The Best Posting Times on TikTok (and How to Find Yours)

Great content isn’t always enough. The most engaging videos can vanish without a trace from the FYP if they’re posted at the wrong time for your audience. After all, if your target niche isn’t online, who’s going to watch the video?

Think of social media as a fast-moving train. When you post, you try to jump on – and depending on your jumping skill and strategy, your chances of landing safely on the train increase.

Nearly 24 million videos are uploaded to TikTok every day, making it difficult to stand out from the crowd. And with social media pacing being as fast as it is currently, it shows no sign of slowing down. That means instead of waiting for a window of opportunity that may never come, it’s time to break through the wall and jump on the train anyway.

After all, TikTok’s algorithm is constantly changing, but one thing is for certain – it rewards fast engagement. Actions such as likes, comments, and shares in the first few minutes and hours could make or break your post’s chances of going viral. That means posting at a time that your followers are active (and any potential new viewers may be too).

Let’s jump right into how you can find the best posting time for you, and how it’ll improve your content’s results.

Why Posting Time Matters on TikTok

TikTok is now more than just a simple entertaining social media network – it’s a whole new discovery engine. Every scroll presents a potential chance for your content to be seen, and a big factor in that visibility is all in the timing. Unlike platforms with strictly chronological feeds, TikTok’s For You Page (FYP) relies on a proprietary algorithm that rewards early engagement identifiers such as watch time and comments.

When you post at the right time for your audience, your videos ultimately have a better chance of being picked up by the algorithm and, therefore, pushed to more feeds. The “right time” acts like a space rocket for visibility! Think back to our train analogy from earlier – if you jump after the trains have already left, then where are you going to land? We’ve got to time our jumps right.

How TikTok’s Algorithm Prioritizes Content

TikTok’s algorithm is very complex compared to its competitors, but from what we’ve seen, it’s a scoring system that revolves around a few key performance indicators.

At its core, the more positive interactions your content has within its first few moments of publishing, the higher the likelihood that TikTok pushes it further. The indicators we’ve observed thus far are:

- Watch time (how long users stick around)

- Scroll percentage (how many users choose to skip this video)

- Engagement (likes, shares, comments, saves, reposts)

- Freshness (how long ago the video was posted)

Despite not having a clear picture of exactly how TikTok’s algorithm works, we know it highly prioritizes freshness by pushing your video out to a few hundred people and determining how it performs in that small pool. The better your engagement is in that test round, the further it’ll push your videos – thereby making “freshness” a huge determining factor in how well a video can perform.

General Best Times to Post on TikTok

One important note before we get deep into this section: every creator’s audience is different. Someone who does beauty videos will have a drastically different audience than a sports TikToker might – and that will influence your best post times.

That being said, here are the best general post time guidelines for TikTok (from what we’ve analyzed):

Mornings from 6am to 9am

Best for:

- Early-rising niches

- International audiences

- Lifestyle content

- Motivational content

Evenings from 5pm to 9pm

Best for:

- Comedic style videos

- Trend-hopping videos

- Storytimes/storytelling

Factors That Influence Your Best Time

While there are an insurmountable number of factors that all contribute towards your TikTok’s popularity, there are a few outliers that seem to matter the most (aside from your overall post’s SEO score). These factors are as follows:

Audience Demographics and Time Zones

Your best time isn’t just about global averages or “the best time to post on TikTok” news articles – it’s about your followers. If your audience is mostly in New York, posting around 7pm EST could be perfect. But if you’re a global creator, you’ll need to test which time zone is most effective for both your own needs and your audience’s.

Content Type & Niche-Specific Trends

Every niche comes with its own set of trends and relevant content styles to that community. For example, fitness creators will thrive with fitness-related content, and that content style might perform better in the early morning when gym-goers want motivation or need inspiration for their workout routine that day. Comedy creators’ content might perform better in the evening when people are seeking entertainment or mindlessly scrolling on the couch after work. Think about the people who are in your niche: when do you think they’ll be more likely to watch your videos?

Analytics & Experimentation

Social media algorithms all share one thing in common: they reward consistency. Consistent quality, consistent output, and consistent post times are the best ways to get on the good side of the algorithm. Test your best post times with your audience, see what resonates, and then use that information to better post when your audience is online.

Additionally, you can use the Analytics available in TikTok Studio to help inform your post time decision. Under the Viewers tab, you can view generally when most of your audience is online and choose a post time accordingly.

How to Find Your Best Posting Times

Switch to a TikTok Creator or Business Account

While not a mandatory step, this unlocks all of TikTok’s analytics for free instantly. Without it, you’d need to meet a minimum follower requirement of 100 to gain access to deeper follower activity insights, breakdown by country, and demographic insights.

Use TikTok Analytics

Check your audience activity by hour and day. This data groups your audience into blocks of time in the form of a bar graph, enabling easy access to peak times for you to choose from.

For example, here’s what one of our TikTok Analytics looks like. Based on this information, we’d likely shift our posting time to 4 pm since that’s when most of our followers are active.

Track Performance

Look at your top-performing posts. When were they posted? What were they about? By analyzing what’s worked well for you in the past, you can make more informed decisions about what content to create in the future.

Test and Repeat

I feel like I must reiterate that content creation strategies are not a one-time thing. You don’t figure out when you’re going to post once and then keep doing that for the rest of your life – you’ll need to make updates as both your page grows, as well as your followers grow. Make it a point to re-evaluate your posting schedule every 3 months to ensure you stay on track with your audience.

Pro Insights and Tips from Advanced Creative Media

Batch Creating and Scheduling Content

While creating and publishing every single day may work for some creators' schedules, for many, it is a major obstacle. Luckily, many services exist to help you schedule content to be posted ahead of time, enabling you to create in bulk and “set it and forget it”. TikTok has its own native scheduler available in its Desktop version, or you can utilize a third-party service such as Later or Hootsuite (although these platforms come with their own costs).

Riding Trends at the Right Hour

Like the name suggests, trends move fast. If you’re quick to spot one, chances are that the algorithm is currently favoring that trend – and you should capitalize by hopping on and posting as soon as possible for maximum reach.

Avoiding Content Fatigue

Remember,  quality > quantity every single time. Posting three times daily at the wrong hours won’t beat one fantastic video published at your peak engagement time.

Mastering Timing on TikTok

Finding the best posting times on TikTok doesn’t have to be guesswork. You can find your own best post time for maximum reach by simply doing a bit of data analysis, experimentation, and building your creator brand strategy. While evenings often show strong engagement across the board, your unique audience might peak elsewhere. By leveraging TikTok’s analytics, testing across time slots, and utilizing scheduling tools, you’ll easily discover your own personal posting “golden hour”!

Here at Advanced Creative Media, we believe that creativity and data fuel success on TikTok, and strategy makes it sustainable. Pair great content with smart timing and you’ll build a loyal, engaged community in no time. You can grow your community even faster with Advanced Creative Media’s arsenal of creator support tools. Click here to learn more.

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FAQs about TikTok Posting Times

What’s the absolute best time to post on TikTok?

Despite what some may claim, there is no universal best time for everyone. However, data shows that posting in the evenings often sees higher engagement (typically anywhere from 6 pm to 11 pm).

Should I post multiple times a day?

Yes, but you must prioritize quality above all else. If your video isn’t up to standard, it will not get pushed – regardless of what quantity or time you post at.

Do weekends perform better than weekdays?

Weekends perform considerably better depending on the niche, but they also have significantly more competition than weekdays. Consider all factors when deciding what days to post on, but our recommendation would be to post on the weekend.

How long does it take for a video to go viral?

It all depends. Sometimes it can happen within a matter of hours, and sometimes it can take months for a video to recirculate and gain traction.

Does deleting low-performing TikTok’s help growth?

Not necessarily. Poor engagement won’t hurt your future posts, and it may help to keep them for insights.