Based on analysis of millions of posts, we break down the best time to post on Threads by day — plus how to find your own optimal posting window.
Published February 15, 2026 • 12 min read
The best time to post on Threads is 9 a.m. on Thursday (local time).
That single time slot consistently generates the highest median engagement — likes, replies, and reposts — across multiple large-scale studies of Threads posting data.
But that one-line answer only tells part of the story. Threads now has over 400 million monthly active users and recently surpassed X in daily mobile usage, which means the platform is no longer an experiment — it's where real audiences are showing up every day. And when those audiences see your content matters almost as much as what you're posting.
We dug into the latest research — including Buffer's analysis of 2.5 million Threads posts, Hootsuite's study of over 1 million social posts, and SocialPilot's data from 400,000 posts — to build the most complete picture of when to post on Threads in 2026. Here's what the data actually says.
If you've been posting whenever you feel like it, you're probably leaving engagement on the table. Here's why timing matters on Threads specifically.
Threads uses an algorithm that heavily weighs recency and early engagement. When your post goes live, the algorithm watches what happens in those first few minutes. If it picks up likes, replies, and reposts quickly, that signals to Threads that the content is worth showing to more people — and it gets pushed into the feeds of users who don't even follow you.
Miss that window, and the opposite happens. A post published when your audience is asleep or offline sits there collecting nothing. By the time people log back in, fresher content has already taken its place.
This is what makes Threads different from platforms like YouTube
On YouTube, a video can gain traction over weeks. On Threads, the engagement velocity — how fast those first interactions come in — is what determines whether your post reaches 50 people or 5,000.
The takeaway: posting when your audience is already scrolling gives your content the best shot at triggering the algorithm's boost.
And here's the good news. We know roughly when most people are scrolling.
The times below are based on local time — so whether you're in EST, PST, GMT, or IST, the recommendations apply to your timezone. This is because audiences around the world tend to follow similar daily patterns: check their phones in the morning, take a midday break, and wind down in the evening.
| Rank | Best Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 12 p.m. | Lunch break spike |
| 2nd | 9 a.m. | Morning check-in |
| 3rd | 10 a.m. | Mid-morning engagement |
Monday mornings are a slow start on Threads. People are catching up on work, clearing inboxes, and easing into the week. Engagement picks up significantly around lunchtime, making noon your best bet on Mondays. If you're posting twice, pair the 12 p.m. slot with a 9 a.m. post to catch early risers.
| Rank | Best Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 10 a.m. | Peak mid-morning slot |
| 2nd | 9 a.m. | Strong secondary window |
| 3rd | 11 a.m. | Late morning engagement |
Tuesday is one of the strongest engagement days of the week. The morning window from 9–11 a.m. is consistently active, with 10 a.m. edging out the other slots. Hootsuite's data specifically flagged 8 a.m. on Tuesdays as the single best time across their dataset, so if your audience skews toward early risers, it's worth testing an earlier post.
| Rank | Best Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 12 p.m. | Midweek peak |
| 2nd | 9 a.m. | Morning window |
| 3rd | 10 a.m. | Sustained engagement |
Wednesday is a top-performing day overall. The data shows two clear peaks: a morning window around 9–10 a.m. and a lunch-hour spike at noon. If you only post once on Wednesday, go with 12 p.m. If you can post twice, the 9 a.m. + 12 p.m. combo covers both peaks.
| Rank | Best Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 9 a.m. | Highest engagement slot of the entire week |
| 2nd | 10 a.m. | Strong follow-up |
| 3rd | 11 a.m. | Late morning still performs |
This is the big one. Thursday at 9 a.m. is the single best time to post on Threads, according to Buffer's analysis of 2.5 million posts. If you're planning a major announcement, launching something new, or just have a post you really want to perform — schedule it for Thursday morning.
| Rank | Best Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 10 a.m. | End-of-week browsing |
| 2nd | 9 a.m. | Still strong |
| 3rd | 11 a.m. | Before the weekend dropoff |
Friday mornings hold up surprisingly well. People are in a lighter mood, more likely to engage with casual and conversational content, and often killing time before the weekend. Engagement drops sharply after noon on Friday, so get your posts out in the morning.
| Rank | Best Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 10 a.m. | Casual morning browsing |
| 2nd | 11 a.m. | Late morning |
| 3rd | 9 a.m. | Early risers |
Weekend engagement is noticeably lower than weekdays. Saturday mornings see some activity — people checking their phones over coffee — but the overall reach potential is reduced. Post on Saturday if you have content to share, but don't save your best material for it.
| Rank | Best Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 10 a.m. | Minimal weekend peak |
| 2nd | 9 a.m. | Early check-in |
| 3rd | 4 p.m. | Pre-week browsing |
Sunday is the lowest-engagement day across every dataset we reviewed. If you must post, the morning window (9–10 a.m.) is your safest bet, with a small secondary spike around 4 p.m. as people start mentally preparing for the week ahead. Consider using Sunday to plan and draft — then publish on Monday or Tuesday instead.
Based on the combined data, here's how the days of the week rank for Threads engagement:
| Rank | Day | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|
| 🥇 1st | Thursday | Highest peak engagement. 9 a.m. Thursday is the #1 slot overall. |
| 🥈 2nd | Wednesday | Strong all-morning engagement with a midday peak. |
| 🥉 3rd | Tuesday | Consistent high engagement from 8–11 a.m. |
| 4th | Friday | Good morning window, but drops off after lunch. |
| 5th | Monday | Slow start, but noon performs well. |
| 6th | Saturday | Reduced reach. Morning-only window. |
| 7th | Sunday | Lowest engagement day. Avoid for important posts. |
The pattern is clear: midweek mornings win.
Tuesday through Thursday between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. is the highest-engagement window on Threads. If you can only post 3 times a week, those are your days.
One thing every study agrees on: evening posts (6 p.m. – 11 p.m.) consistently underperform across all days. If you're currently posting in the evening, that alone could be why your engagement feels flat.
Everything above is based on aggregate data — what works on average across millions of posts. But your audience isn't average. A fitness creator in Los Angeles, a SaaS founder in Berlin, and a food blogger in Mumbai are going to have different optimal posting windows.
Here's how to find yours:
If you have more than 100 followers on Threads, you have access to native analytics. Tap your profile, go to Insights, and look at when your followers are most active. This is the most direct signal you'll get.
Since Threads and Instagram share the same underlying user base, your Instagram audience activity data is a useful proxy — especially if you're still building your Threads following. Go to your Instagram profile → Insights → Audience → Most Active Times. Those peak hours are likely similar on Threads.
Run a simple experiment. For two weeks, post at different times each day and track the engagement on each post. You don't need a fancy spreadsheet — just note the time, day, and how many likes/replies each post gets. Patterns will emerge quickly.
Here's the thing about doing all this manually: it works, but it takes time. And if you're creating content across Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, and Facebook, tracking optimal times for each platform becomes a job in itself.
Sidecar connects to your social accounts and analyzes your actual post performance — not generic industry data, but what your specific audience responds to. It identifies when your followers are most engaged and uses that data to schedule your posts at the times most likely to get traction.
Instead of guessing based on general recommendations, you're posting based on your own data. That's the difference between following a "best time to post" article and actually knowing your best time to post.
Knowing when to post is step one. The harder part is actually doing it consistently. Most creators don't miss posting because they ran out of ideas — they miss it because life gets in the way. They're in a meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday when they should be posting. They forget to hit publish at noon on Wednesday because they're making lunch.
This is where scheduling changes the game.
With Sidecar, you can batch-create an entire month of Threads content in one sitting. Sidecar's AI analyzes your past posts to understand your voice and what's worked before, then helps you generate new content that sounds like you — not like a robot. Queue it all up, set your optimal times, and let it publish automatically.
1. Spend 30 minutes on a Sunday creating your posts for the week
2. Sidecar suggests optimal posting times based on your audience data
3. Your content goes live at peak engagement windows — Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday mornings
4. You check your analytics at the end of the week and adjust
No scrambling for WiFi. No "I forgot to post today." No staring at a blank screen at 8:55 a.m. trying to think of something clever before the 9 a.m. window closes.
Yes. Threads' algorithm prioritizes recency and early engagement. Posts that get quick likes, replies, and reposts are shown to more users. Posting when your audience is active gives your content the best chance of triggering that algorithmic boost. Evening posts (6–11 p.m.) consistently underperform across all studies.
Based on analysis of millions of posts, 9 a.m. on Thursday (local time) generates the highest median engagement. Wednesday at 12 p.m. and Tuesday at 10 a.m. are the next best options.
Most studies suggest 3–5 posts per week is a strong baseline for consistent growth. Some brands post multiple times per day, but quality and consistency matter more than volume. Posting 3 times a week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings will outperform posting daily at random times.
Post based on your audience's local time, not your own. If most of your followers are in the U.S. Eastern timezone, schedule for their 9 a.m. — even if that's 6 a.m. for you in California. If your audience is global, the general times in this guide (which are local-time recommendations) apply across time zones.
You can, but expect lower engagement. Saturday and Sunday see significantly less activity on Threads. If you're going to post on weekends, stick to the 9–10 a.m. window and keep expectations modest. Save your strongest content for Tuesday–Thursday.
The best posting times remain fairly consistent across content types. However, image posts tend to generate the highest engagement rates on Threads (around 5.17% median engagement), followed by video posts (5.14%), link posts (3.78%), and text-only posts (3.23%). Regardless of format, the midweek morning window still applies.
Threads places a heavier emphasis on content from accounts you follow and from topic recommendations, with recency playing a significant role. X's algorithm weighs follower count and paid verification more heavily. On Threads, a well-timed post from a smaller account can outperform a poorly-timed post from a larger one — which makes posting time especially important for growing accounts.
Sidecar analyzes your audience and auto-schedules your Threads posts for maximum engagement. Stop manually tracking times and let data do the work.
Get Started Free →Let Sidecar find your perfect posting window while you focus on creating great content.
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