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Best time to post on social media by country

The best time to post in another country is the same local hour the studies give, read in your audience’s time zone: Buffer and Sprout Social state their 2026 windows in local time. Pick your platform, your audience’s zone and your own, and this tool shows that window on your clock, with daylight saving handled.

By Angelina F. · Updated · 7 min read

Both large 2026 studies (Buffer and Sprout Social) give their best-time windows in the audience’s local time: 9am means 9am wherever the audience is, so the window itself is not shifted for your audience. This tool only translates that audience-local window onto your own clock, with real, DST-aware math, for when you schedule from a different zone. It is not new per-country research.

Instagram for an audience in New York

Choose a platform and time zones to see the window.

Which time zone are the best-time studies in?

Illustration: a world map with clocks pinned over North America, Europe and Asia, each above the same glowing time band, while a hand turns a large desk clock in front.
The window stays in your audience’s local time; only your clock changes.

Your audience’s. Sprout Social records every time in local time, so 9 AM is 9 AM in Los Angeles, London and Sydney alike, and Buffer tells readers to treat its recommendations as local time. So the window does not move when your audience is in another country; it is the same local hour there. These are the windows the converter uses, from the best time to post cheat sheet:

Best-time windows by platform, in the audience’s local time (Buffer and Sprout Social, 2026)
PlatformWindow and source
X (Twitter)Tue-Thu, 9-11am (Buffer)
InstagramWed, 12pm-6pm (where Buffer and Sprout Social overlap)
LinkedInWed, 3-5pm (where Buffer and Sprout Social overlap)
Facebook PagesThu, 9-11am (Buffer; Sprout Social favours Tue-Wed 12-8pm)
TikTokTue-Fri, 2-6pm (Sprout Social; Buffer favours Sun 9am, Mon 1pm)
YouTubeLong-form Sun, 10-11am (Buffer; Shorts peak Fri 4-7pm)
ThreadsWeekdays, 6-11am (Buffer)
PinterestTue-Thu, 10am-1pm (Sprout Social)
BlueskySat, 4-7pm (Buffer)

Neither study splits its results by country, so there is no honest per-country hour to print. A country with several time zones, such as the United States, Brazil or Australia, has no single local hour either.

What does a local window look like on your clock?

Take Buffer’s X window, 9 to 11 AM, and an account scheduled from New York. On a winter Wednesday (13 January 2027) the same audience-local window lands at these New York times:

X’s 9–11 AM window for eight audiences, read on a New York clock on 13 January 2027
Audience inTheir windowOn a New York clock
London9–11 AM local4:00 AM – 6:00 AM
Paris / Berlin9–11 AM local3:00 AM – 5:00 AM
Dubai9–11 AM local12:00 AM – 2:00 AM
Mumbai / Delhi9–11 AM local10:30 PM – 12:30 AM (the previous day)
Tokyo9–11 AM local7:00 PM – 9:00 PM (the previous day)
Sydney9–11 AM local5:00 PM – 7:00 PM (the previous day)
Los Angeles9–11 AM local12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
São Paulo9–11 AM local7:00 AM – 9:00 AM

In summer the gaps change: the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union move their clocks on different dates, and India, Japan and the UAE do not move them at all, so check the converter for the week you post.

How do you find one post time for a global audience?

Enter a candidate time and the table shows it in 15 major zones, from Auckland to Honolulu, with a flag when a zone is already on another day. Look for the zones where it lands late at night or very early, then favour the zones where most of your followers are. For a truly worldwide audience, two posting times usually beat one.

Time zoneLocal timeOffset
AucklandMon, Nov 9, 3:00 AMUTC+13 · different day
SydneyMon, Nov 9, 1:00 AMUTC+11 · different day
TokyoSun, Nov 8, 11:00 PMUTC+9
Shanghai / SingaporeSun, Nov 8, 10:00 PMUTC+8
Mumbai / DelhiSun, Nov 8, 7:30 PMUTC+5:30
DubaiSun, Nov 8, 6:00 PMUTC+4
MoscowSun, Nov 8, 5:00 PMUTC+3
Paris / BerlinSun, Nov 8, 3:00 PMUTC+1
LondonSun, Nov 8, 2:00 PMUTC+0
São PauloSun, Nov 8, 11:00 AMUTC-3
New YorksourceSun, Nov 8, 9:00 AMUTC-5
ChicagoSun, Nov 8, 8:00 AMUTC-6
DenverSun, Nov 8, 7:00 AMUTC-7
Los AngelesSun, Nov 8, 6:00 AMUTC-8
HonoluluSun, Nov 8, 4:00 AMUTC-10

Why does your own data beat any country chart?

Published windows are averages across many accounts, industries and audiences, so they are a place to start testing, not an answer. A B2B account with a weekday office audience and a consumer account with evening scrollers should not post at the same hour, even in the same country. Your own posts by hour and day show what your followers do; a few weeks of steady posting is usually enough to see a pattern. The engagement rate calculator keeps the comparison fair, and the posting schedule guide turns the result into a weekly plan.

Diagram: find the study window in your audience’s local time, pick the zone where most of them are, read that window on your own clock with daylight saving included, then test and adjust with your own results.
Scheduling for an audience in another country, in four steps.

How the conversion works

  1. Pick your platform. Choose the platform you are scheduling for; each one carries its own benchmark window from the main best-time-to-post cheat sheet.
  2. Pick your audience’s country or time zone. Select the time zone your audience is mostly in. The published window applies as local time there, so this is where the study’s hours are read.
  3. Pick your own time zone. Select the zone you schedule from, if it differs from your audience’s.
  4. Read the window on your clock. The tool shows the audience-local window as a clock time in your zone, using the real offset between the two zones and accounting for daylight saving on both sides, and says when it lands on the previous or next day.
  5. Confirm with your own data. Once you have a few weeks of your own posts, compare their performance against the window and adjust toward what actually works.

What does it look like in practice?

Scheduling X for a Tokyo audience from New York

Buffer’s X study favours 9 to 11am. For a Tokyo audience that is 9 to 11am Tokyo time, so you would schedule it for 8pm to 10pm the previous evening on a New York clock during Eastern Daylight Time (a 13-hour difference). The window itself has not moved for the audience; only the clock you read it on has.

Why the same window reads differently in January and July

Because the US observes daylight saving and many other countries do not (or change on different dates), the gap between two zones can shift by an hour between winter and summer, so the same audience-local window can land an hour differently on your clock.

How does SkedCast handle time zones?

Best times in SkedCast are worked out per connected account from that account’s own posts and engagement, in the account’s own time zone, so an account with a Tokyo audience gets Tokyo hours. They are included from the Solo plan and show where you plan on the content calendar, so you schedule into the right slot without converting it by hand.

Best time to post by country: FAQ

Is this based on real per-country research?
No, and it does not claim to be. Neither Buffer’s nor Sprout Social’s 2026 study breaks its results down by country. This tool takes their existing, sourced windows and does time-zone math on them; it does not invent country-specific hours.
What time zone are the published best-time windows in?
The audience’s local time. Sprout Social’s 2026 study states that all times are recorded in local time rather than tied to one hub, so 9am is 9am in Los Angeles, London and Sydney alike, and Buffer’s per-platform studies say the same and add that no conversion is needed (both read 23 September 2026). That is why this tool does not shift the window for your audience.
So what does the tool actually convert?
Only the view from your own clock. If you work in London and post to an audience in Tokyo, the study’s window is in Tokyo time; the tool shows you what that reads as in London time so you can set the schedule correctly.
Does this account for daylight saving?
Yes, for today’s date. The conversion resolves the real offset between the two zones today, so a country that observes daylight saving on different dates from yours, or not at all, still converts correctly. If a clock change falls between today and your post date, re-check the result.
What if my audience spans multiple time zones?
Pick the zone closest to most of your audience. A country with several zones, or a global audience, has no single best local hour, so choose an anchor zone deliberately or test more than one window.
Why does a window sometimes cross midnight, or land on another day?
Because a window that sits comfortably within a day for your audience can land across midnight on your clock once shifted by a large time-zone offset. The tool flags a midnight crossing and a change of day rather than showing a confusing range silently.
How do I find one post time that works for a global audience?
Enter a candidate time in the global table on this page and look for zones where it lands late at night or very early. If no single time avoids that everywhere, favour the zones where most of your audience is, or post at two times.
How long until I have enough data to find my own best posting times?
A few weeks of steady posting usually shows a pattern by hour and day, and it sharpens the longer you track it.
Should I trust this over my own account’s data?
No. The windows are averages across many accounts, so treat them as a starting point and switch to your own account’s activity data as soon as you have enough of it.

Sources

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