How to read your result
Timing matters less than most advice says, so measure it on your own account
Posting time is a small lever. It is still worth getting right, because it costs nothing once it is set, but it should be set from your own followers rather than from someone else's average.
- UK clock time, all yearEvery time here is the time on a UK clock. The previous version of this page stored its curves in GMT and added an hour all summer, so an 8pm peak showed as 9pm from March to October. Now 8pm means 8pm in Leeds in July and in January, and the calendar file carries the Europe/London time zone, so a phone set to another country shows each slot at the right local hour.
- Format before industryA LinkedIn article and a LinkedIn video do not share a peak, and nor do an Instagram carousel and a Reel. Short video is watched in the evening on the sofa; carousels and articles are read at a desk in the morning. The planner asks for format first for that reason.
- The large studies disagreeThe best known datasets, from Sprout Social, Buffer and SocialPilot, each measure different accounts in different ways, and they do not land on the same hours. None of them is about your followers, which is why Fine tune asks for yours.
- A small lever, on Instagram's own accountAdam Mosseri, head of Instagram, has said that posting time "doesn't matter much", with a small gain from posting just before your followers are most active (Shopify). The timing test lets you see whether that is true of your account.
- One window a dayTwo posts in one day, one in the morning and one in the evening, share the same audience across two openings. Pick one window a day and keep it. Consistency at a slightly wrong hour beats variety at the right one.
- Test, then stop movingPost inside your windows for four to six weeks and log every result. Your real peak is usually close to the planner's answer rather than identical to it, and once you have found it, leave it alone.
When the timing test finds no winner
How to run the timing test
Press "Timing test" under Fine tune. It fills in your strongest windows on different days; change any of them. Post once in each slot every week, with the same kind of content in each, then type in each post's reach or views a day later. Use the same measure every time.
Reading the result
Results are compared on a scale that stops one post that travelled from deciding the test alone. The planner names the leading slot and says whether its lead is bigger than the normal spread between your posts. If it is, switch to it. If the lead is inside the normal spread, run two more weeks. If the slots are too close to call, timing is not what holds your account back, and you can post when it suits you.
What a schedule cannot fix
Timing sets a ceiling. It does not raise the floor. A post that would have been ignored at nine in the evening will also be ignored at eight. The honest order is content first, a steady cadence second and timing third.
If you know when to post but nobody has the hours to make the posts, our social media management UK plans fill the week for you, and the free social media audit scores the whole account first if you would rather start there.
For a creator the next step is the content itself: the engagement rate calculator shows how your posts compare with other creators of your size, and the free social media audit scores the whole account.
How we worked it out
Where your own numbers live
Instagram shows when your followers are online under Insights, then Total followers, then Most active times, by hour and by day. TikTok shows the same under TikTok Studio, Analytics, then Followers. Both need an account with at least 100 followers before they show anything (Shopify on Instagram, Buffer on TikTok). For any platform, a file of your past posts does the same job and a better one: it shows when your posts did well, not just when your followers were around.
What the planner does with them
Your follower active times count for up to 35 per cent of the answer. Your past posts count for more as you add them: a quarter at 10 posts, a half at 30, and never more than four fifths, so the benchmark always keeps a say. Each post is compared with your own median post, so a slow month does not count against the slot it fell in, and a day and time band with only one or two posts moves the answer only a little. Slots you have never posted in keep the benchmark's view.
Methodology, and what this planner cannot see
What it is. A model, not a measurement. Eight platform curves for a weekday, a weekend shape and a day of week shape, then adjustments for content format, industry, audience region, goal and audience age. The shape follows the published studies from Sprout Social, Buffer and SocialPilot; the size of each adjustment is our own judgement, and "Show the working" lists every one for your top slot.
The clock. Every curve is UK wall clock time, so nothing moves when the clocks change. The time now is read with the browser's own time zone support for Europe/London, whatever country your device is set to. The calendar file follows the calendar standard (RFC 5545): each slot carries the Europe/London zone, the file's time stamp is in UTC, and the weekly repeat ends after twelve weeks.
What the numbers mean. Every score is an index against your own strongest hour, which always reads 100. It is not a predicted engagement rate and not a percentage of anything.
Your own numbers. Active times are blended in at up to 35 per cent. Past posts are compared with your own median post in each day and time band, pulled towards no change where a band has few posts, and trusted at posts divided by posts plus 30, up to 80 per cent. The timing test compares slots on a log scale and calls a winner only when its lead is at least twice the uncertainty in the gap.
What it cannot see. Your content, a post that lands during a national event or an outage, or a competitor posting the same thing an hour earlier. It cannot rescue a post that would not have worked anyway.
Nothing here is transmitted. The whole planner runs in your browser, including your file of past posts and your test log. There is no sign up, and nothing reaches us unless you ask us to email you the result.
Questions people ask
Does posting time actually matter?
Less than most advice suggests. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, has said it "doesn't matter much", with a small gain from posting just before your followers are most active (Shopify). Content decides most of the result. Timing is still worth setting once, from your own followers, and the timing test on this page shows how much it matters on your account.
When is the best time to post on Instagram in the UK?
For a UK audience, Reels, a general industry and 25 to 34 year olds, this planner's model puts the strongest Instagram windows on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at around 8pm, with a weekday lunchtime window for carousels. That is the model's output, not a measured fact: the large studies from Sprout Social and Buffer do not agree with each other, and your own Most active times beat all of them.
When is the best time to post on TikTok in the UK?
With the same settings, the model puts TikTok's strongest windows at around 8pm from Wednesday to Friday, and it holds up far better at the weekend than Instagram does. Check it against TikTok Studio, Analytics, Followers, which shows your own followers' hours once you have 100 of them (Buffer).
Do I need to adjust for British Summer Time?
No. Every time in the planner is UK clock time, so 8pm is 8pm in both summer and winter. UK clocks go forward on the last Sunday of March and back on the last Sunday of October (GOV.UK). If your scheduling tool asks for a time zone, choose Europe/London rather than GMT, so it follows the change. The calendar file from this page already carries that zone.
Why does the planner ask for content format?
Because format changes the answer more than industry does. Short video is watched in the evening; carousels and articles are read at a desk in the morning. A tool that gives a LinkedIn newsletter and a LinkedIn Reel the same slot is averaging two different habits into one wrong number.
How often should I post?
As often as you can keep up every week. Set the frequency in the planner and the week returns exactly that many slots, spaced at least six hours apart. Three posts a week, every week, does more than seven one week and none the next, and one window a day is better than two.
Should I post at exactly the recommended minute?
No. The window is wider than one hour suggests. The one hint from Instagram itself is a small gain from posting just before your followers are most active (Shopify), so posting a few minutes before the hour the planner gives you is a sensible habit.
My audience is split between the UK and the United States. What should I choose?
Choose the East or the West Coast option rather than one United States setting, because a window that suits one coast misses the other. The planner then pulls your windows towards hours when both audiences are awake, at the cost of some UK evening reach. The gap between UK and US clocks is not fixed all year, because the two countries change their clocks on different dates, which is why every time here stays in UK time.
How does the planner use my own numbers?
Your follower active times are read off the bars you tap in and count for up to 35 per cent of the answer. Your past posts are compared with your own median post, slot by slot, and count for more as you add them: a quarter at 10 posts, a half at 30, never more than four fifths. "Show the working" under the result gives the exact shares for your answer.
How long should a timing test run?
Four to six weeks, with one post in each slot every week. The planner needs at least three results in every slot before it says anything, and each extra week makes the answer firmer, because posts in the same slot vary from week to week. The planner says when every slot has enough results and whether the leader's gap is bigger than your posts' usual spread.
Where does the benchmark come from?
It is a model, not a measurement. Eight platform curves in UK clock time, shaped by day of week and then adjusted for format, industry, audience region, goal and age. The shape of the curves follows the published studies from Sprout Social, Buffer and SocialPilot, read in UK time, and each adjustment is our own judgement from running client accounts. The methodology under "How we worked it out" sets out the limits.
Is anything sent to you when I use this?
No. The planner runs in your browser. Your file of past posts is read on your device and never uploaded, and your test log is kept in this browser only. Nothing reaches us unless you choose to have the result emailed to you.
Can I use this for a client rather than my own brand?
Yes, and agencies and consultants do. Run it for each client, then use "Copy link" to keep a link that reopens the same answers, or download the calendar file. A link carries your settings, your active times and the summary of your posts, never the posts themselves.
Who built this
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