What is the best time to post on LinkedIn?
Midweek afternoons in your buyers' time zone, going by Buffer's and Sprout Social's 2026 studies. Only two slots sit clearly inside both: Tuesday at 4 p.m. and Wednesday at 3 p.m. Buffer ranks Tuesday among its two weakest days and Wednesday as its best, so if you post once a week, pick Wednesday. Here is what each study says, checked 4 November 2026:
- Buffer (published 9 September 2026, 4.8 million LinkedIn posts sent through Buffer): 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays is the best window, with Wednesday at 4 p.m. the strongest slot of the week, followed by Friday at 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.
- Sprout Social (published 31 March 2026): Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. is best, with engagement also high on Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 1 to 5 p.m. It says to avoid weekends.
- Hootsuite (2025 data, page updated 14 October 2026): early mornings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
To find the overlap, we took Buffer's top three times for each weekday and checked which fall inside Sprout's window for the same day. Tuesday at 4 p.m. sits inside Sprout's 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday at 3 p.m. sits inside 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Three more Buffer slots (Tuesday 5 p.m., Wednesday 4 p.m. and Thursday 5 p.m.) land exactly on the end of a Sprout window, and nothing overlaps on Monday or Friday. No slot appears in all three studies: Hootsuite's picks for Tuesday and Wednesday are 6 to 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.
What is the best time to post on LinkedIn each day, including Monday?
On Monday, Buffer says 10 p.m., Sprout says 1 to 2 p.m. and Hootsuite says 11 a.m. Buffer also calls Monday the weakest day of the week, with Tuesday not far behind. Every study gives local times rather than one reference time zone: Buffer and Sprout say to use the local time of the audience you target, and Hootsuite says it localised times across the 118 countries its data came from. Here is each day side by side:
| Day | Buffer, Sep 2026 (top three) | Sprout Social, Mar 2026 | Hootsuite, 2025 data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 10 p.m., 5 p.m., 9 p.m. | 1 to 2 p.m. | 11 a.m. |
| Tuesday | 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 10 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. | 6 to 8 a.m. |
| Wednesday | 4 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. | 9 a.m. |
| Thursday | 5 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m. | 11 a.m. and 1 to 5 p.m. | 2 p.m. |
| Friday | 3 p.m., 4 p.m., 5 p.m. | 11 a.m. and 1 to 2 p.m. | 8 p.m. |
| Saturday | 9 a.m., 6 p.m., 10 p.m. | Avoid posting | 4 to 5 a.m. |
| Sunday | 10 p.m., 9 p.m., 6 a.m. | Avoid posting | 6 a.m. |
The days agree more than the hours. Buffer ranks Wednesday first, then Thursday and Friday. Sprout says Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have the most consistent and longest peaks. Hootsuite's key takeaways name Tuesday and Wednesday. All three put weekends below weekdays.
Why do the best-time studies disagree?
They study different accounts, networks and months, and none of them studied your buyers. The details, from each study's own page:
| Buffer | Sprout Social | Hootsuite | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published | 9 Sep 2026 | 31 Mar 2026 | 19 Nov 2025, updated 14 Oct 2026 |
| Data | 4.8 million LinkedIn posts sent through Buffer | Nearly 2 billion engagements across 307,000 profiles on six networks, LinkedIn among them | Over 1 million social posts, analysed with Critical Truth |
| Period | Not given in the article | 27 Nov 2025 to 27 Feb 2026 | 2025, per the page title |
| Time zones | Normalised to local time | Local time | Localised across 118 countries |
| Headline answer | Weekdays 3 to 8 p.m. | Tuesday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Early mornings, Tuesday and Wednesday |
Three things stand out. First, Sprout's data runs from late November to late February, so it includes the December holidays and no weeks between March and November. Second, the same publisher's answer moves: in July 2024, LinkedIn’s Marketing Blog summarised Buffer's data at the time as 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, while Buffer's 2026 article says the peak has shifted later, to 3 to 8 p.m. Third, Hootsuite's page gives two overall answers: its key takeaways say 8 to 9 a.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and the section below says 4 to 6 a.m. on the same days.
One practitioner thread shows the same spread. In a small August 2025 r/LinkedInTips thread, the poster asked whether to wait for Tuesday to Thursday, 9 to 11 a.m. The replies named 7:30 a.m., 8 to 9 a.m. CET, 9:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m., and very early in the day for an audience of business owners and attorneys. One commenter summed it up: "It's all over the place." That is one thread, so read it as a pattern worth testing, not as proof.
What does LinkedIn itself say about posting times?
None of the LinkedIn pages we read on 4 November 2026 gives a best time of LinkedIn's own. The Marketing Blog's July 2024 post on the question rounds up studies from HubSpot, Sprinklr and Buffer, points out their conflicting data points, and says "the timing is often less important than the substance." It also says there is no substitute for testing at different times of day.
The help centre explains why timing can matter at all. LinkedIn's Distribution of your content page, updated two weeks before our check, says a post is shared with a subset of your connections and followers, depending on your connection strength, their notification settings and notification state, and that your connections' activity may also affect distribution. Our reading: who is active and reachable when you post can shape who sees it first. The page gives no time window for that.
A July 2026 post from LinkedIn's LinkedIn for Marketing account lists engaging with comments within the first hour of posting among its habits. So pick a slot when you can stay around for that hour, rather than one you can only hit with a scheduler and then walk away. Our guide to how often a busy founder should post on LinkedIn covers what LinkedIn says about replying to early comments and how many posts a week to plan for.
How do you convert a best time to your buyers' time zone?
Use the time zone where most of your post viewers are, not your own. To check it, open the analytics on a few public posts: LinkedIn's post analytics help page says viewer demographics may include location, and keeps demographic breakdowns for 180 days on most posts.
Worked example. A founder in London whose viewers are mostly in New York wants Tuesday at 4 p.m. New York time.
| Dates | London | New York | Gap | Schedule in London for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Most of the year | GMT (UTC+0) or BST (UTC+1) | EST (UTC−5) or EDT (UTC−4) | 5 hours | 9 p.m. |
| 14 to 27 March 2027 | GMT | EDT | 4 hours | 8 p.m. |
| 31 October to 6 November 2027 | GMT | EDT | 4 hours | 8 p.m. |
The arithmetic: in winter London is on GMT, which is UTC+0. New York is then on EST, which is five hours behind UTC, so 4 p.m. in New York is 4 + 5 = 9 p.m. in London. In summer both move forward an hour and the gap stays at 5. But US clocks change on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November. UK clocks change on the last Sundays of March and October. In 2027 that leaves three weeks with a 4-hour gap, when a 9 p.m. London post would land at 5 p.m. in New York.
LinkedIn's scheduler adds one more catch. Its scheduling help page says scheduled times are converted to UTC based on your device's time zone settings, so the time you pick is read in your computer's or phone's zone. Do the conversion before you pick, and check your device's zone if you schedule while travelling. The clicks are in our guide to scheduling a LinkedIn post.
How do you find your own best time to post?
Run an eight-week test of two slots on your own posts. This plan is ours, written for a founder posting twice a week.
Pick two slots the studies disagree on
Take 8 a.m. (the morning side, close to Hootsuite's picks) and 4 p.m. (the Tuesday slot Buffer and Sprout share), both in your buyers' time zone.
Swap them every week
Post every Tuesday and Thursday. In odd weeks, post Tuesday at 8 a.m. and Thursday at 4 p.m.; in even weeks, the other way round. Eight weeks at two posts gives 16 posts: 8 at each time, and 4 for each day and time, so neither slot gets all the good days. Set every post to Anyone so its analytics can show viewer locations.
Log each post at seven days old
Record impressions, members reached, profile viewers from the post and comments from people who fit your buyer profile. LinkedIn says these numbers are estimates. Check every post at the same age, because the counts keep rising.
Compare medians, not averages
One post that takes off can skew an average. The example below shows how.
Example with made-up numbers. Impressions at seven days for the eight 8 a.m. posts: 380, 390, 410, 450, 470, 520, 600 and 2,900. For the eight 4 p.m. posts: 480, 540, 560, 590, 610, 650, 700 and 720.
| 8 a.m. posts | 4 p.m. posts | |
|---|---|---|
| Total impressions | 6,120 | 4,850 |
| Average (total ÷ 8) | 765 | 606 |
| Median (middle two ÷ 2) | (450 + 470) ÷ 2 = 460 | (590 + 610) ÷ 2 = 600 |
The average says mornings win, but only because of the 2,900 post. The median ignores that outlier and puts the afternoon ahead by 30% (600 ÷ 460 = 1.30). Our rule of thumb: move to a slot when its median beats the other by 20% or more and it also brought more comments from buyers. If the medians are within 20%, keep the slot that suits your week and spend the effort on the posts. If both slots are low, timing isn't the problem: work through our zero-engagement checklist for LinkedIn.
If writing is what makes you miss the slot, Siela's Social Media agent posts in your voice on the cadence you set, and can show you every post before it goes out. See how the AI social media manager works for LinkedIn and X.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best day to post on LinkedIn?
Midweek, though the studies rank the days differently. Buffer's September 2026 analysis puts Wednesday first, then Thursday and Friday, with Monday weakest. Sprout Social's March 2026 study says Tuesday to Thursday have the most consistent peaks. Hootsuite's 2025 data names Tuesday and Wednesday. If you post once a week, Wednesday sits near the top of all three.
Is it bad to post on LinkedIn on weekends?
It usually gets less engagement. Sprout Social says to avoid Saturday and Sunday altogether. Buffer finds weekend posts get less engagement than most weekday posts, and suggests Saturday at 9 a.m. if you must post then. Hootsuite says weekends get less engagement than business hours, with early mornings the best weekend bet. Save your most important post for a weekday.
Can I schedule posts on LinkedIn?
Yes, from the post composer on desktop and in the mobile app, using the clock icon. LinkedIn's help page says you can schedule a post between 10 minutes and 3 months ahead, pick a 30-minute increment or type an exact time, and that times are converted to UTC from your device's time zone. View all scheduled posts (View all in the app), under the clock icon, lets you edit, reschedule or delete them.
What is the 95-5 rule on LinkedIn?
It is a B2B buying rule, not a posting rule. Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute says only about 5% of your target customers are looking to buy at any given time. The LinkedIn link: in a 2021 Marketing Week column, Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo, then heads of research and development at LinkedIn's B2B Institute, presented it as research done with Dawes. For posting, judge a slot by buyers reached over weeks, not by leads from one post.
What is a LinkedIn post time finder?
The name covers different tools, so check what one actually reads. Reepl's free Post Time Finder, for example, decodes the publish time that Reepl says LinkedIn embeds in every post's ID. We decoded the ID of a LinkedIn for Marketing post ourselves and got 18:30 UTC on 8 July 2026, matching the page's published time. That dates old posts; it doesn't show when your audience is online.
Sources
- Buffer: The Best Time to Post on LinkedIn in 2026, 4.8 Million Posts Analyzed (published 9 Sep 2026; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Sprout Social: Best times to post on LinkedIn in 2026 (published 31 Mar 2026; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Hootsuite: The best time to post on LinkedIn [2025 data] (published 19 Nov 2025, updated 14 Oct 2026; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Marketing Blog: What's the Best Time to Post Content on LinkedIn? (published 25 Jul 2024; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Distribution of your content on LinkedIn (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Post analytics for your content (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Schedule posts (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- NIST: Daylight Saving Time Rules (updated 9 Feb 2026; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- GOV.UK: When do the clocks change? (updated 24 Nov 2025; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Wikipedia: Eastern Time Zone (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Wikipedia: British Summer Time (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- r/LinkedInTips: Best time for engagement on LinkedIn? (posted 28 Aug 2025; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Ehrenberg-Bass Institute: The 95:5 Rule, Why B2B Growth Starts Long Before the Purchase (published 28 Nov 2025; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Marketing Week: The 95:5 rule is the new 60:40 rule (published 2 Sep 2021; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Reepl: Post Time Finder for LinkedIn (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn for Marketing: Your LinkedIn posts deserve to be seen (LinkedIn post) (posted 8 Jul 2026; checked 4 Nov 2026)