PostEverywhere, videos uploaded in that window got 17% more views than the same channel's usual video. The bigger finding: the day you upload barely matters on YouTube.
This guide is part of PostEverywhere's Best Time to Post Study 2026, an original data study of 9,500+ YouTube videos scheduled with PostEverywhere, built on our own data rather than other people's studies.
Every number below comes from videos that real creators and businesses uploaded to YouTube through PostEverywhere between December 2025 and October 2026. We compared each video's views with the same channel's usual results, so one big channel can't make an hour look good on its own. The method is explained at the end.
Most of the videos in our data are Shorts. We don't yet have enough long-form uploads to give them separate times, so if you post Shorts, our YouTube Shorts timing guide breaks those out on their own.
Best time to post on YouTube, day by day
"Lift" is how many more views videos in that window got than the same channel's usual video. All times are the uploader's local time.
| Day | Best window | Lift in that window | Day overall | Videos (approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 7-10 AM | +10% | -1% | 1,500 |
| Tuesday | 8-11 PM | +13% | -7% | 1,500 |
| Wednesday | 1-4 PM | +3% | -5% | 1,500 |
| Thursday | 9 AM-noon | +3% | -8% | 1,400 |
| Friday | 3-6 PM | +13% | +1% | 1,500 |
| Saturday | 8-11 PM | +18% | 0% | 1,300 |
| Sunday | 8-11 AM | +17% | -1% | 1,200 |
| Day (9,500+ videos) | 6-9 AM | 9 AM-noon | Noon-3 PM | 3-6 PM | 6-9 PM | 9 PM-midnight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | +10% | +4% | -6% | 0% | -6% | -11% |
| Tuesday | -14% | -10% | -13% | +4% | -7% | +10% |
| Wednesday | +3% | -6% | -3% | -3% | -18% | -1% |
| Thursday | -14% | +3% | -10% | -6% | -6% | -22% |
| Friday | +9% | +6% | -4% | +13% | -5% | -18% |
| Saturday | +10% | -11% | -7% | -1% | +8% | +7% |
| Sunday | 0% | +13% | +4% | +17% | -14% | -21% |
Look at the "Day overall" column. Every day sits within 8% of a channel's usual result, which is much flatter than LinkedIn or Instagram. On YouTube, picking a good hour helps a little; picking a good day hardly helps at all.
For the same view across every platform, see our best time to post hub.
PostEverywhere finds your best time to post on YouTube for you. It learns from when your own posts do best and suggests those times as you schedule. Until your account has enough results, it shows what works on YouTube across PostEverywhere. See how best-time suggestions work.
Best day to post on YouTube
Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday are all level, within a point of a channel's usual result. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are slightly weaker, between 5% and 8% below. If you upload once a week, any day from Friday to Monday works, and Sunday morning is the best slot inside it.
That fits what YouTube itself says. Its performance FAQ states that "publish time is not known to impact a video's long-term performance", while posting when your audience is most active "can be beneficial for early viewership".
Our data shows the same thing: timing gives a video a better start, not a different future.
Best time to post on YouTube on Monday
7 to 10 AM. Monday morning uploads got 10% more views than usual, from about 250 videos. The rest of Monday was close to average, with the evening slightly weaker.
Best time to post on YouTube on Tuesday
8 to 11 PM. Tuesday was one of the weaker days overall, but its late evening did 13% better than usual, and 9 PM on its own did 30% better. Tuesday mornings and lunchtimes were the weakest part of the day.
Best time to post on YouTube on Wednesday
1 to 4 PM, though nothing on Wednesday stood out. The early afternoon was only 3% above usual, and Wednesday evenings were 18% below. If you have a choice, move a Wednesday upload to Friday or the weekend.
Best time to post on YouTube on Thursday
9 AM to noon. Thursday was the weakest day in our data, 8% below usual, and the morning was the only part of it that came out above average. Late-night and early-morning Thursday uploads did worst.
Best time to post on YouTube on Friday
3 to 6 PM. Friday afternoon uploads got 13% more views than usual, and 5 PM did 33% better, from about 80 videos. A video that goes up at 5 PM has its first viewers before the weekend starts.
Best time to post on YouTube on Saturday
8 to 11 PM. Saturday evening uploads did 18% better than usual. Saturday mornings and lunchtimes were below average, so this is one day where a later upload wins.
Best time to post on YouTube on Sunday
8 to 11 AM, the best morning of the week. Sunday morning uploads got 17% more views than usual, and 59% of them beat their channel's usual video, against just under half of videos overall.
9 AM on its own did 40% better, from about 100 videos. Sunday from 3 to 6 PM was just as strong, at 17% better, while Sunday evenings were weak.
Best time to post on YouTube today
If today is Sunday, upload between 8 and 11 AM. On Friday, aim for 3 to 6 PM. On Saturday, wait until the evening. On any other day, the morning is the safest choice, and the gap between slots is small enough that you shouldn't hold back a finished video just to hit an exact hour.
If your viewers live in another time zone, upload for their clock, not yours. A creator in London with a mostly US audience should schedule YouTube uploads for their viewers' morning, which is the afternoon in the UK.
Best time of day to post on YouTube
Here is every part of the day across all 9,500+ videos, from best to worst:
| Time of day | Lift vs the channel's usual video | Videos (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Afternoon, 3-6 PM | +3% | 1,500 |
| Overnight, midnight-5 AM | 0% | 400 |
| Early, 5-9 AM | -1% | 1,100 |
| Morning, 9 AM-noon | -1% | 2,000 |
| Lunchtime, noon-3 PM | -6% | 1,900 |
| Evening, 6-9 PM | -7% | 2,300 |
| Late evening, 9 PM-midnight | -9% | 700 |
The late afternoon comes out slightly ahead, and the evening, the busiest time for uploads in our data, comes out slightly behind. Part of the reason may be competition: more videos go up between 6 and 9 PM than at any other time, so each one has more company in viewers' feeds.
Best time to post on YouTube in India
Every time on this page is the uploader's local time, so if your viewers are in India, use the same windows in Indian time: Sunday from 8 to 11 AM IST is the strongest, then Friday from 3 to 6 PM.
On a Tuesday, the evening from 8 to 11 PM IST did best in our data, 13% above a channel's usual video.
If you upload from India for viewers in the US, convert our best US slots instead:
| US East Coast slot | Time in India (IST) |
|---|---|
| Sunday 8-11 AM | Sunday 5:30-9:30 PM |
| Friday 3-6 PM | Saturday 12:30-4:30 AM |
| Tuesday 8-11 PM | Wednesday 5:30-9:30 AM |
The ranges cover US daylight saving changes. The same applies to YouTube Shorts; see our guide to the best time to upload YouTube Shorts for Shorts by day, including for a US audience.
Why upload time matters on YouTube
YouTube says its recommendations are shaped by how people watch, what they like and dislike, and how satisfied they say they are with what they watched. None of that is about the clock.
But every one of those signals needs viewers, and a video uploaded while your audience is asleep collects them slowly.
The bigger your channel, the less it matters: subscribers get a notification whenever you upload, and a strong video keeps finding viewers for months through search and suggestions. For a small channel, the first few hours are the best chance to show YouTube that people want to watch.
Our guide to how the YouTube algorithm works covers the rest of the ranking signals.
Upload at 9 AM on Sunday without being at your desk. PostEverywhere schedules your YouTube videos and Shorts with titles, descriptions and thumbnails, alongside every other top platform. Start your 7-day free trial. Plans start at $9 a month.
How to find your own best time to post on YouTube
Our data shows what works across thousands of videos. Your channel's audience may differ, and YouTube gives you better data on it than any other platform.
Open YouTube Studio, then Analytics, then the Audience tab.
Find the "When your viewers are on YouTube" report. YouTube's help page says it shows when your viewers were online across YouTube in the last 28 days. Small channels may not have enough data for it yet.
Upload an hour or two before your viewers' busiest time, so the video has its first views when they arrive.
Compare your uploads by format. The Content tab in YouTube Analytics splits Videos and Shorts, so compare long videos with long videos and Shorts with Shorts.
Settle on a regular slot. Subscribers learn when to expect you, which builds those early views on its own. A posting queue helps you stick to it: set the slot once and each new upload drops into the next free time.
Let PostEverywhere suggest your best times
PostEverywhere works out your best times the same way we built this guide, from your own uploads. For YouTube it compares the views on each video with your channel's usual results, then ranks the days and hours that come out on top.
Until your channel has about 30 uploads with results from the last 90 days, it shows what is popular on YouTube across PostEverywhere. After that, it switches to your own times.
The suggestions appear as you schedule, and AI agents can use them too: ask Claude or ChatGPT to schedule your next video at your best time. See how best-time suggestions work.
Know your channel's best time, not an average. PostEverywhere suggests upload times from your own YouTube results and schedules every video for you. See how best times work, or start your free trial.
How we worked this out
- The videos: 9,500+ YouTube uploads published through PostEverywhere between 23 December 2025 and 24 October 2026, from channels with at least 15 uploads that had results. Most are Shorts.
- The measure: each video's views, collected at least three days after it went out, compared with the median of the same channel's 20 nearest uploads. A video scoring +50% got half as many views again as that channel usually does.
- The times: the uploader's local day and hour, from their PostEverywhere profile. Channels still on the default time zone were left out, because we can't tell when their videos really went out.
- The limits: we only name an hour when it has at least 20 videos from several channels behind it. What you upload matters far more than when. Pew Research found that 84% of US adults use YouTube, so audiences vary hugely by niche and country: test your own slots.
How to cite this study: PostEverywhere, Best Time to Post Study 2026: YouTube, based on 9,500+ YouTube videos scheduled with PostEverywhere, December 2025 to October 2026. https://posteverywhere.ai/blog/best-time-to-post-on-youtube
YouTube vs other platforms
YouTube is the least time-sensitive platform in our data. LinkedIn, by contrast, has one clear best slot each week; see the LinkedIn timing guide. If you cut a video into clips for other apps, see when to post on TikTok and when to post on Instagram, and post each one for that app's audience rather than all at the same minute.
FAQ
What is the best time to post on YouTube?
Sunday between 8 and 11 AM, in your local time. In our data from 9,500+ YouTube videos, uploads in that window got 17% more views than the same channel's usual video, and 9 AM was the best hour.
What is the best day to post on YouTube?
Friday to Monday are level, all within a point of a channel's usual result. Tuesday to Thursday are slightly weaker, 5% to 8% below. The day matters much less than the hour on YouTube.
What is the best time to post on YouTube on Saturday and Sunday?
Sunday from 8 to 11 AM or 3 to 6 PM, and Saturday from 8 to 11 PM. In our data those windows got 17% to 18% more views than usual. Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings were weaker.
What is the best time to post YouTube Shorts?
Friday from 4 to 7 PM and Sunday morning came out ahead in our Shorts data, but the gaps are small. Our YouTube Shorts timing guide has the full day-by-day breakdown.
Should I upload before peak time on YouTube?
Yes, by an hour or two. A video uploaded just before your viewers arrive has collected its first views and comments by the time most of them are online. Check your peak in YouTube Studio's audience report.
Does upload time matter on YouTube?
A little. YouTube says publish time is not known to affect a video's long-term performance, and in our data every day of the week came within 8% of a channel's usual result. Timing helps a video's first hours.
How do I find the best time to post on my YouTube channel?
Open YouTube Studio, go to Analytics and then Audience, and check the "When your viewers are on YouTube" report. Upload an hour or two before your viewers' busiest time and compare views after 48 hours.
Sources
Every outside fact in this article comes from the pages below, mostly the platforms' own help centres. Our own figures come from posts scheduled with PostEverywhere, as explained in How we worked this out.
For every platform side by side, see the best time to post hub.
- YouTube Help: YouTube performance FAQ & Troubleshooting
- YouTube: How YouTube recommendations work
- YouTube Help: Understand your YouTube audience - Computer
- YouTube Help: Understand your YouTube content performance - Computer
- Pew Research Center: Americans' Use of Social Media in 2026
Founder & CEO of PostEverywhere. Writing about social media strategy, publishing workflows, and analytics that help brands grow faster.
