Find your best time to post on YouTube

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio ^[5].
2. In the left menu, select Analytics ^[2].
3. At the top, select Audience ^[2].
4. Scroll to the report called When your viewers are on YouTube.

It shows when your viewers were online across YouTube in the last 28 days ^[2]. Buffer describes it as a heat map in your local time, with the busiest hours darkest ^[3]. Note the darkest two or three hours on the days you'd post.

Then check Top geographies on the same tab. It shows which places give your channel the most watch time ^[2], so you know whose evening you're aiming at.

YouTube notes that some data, such as geography, may be limited ^[2]. If the chart looks thin, start from the two studies' times until it fills in.

For long videos, Buffer suggests publishing one to two hours before your audience's busiest window ^[3], so the video is already up when they arrive.

Shorts are less tied to the hour. Buffer says YouTube keeps resurfacing Shorts over days or even weeks ^[3], and SocialPilot says a Short posted at a poor time can still find its audience ^[4]. Posting them every week counts for more than the exact slot.

Premieres and live streams are the exception. Set them for the peak itself, since publish time matters for both ^[1].

Cutting a Short from a long video? Check it fits first with the video length guide. If the same clip goes to TikTok, its timing is different: see the best time to post on TikTok.

Here's YouTube's own answer, which most timing charts leave out. YouTube's Help says publish time is not known to affect a video's long-term performance ^[1]. Its recommendations aim to reach the right viewers whatever time a video went up ^[1].

Timing still helps at the start. Publishing when your audience is most active can help early views, YouTube says, but it isn't known to change long-term views ^[1]. For live streams and Premieres, the time matters more ^[1], because people have to be there when it starts.

Both give local times, so you don't need to convert them ^[3][4].

They agree on two slots. For long videos, Buffer's top slot is Sunday at 10 a.m. ^[3], and SocialPilot calls 8 to 10 a.m. on Sunday its best single slot ^[4]. For Shorts, Buffer's top three are all on Friday, at 4, 6 and 7 p.m. ^[3], and SocialPilot's strongest window is 4 to 7 p.m. on Friday ^[4].

They disagree on weekdays. Buffer ranks Wednesday and Thursday the weakest days for long videos ^[3]. SocialPilot puts Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at the top ^[4]. If your plan leans on a weekday, that's the part to test.

They counted different videos in different ways. Buffer compared median engagement across 1.8 million videos ^[3]. SocialPilot measured engagement per view on videos published through its own tool ^[4]. Different channels and different viewers give different peaks.

Neither is about your viewers. Buffer says timing is not a magic bullet ^[3], and a lawyer explaining wills to retirees won't share a best time with a gaming channel. Use the studies to choose a first slot, then let your own numbers take over.

SocialPilot does split its advice by audience. For videos aimed at people at work, it suggests uploading from 9 to 11 a.m. on weekdays, and from 3 to 5 p.m. for videos aimed at consumers ^[4]. If your clients watch you between meetings, that morning slot is worth a test.

Once you know the slot, you don't need to be at your desk for it. YouTube's steps ^[5]:

1. In YouTube Studio or the YouTube app, select Create, then Upload videos.
2. Pick the file and fill in the details. A title can be up to 100 characters ^[6].
3. Click the Schedule card.
4. Set the date, time and time zone, then select Schedule ^[5].

The video stays private until its time, then goes public ^[5]. To move it, open Content, select the video and set a new time, or publish it straight away ^[5].

One catch if you post from outside the US: the date under a video is based on Pacific time ^[5]. Schedule a video for Monday morning in Singapore and the watch page can still say Sunday.

Postmosis schedules a YouTube video with its title to your connected channel, in your own time zone, from the same calendar as your Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn and Threads posts, once your accounts are connected. It checks the video's length before it sends. See scheduling

The studies give you a first guess, and Studio shows when your viewers are around. Only your own videos show when they watch. So test it.

1. Pick two slots: the study time, and an hour or two before your own viewers' peak.
2. Alternate them for your next few videos, and keep the kind of video the same.
3. Compare views and watch time for each video's first day and first week.
4. Keep the slot that wins, and look at the chart again every few months.

Keep the topics comparable, or the topic will decide the result instead of the hour. If you film yourself talking to camera, the talking head video guide covers getting the setup right first.

Postmosis turns the numbers you log for each post into a best-time chart, so you can see which day and hour your posts did best. See the audit and analytics