What is the Best Time to Post on YouTube?
Growing a YouTube community includes multiple elements: quality content, user engagement, understanding the algorithm, consistency, and posting at the right time… Managing a YouTube channel is difficult, especially if it’s one piece of your social media puzzle. You then ask yourself, what is the best time to post on YouTube? How often should I be publishing?
There’s no single formula to make your channel go viral, and sometimes, this takes a lot of trial and error. Yet, these trials don’t have to be completely experimental. You can make informed marketing decisions with the right data, tools, and resources.
In this post, we will provide those data points, tools, and resources to find the best time to post on YouTube for your audience and channel. This will help boost engagement and reach more channel subscribers to watch, share, and enjoy your content.
Does it matter what time you post on YouTube?
Yes! Although YouTube shows search results based on many factors beyond recency, the algorithm values early performance when it comes to ranking your content.
What the Algorithm Looks For
- Initial Click-Through Rate (CTR): How many people who see the thumbnail and title actually click? Publishing when your subscribers are online ensures they see it immediately, driving up this crucial early CTR.
- Initial Watch Time and Retention: Do people stick around and watch a good portion of the video? A spike in high-retention viewing right after publishing tells YouTube the content is high-quality and worth recommending in the home feed, suggested videos, and search results.
Best Time to Post on YouTube – By Day of the Week
With nearly 2.7 billion active monthly users, YouTube is the world’s second-largest social media network and search engine. At this point, we know YouTube is not going anywhere. While there are always viewers online, there are patterns of when more users are active. Brands can use this information to publish content at the audience’s peak times to boost engagement.
After analyzing over 47,000 YouTube accounts and 636,874 videos in our 2024 Short-Form Video Study, our team found major insights into the best time to post on YouTube, for both Shorts and long-form content.
So, what did our results find?
- The best time to post long-form video is at 9 pm, averaging 2,499.13 views per video.
- For YouTube Shorts, the best time to upload a short is at 1 am, when the data saw the highest number of views, averaging 3,184 views per short.
- However, our data also shows an increase in average views at 9 am.
This data suggests that there are two types of YouTubers: morning watchers, and night owls.
While these are data averages, you can apply these patterns and adapt them to align with your audience. Who knows, maybe even ask them which YouTuber they are. 👀
Best time to post on YouTube – Monday
Our Study found Mondays to be the day long-form videos receive the most impressions, averaging 1,533 per video. Shorts have the same energetic Monday, averaging about 700 views per video.
The best time to post on Monday is between 9 am and 11 am. There’s no denying that professionals, especially those in marketing, visit YouTube on Monday morning to check any content they missed, and stay updated on industry trends.
Best time to post on YouTube – Tuesday
On Tuesdays, the best time to post is again from 9 am to 11 am. Our Study found that Tuesdays are the days most brands publish on YouTube, for both Shorts and long-form videos.
Best time to post on YouTube – Wednesday
The best time to post on Wednesday is from 9 am to 11 am. The weekdays continue to reign true to the morning watching.
Best time to post on YouTube – Thursday
The best time to post on Thursday is from 8 am to 10 am.
Best time to post on YouTube – Friday
The best time to post on Friday is from 2pm to 4pm. The weekend is coming up and people are more likely to spend some time in the afternoon scrolling through YouTube.
Best time to post on YouTube – Saturday
The best time to post on Saturday is between 10am and 12pm. Many people like to scroll through YouTube and watch videos either while still in bed, or having their morning coffee.
Best time to post on YouTube – Sunday
Sunday has been found to be the best day for views on YouTube Shorts. However, overall the best time to post on YouTube on Sunday is between 4pm and 6pm. As the weekend wraps up, people may want to watch some videos before dinner and getting ready for the workweek.
How to Check the Best Time to Post on YouTube with Metricool
With Metricool’s powerful analytics and scheduling tools, you can optimize your YouTube content for maximum engagement and growth.
🔥What are your best times to post on YouTube?
To find out, you just need to follow these steps:
- Go to Metricool and select the “Planning” tab.
- Choose YouTube and see the content calendar.
- The darker shades in the calendar indicate your best times to post when your audience is the most active.
- To see this information in numbers (if it’s clearer for you), enable this option in the advanced settings.
- In the Metricool planner, you’ll see a percentage that shows the number of active followers during the selected time frame.
With Metricool, you can eliminate the hassle of manual posting and timing your video uploads. Instead, schedule your content in advance. And let Metricool automatically publish it at the best times, ensuring your audience stays engaged.
With Metricool’s analytics dashboard, get detailed insights into your YouTube video performance. Use this data to track engagement metrics, understand your audience demographics, and monitor follower growth. Make informed decisions about your content strategy and create videos that resonate with your audience, ultimately driving the success of your channel.
Finding the Best Time to Post YouTube Shorts
For short-form content, the urgency is different, but the principle is the same: publish when eyes are scrolling.
The Shorts feed, driven by discovery and quick consumption, benefits from an aggressive, multi-slot schedule. If you are creating high-volume Shorts, you should aim to test different parts of the day.
- Check the Long-Form Heatmap: Use Metricool’s best time to post on YouTube function as your foundational data, but treat it as the time your audience is available, not just when they watch long videos.
- Target Scroll Time: Since Shorts are often consumed in quick bursts, aim for the “shoulder times” of the workday:
- Morning Scroll: 7 a.m. – 10 a.m.
- Lunch Break: 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
- Post-Dinner Unwind: 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
- Experiment with Weekends: Unlike long videos, which can be an event, Shorts thrive on consistent, casual scrolling. Test posting a Short every two hours on a Saturday morning (e.g., 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m.) to see which slot captures the most views per hour.
Virality tip: The Shorts algorithm is heavily influenced by retention rate (what percentage of the Short is watched) and looping (when a viewer rewatches the Short). While timing helps with the initial exposure, the content itself is what drives virality. A great Short posted at a decent time will always outperform a mediocre Short posted at the perfect time. Focus first on crafting a strong hook in the first two seconds.
Consistency Over Perfection: The Long-Term View
While we’ve detailed the science of finding the optimal moment, the long-term success of your channel is built on something far simpler than a perfect minute-by-minute schedule: consistency.
When you’re looking for the best time to upload to YouTube for growth, a consistent schedule is paramount.
Why Consistency Wins
- Subscriber Expectations: Subscribers are more likely to return if they know when to expect new content. If your audience knows a new video drops “Every Tuesday at 4 p.m.,” they are primed to watch, which provides the crucial initial engagement boost.
- Algorithm Signaling: YouTube’s system rewards channels that are reliable content providers. A regular upload cadence signals to the algorithm that your channel is active and committed, making it more likely to feature your content in subscription feeds and homepages.
- Momentum: Steady, reliable publishing creates a chain reaction. A video published consistently at the right time gets a better initial boost, which increases its odds of long-term success.
