Best time to post on Facebook

For a Facebook Page, the best time to publish depends on when its audience is active. Large studies offer useful starting points, but they disagree: Buffer’s analysis points to weekday mornings, while Sprout Social’s 2026 analysis favors midday and afternoon hours on some weekdays.

A practical starting point is to test weekday mornings against midday posts, then use your Page’s own results to choose. Engagement means actions such as reactions, comments, and shares. PressQueue helps WordPress publishers schedule posts to Facebook through Buffer, so you can put that timing test into practice.

Start with weekday mornings, then test midday

Buffer’s analysis of more than 14 million Facebook posts found that Thursday at 9 a.m. was its top posting slot. Wednesday had the highest engagement overall, with Tuesday and Thursday close behind. Buffer also found that weekday engagement tended to peak between 6 and 11 a.m., while afternoons generally performed less well in its data. These figures come from posts sent through Buffer. They are a starting point, not a guarantee for every Page or audience. Read the Buffer findings.

Sprout Social’s 2026 analysis points to a different window: it recommends Tuesday and Wednesday from noon to 8 p.m. local time, with other weekday afternoon peaks as well. Its analysis covered nearly 2 billion engagements across six social networks, so it includes more than Facebook. The Sprout Social recommendations should be treated as another test candidate, not a definitive answer for every Page.

To compare the findings, publish similar posts in a weekday morning slot and a midday slot. Keep the topic and format similar, and compare results using the same measure, such as reactions, comments, and shares per post. If your audience spans time zones, schedule around the local time of the people you want to reach rather than your own clock.

Use your Page’s audience activity

Your followers’ activity is more useful than a broad average. According to Elementor’s overview, Meta Business Suite Insights has an Audience view. It shows the days and hours when a Page’s followers were most active over the previous 28 days. Check those activity patterns, then test posts in the stronger windows.

Follower activity shows when people are online; post performance shows how they respond to your posts. A follower being online does not guarantee they will see or interact with a particular post. Record when you publish and how each post performs. Don’t judge a time slot from one post alone. If morning posts consistently earn more interactions than midday posts for comparable content, favor mornings; if your Page shows the reverse, use the midday slot.

The studies also use different datasets, time periods, and definitions of engagement. Their time recommendations do not settle the best hour for every business, topic, or audience. Treat them as starting points for testing rather than universal rules.

Schedule Facebook posts with PressQueue

PressQueue is a free, open source WordPress plugin for Buffer. It shares your WordPress posts to Facebook and your other channels through Buffer. You need a WordPress site that supports plugin uploads and a Buffer account with your Facebook account added.

To try the morning-versus-midday test:

1. Download pressqueue.zip from the PressQueue download page. In WordPress, go to Plugins > Add Plugin > Upload Plugin and upload the ZIP.
2. In PressQueue, connect a personal Buffer API key from your Buffer settings. PressQueue stores the key encrypted; it does not use a login button.
3. Create a rule for the WordPress posts you want to share, select Facebook, and choose when Buffer should send each post. You can add it to the end of Buffer’s queue or put it at the top of the queue, ahead of posts already waiting. You can also send it right away. Other options are to save it as a Buffer draft or pick a date and time for one post.
4. Leave PressQueue in Test mode while you check what the rule would share. Test the rule against recent posts, then switch it on when the results look right. New rules start switched off.

For a timing comparison, set the relevant Facebook posts for morning and midday slots. If you use Buffer’s schedule, make sure its available posting times match the windows you want to test. PressQueue sends posts through Buffer; it does not determine the best time for your particular audience. See the PressQueue documentation for setup details.