Key takeaways
- Both studies put the peak in the afternoon on midweek days: Buffer 3–8 p.m. (Wednesday 4 p.m. strongest), Sprout Social 11 a.m.–5 p.m. (Tuesday–Thursday).
- Buffer reports Monday and Tuesday as the weakest days and describes a shift from earlier years’ work-hours peak toward late afternoon and evening.
- Buffer’s own data: moving from one post a week to 2–5 is the turning point for reach per post; 2–3 a week is the most common surveyed cadence.
- LinkedIn’s own scheduler works for profiles and Company Pages up to three months ahead, one post at a time.
What's the best LinkedIn posting schedule, according to published research?
Each row is one published analysis, read from its own page on 2026-09-23. They measure different samples over different periods, so they are listed side by side rather than merged into one number.
| Source | Sample | What it reported |
|---|---|---|
| Buffer (published 9 Sep 2026) | 4.8 million LinkedIn posts | Best slots: Wednesday 4 p.m., Friday 3 p.m., Friday 4 p.m.; 3–8 p.m. on weekdays the best block. Best days: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Weakest: Monday and Tuesday. Buffer describes a shift from earlier years toward late afternoon and evening. |
| Sprout Social (published 31 Mar 2026) | Nearly 2 billion engagements across about 307,000 profiles, 27 Nov 2025 – 27 Feb 2026 | Best days: Monday to Friday. Best times: Tuesday–Thursday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Worst days: weekends. |
Do the studies agree, and how much should you trust them?
They agree the afternoon on midweek days is strong and the weekend is weak. Buffer sees the peak later (3–8 p.m.) and finds Monday and Tuesday weakest, where Sprout Social lists Tuesday among its best days. Wednesday afternoon is the overlap, so start there.
Both large studies express times as the audience’s local time: Sprout Social records every time in local time (a 9 a.m. window is 9 a.m. in Los Angeles, London and Sydney alike), and Buffer says to “consider all the recommendations local time”. If your audience is spread across time zones, schedule for the zone where most of your followers are.
Every figure here is an aggregate across many accounts and industries. It tells you where to start testing, not when your audience is online.
How often should you post on LinkedIn?
Buffer’s own data finds 2–5 posts a week is where reach per post improves compared with once a week, and the HeyOrca survey’s most common cadence is 2–3 a week (33% of respondents). A few well-made posts a week is the benchmark; posting several times a day is not.
| Source | Recommendation | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Buffer frequency guide (13 Jan 2026) | 2–5 posts a week | Buffer’s own data: moving from one post a week to 2–5 is “the real turning point” for performance per post |
| HeyOrca survey (20 Feb 2026) | 2–3 posts a week most common | 100+ social media managers; 33% said 2–3 a week |
Can you schedule LinkedIn posts natively, and what does SkedCast add?
LinkedIn’s own composer schedules text, image, video and document posts for both personal profiles and Company Pages, up to three months ahead, one post at a time. Per Sprout Social’s guide, polls, events and multi-image posts have to be published manually, and there is no bulk scheduling.
LinkedIn posts through SkedCast follow the same rules as the composer: up to 3,000 characters, with text-only posts allowed.
SkedCast holds a scheduled post and publishes it at the time you set, from one calendar shared with every other connected account, with the same per-platform limits checked when you schedule rather than at publish time. Scheduling never changes when your audience is online; it only makes sure the post goes out in the window you chose.
- SkedCast schedules LinkedIn posts with text, images (up to 20), video, native polls and documents.
- LinkedIn has no scheduling parameter in its publishing API, so SkedCast holds the post and publishes it at the time you set.
- For Company Pages, see the LinkedIn platform page for how they are connected; profile posting and Page posting are separate LinkedIn permissions.
How do you find your own best time to post on LinkedIn?
A study average is a starting hypothesis. Your account’s own results are the evidence. A simple test:
- Pick two or three candidate windows from the studies above (for example a weekday morning, a weekday afternoon and an evening) rather than one “best” hour.
- Post the same kinds of content into each window for at least three or four weeks, so one viral post cannot decide the result.
- Compare each window on median engagement rate (engagements divided by reach or followers), not raw likes, so a bigger post does not win by size alone.
- Keep the winner, keep testing one challenger, and re-check every quarter: audiences and platform behaviour drift.
Where does SkedCast’s best-times feature fit?
SkedCast’s best-times feature does the “find your own window” step for you where the data exists: a daily job reads each connected account’s own publish history and the engagement analytics SkedCast has ingested for it, and recommends the day-and-hour slots where that account’s posts did best, in the account’s own time zone. It never invents a slot — an account with no analytics data yet simply has none — and how much it can derive depends on what each platform exposes to third-party apps. The same slots are available through the API (GET /v1/best-times, scope besttimes.read) and the MCP get_best_times tool. Best times is included from the Solo plan.
Sources
- Buffer — Best Time to Post on Social Media in 2026 (52M posts, 10 platforms)
- Sprout Social — Best Times to Post on Social Media 2026 (~2B engagements, ~307K profiles)
- Buffer — Best Time to Post on LinkedIn (4.8M posts)
- Buffer — How Often to Post on Social Media in 2026
- HeyOrca — Optimal social media posting frequency by platform (2026 manager survey)
- Sprout Social — How to schedule LinkedIn posts (native limits)
FAQ
- What is the best time to post on LinkedIn?
- There is no single best time. Both studies put the peak in the afternoon on midweek days: Buffer 3–8 p.m. (Wednesday 4 p.m. strongest), Sprout Social 11 a.m.–5 p.m. (Tuesday–Thursday). Treat published averages as a starting point and test windows against your own audience.
- How often should you post on LinkedIn?
- Buffer’s own data finds 2–5 posts a week is where reach per post improves compared with once a week, and the HeyOrca survey’s most common cadence is 2–3 a week (33% of respondents). A few well-made posts a week is the benchmark; posting several times a day is not.
- Does LinkedIn have built-in scheduling?
- LinkedIn’s own composer schedules text, image, video and document posts for both personal profiles and Company Pages, up to three months ahead, one post at a time. Per Sprout Social’s guide, polls, events and multi-image posts have to be published manually, and there is no bulk scheduling.
- Can SkedCast pick the best time to post on LinkedIn for me?
- It recommends day-and-hour slots per connected account from that account’s own publish history and the engagement analytics SkedCast has ingested, refreshed daily. It does not invent a slot when there is no data yet, and how much it can derive depends on what the platform exposes to third-party apps.
- Has the best time to post on LinkedIn changed?
- Buffer’s 2026 analysis describes a shift from earlier years’ work-hours peak toward late afternoon and evening (3–8 p.m. on weekdays), while Sprout Social’s 2026 window is 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Tuesday–Thursday.
- Can LinkedIn’s own scheduler bulk-schedule posts?
- No — per Sprout Social’s guide LinkedIn does not allow bulk scheduling natively, and polls, events and multi-image posts cannot be scheduled natively.