Best Time to Post on YouTube: What 4 Studies Actually Found

Short answer: there is no single best time to post on YouTube, and the published studies disagree with each other. The largest one, vidIQ's analysis of 40.2 million US long-form uploads, found Sunday and Saturday uploads did slightly better than a channel's average day (about +3.5% and +2.2% in 30-day views), and that the gap between the best and worst hours shrank to a few percent by day 30. Other studies point to weekday afternoons. The most useful answer for your channel is in your own YouTube Studio, which we cover below.

This page compiles the four studies we could open and check today, October 16, 2026. Each one measures something different, which explains most of the disagreement.

The four studies side by side

Buffer and SocialPilot say their times are in the audience's local time. vidIQ reports upload volume in Eastern time.

Where the studies agree

• Weekends are not dead. Two of the four (vidIQ and Buffer) put Sunday at the top for long-form. SocialPilot also lists Saturday and Sunday mornings (8 to 10 a.m.) as good slots for long-form.
• Shorts run on a later clock. Buffer's best Shorts slot is Friday at 4 p.m., and SocialPilot's strongest Shorts window is Friday 4 to 7 p.m. vidIQ says long-form viewers lean toward mornings and weekends while Shorts viewers lean toward evenings.
• Late night is weak for long-form. SocialPilot lists after 10 p.m. as a worst time for long-form.

Where they flatly contradict each other

The biggest clash is weekday afternoons. SocialPilot says 2 to 4 p.m. on weekdays is the best window for long-form. Buffer says early to mid afternoon on weekdays is among the worst, with Thursday at 2 p.m. scoring 0.11 on its engagement scale (its top slot, Sunday 10 a.m., scored 0.95). IQFluence picks Wednesday as the best day. vidIQ puts Wednesday as the weakest day, at about 2.2% below a channel's average.

They can all be right about their own data because they measure different things:

• vidIQ compares each video to the same channel's other videos, using views after 30 days. That removes the effect of channel size and looks at the long run.
• Buffer and SocialPilot look at engagement, not views. SocialPilot's sample is videos published through its own scheduling tool, which is built for brands and agencies, so it may not match a typical creator's audience.
• IQFluence only looked at 325 sponsored videos and their first 24 hours. That tells you about launch-day numbers for brand deals, not how a regular video performs over months.

If you care about views over the life of a video, vidIQ's method is the closest match, and its main finding is that the hour barely matters by day 30.

Why the hour matters less than you think

Most long-form views on a search-driven or evergreen channel arrive weeks and months after upload. A video titled "why the Roman Empire fell" gets found through search and suggestions long after the first evening. Posting time only shapes the first day or two, when your subscribers see it in their feed.

That's why vidIQ found the hourly gap closes to a few percent by day 30. A better title, thumbnail, or topic moves your numbers far more than moving an upload from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

YouTube's own upload schedule tips focus on consistency rather than a magic hour. It says "a consistent, sustainable release schedule is critical" and asks whether you'll link content to specific days of the week. Our posting frequency data post found the same pattern in AIR's channel data: channels that went quiet for two weeks or more got fewer views per video.

How to find the best time for your own channel

YouTube Studio already shows you when your viewers are active. Here's how to use it:

If you'd rather make videos than read about it, VidPuff turns a title into a faceless video. No waitlist, cancel anytime.

1. Open YouTube Studio, go to Analytics, then the Audience tab.
2. Find the When your viewers are on YouTube chart. YouTube Help says it "shows you when your viewers are online across YouTube in the last 28 days."
3. Pick the day and the darkest block of hours. Schedule your upload an hour or two before that block starts. IQFluence recommends 2 to 3 hours before the evening peak, so the video is processed and showing in feeds when people arrive.
4. Use the same day and time every week for at least a month before you judge it.

New channels may not see that chart until they have enough viewers. Until then, pick a slot from the table above that fits your life and stick with it. Sunday morning or a weekday late afternoon are both defensible picks based on the data.

To schedule, set the video to private or scheduled on the upload page, open the Schedule card, and choose the date, time, and time zone, as described on YouTube's schedule video publish time page. One quirk from that page: the date on the watch page is based on Pacific time, so if you're ahead of Pacific time it may show a different date than Studio.

A simple test you can run

Pick two slots, for example Sunday 10 a.m. and Thursday 4 p.m. Alternate them for eight uploads. After 30 days, compare each video's views to your channel average in Studio, not the raw view counts, since one strong topic can swamp everything else. If one slot isn't clearly ahead, the hour doesn't matter much for your audience, and you can post whenever keeps you consistent.

Consistency is the harder part for most people with a day job. If you're running a faceless channel, a tool like VidPuff can help you keep a schedule: you type a title, it drafts the script, narration, visuals, music and captions for a long-form video, and you review each stage before you upload to YouTube from the app. Plans start at $25/month. For the steps to get a channel going, see how to start a YouTube channel and how to make a faceless YouTube channel.

FAQ

What is the best time to post on YouTube?

The largest study (vidIQ, 40.2 million US uploads) found Sunday and Saturday slightly ahead of other days, with hourly differences of only a few percent after 30 days. Buffer's top slot for long-form is Sunday at 10 a.m. Check the "When your viewers are on YouTube" chart in Studio for your own audience.

What is the best day to post on YouTube?

Sunday came out on top in both vidIQ's and Buffer's data. SocialPilot favored Wednesday through Friday, and IQFluence favored Wednesday for sponsored videos. The difference between days is small in vidIQ's data (about 3.5% at the top).

What is the best time to post YouTube Shorts?

Buffer's strongest Shorts slot was Friday at 4 p.m., and SocialPilot's was Friday 4 to 7 p.m. Both point to late afternoon and evening rather than mornings.

Does the time you upload affect views on YouTube?

A little, mostly in the first day or two. vidIQ found the gap between the best and worst hours shrank to within a few percent by day 30. Your topic, title, and thumbnail matter much more, and so does posting on a steady schedule.

Sources and method

We opened each source on October 16, 2026, and used only figures stated on the source page. Where a study did not publish a number (vidIQ's best hour, IQFluence's Shorts results), we left it blank.

• vidIQ, "Best Time to Post on YouTube: What 40 Million Videos Actually Show", updated June 23, 2026. 40.2 million US long-form uploads, 30-day views relative to each channel's typical video.
• Buffer, best time to post on YouTube, July 24, 2026. About 1.8 million videos, median engagement, times adjusted to local time.
• SocialPilot, best time to post on YouTube, no publication date shown. 301k videos from 27k+ channels, engagement rate per view.
• IQFluence, best time to post on YouTube, updated June 5, 2026. 325 sponsored campaigns, first-24-hour engagement.
• YouTube Help: Understand your YouTube audience, Upload schedule tips, Schedule video publish time.

Limits: SocialPilot's sample comes from videos published through its own tool, and IQFluence's comes from sponsored brand campaigns, so neither is a random sample of YouTube. None of the four publishes confidence intervals, so small differences between days may not hold for your channel.