Quick answer: The best time to post on YouTube is a window shortly before your own viewers are online. Public data suggests Sunday morning for long-form videos and Friday afternoon for Shorts. Buffer's 2026 analysis of 1.8 million videos lists Sunday at 10 a.m. and Friday at 4 p.m. as top slots, so use them as test starting points.
Key facts
- Buffer's July 2026 study of about 1.8 million YouTube videos, analyzed separately by format, puts Sunday at 10 a.m. first for long-form and Friday at 4 p.m. first for Shorts.
- Buffer ranks Sunday, Tuesday and Monday as the best long-form days, and Friday, Saturday and Thursday for Shorts.
- YouTube Studio's "When your viewers are on YouTube" report covers the last 28 days of viewer activity.
- YouTube Help counts square or vertical videos up to three minutes as Shorts (uploads after October 15, 2024).
- Sprout Social's 2026 timing report, built on nearly 2 billion engagements, has no YouTube section.
- Publiqa has no posting-time dataset of its own.
Short answer: the best time to post on YouTube for long-form and Shorts
If you want a number to try this week, start with Sunday at 10 a.m. for a long-form video and Friday at 4 p.m. for a Short, both in your viewers' local time. Then measure. A single study cannot know when your subscribers watch.
| Format | Top slot in Buffer's data | Best days, in order | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long-form | Sunday, 10 a.m. | Sunday, Tuesday, Monday | About 1.8 million videos in total |
| Shorts | Friday, 4 p.m., then 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. | Friday, Saturday, Thursday | Same total sample |
Source: Buffer, published July 24, 2026. Buffer analyzed long-form videos and Shorts separately but reports one combined sample, so we cannot say how many videos sit behind each format. Times are adjusted to local time.
How is YouTube different from a feed platform?
On Instagram or X, a new post competes with whatever else landed in the last few hours. YouTube works differently. A video can be found through search, suggested videos, the home feed and the Shorts feed, and a good one keeps collecting views for months.
That changes what timing buys you. Publishing at a strong hour can help a video get early views from subscribers who are online, but a video that answers a real search query does not expire at midnight. We found no official YouTube statement that a specific publish hour lifts ranking. YouTube Help does describe its audience report as useful for scheduling Premieres and planning live streams, which is where timing matters most.
So think of timing on YouTube as a small multiplier on a good video, not a rescue for a weak one.
How the data was gathered and weighed
Before you trust any chart, check how it was built. Here is what we could confirm for each source in October 2026.
- Buffer (July 24, 2026): The study measured the median engagement of about 1.8 million videos shared at different times and compares every hour and weekday. Buffer says it separated long-form and Shorts data this time, but it reports a single sample size, not counts per format. Times are normalized to local time, and the article does not state the data year.
- Sprout Social (March 31, 2026): Its report covers 27 November 2025 to 27 February 2026, nearly 2 billion engagements and roughly 307,000 profiles, in local time. It covers Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok and X, so it gives no YouTube guidance.
- Our own data: None. Publiqa does not run a posting-time dataset, so we do not present one.
Two cautions apply. First, "engagement" is not watch time or search traffic, and those are what drive most YouTube growth. Second, Buffer's sample comes from videos shared through its own tool, which skews toward creators and businesses who schedule on purpose.
Best time to post long-form videos by day
Buffer's ordering puts Sunday first, then Tuesday, then Monday, with Sunday at 10 a.m. as the strongest single slot. That pattern fits a simple story: people have time for longer viewing on a quiet weekend morning, and weekday mornings catch commuters and desk workers.
Treat that story as a hypothesis, not a finding. The study reports when engagement was highest, not why. If your audience is a B2B crowd, you may see the opposite, with Tuesday and Wednesday ahead of Sunday.
Best time to post Shorts by day
Friday leads for Shorts in Buffer's data. For the best time to post Shorts on YouTube, the study points to 4 p.m. on Friday, with 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. next. Saturday and Thursday follow as the other strong days. Shorts are quick, casual viewing, and Friday afternoon into evening is when many people start scrolling for fun.
Shorts can now run up to three minutes, so length is less of a constraint than it was. Our guide to YouTube Shorts length covers how long to make them. If you are new to the format, how to make YouTube Shorts walks through a first upload.
Best time to post on YouTube on Saturday
Saturday is the second-best Shorts day in Buffer's ranking, but the study does not highlight a specific Saturday slot, and it does not list Saturday among the top three days for long-form. Our recommendation: post Shorts on Saturday if your analytics show weekend viewers, and keep long-form for Sunday, Monday or Tuesday.
Premieres, Community posts and live streams: timing notes
These formats lean on a live moment, so the rules differ.
- Premieres and live streams: Schedule them for the hours your audience is already online. YouTube Help points to the audience report for exactly this decision.
- Community posts: We found no public dataset on Community post timing. Test them against your own analytics.
- Subscribers: Some of them will click straight away, so pick an hour when your core audience is awake and free, not just a statistically strong hour.
How do you find your own best time in YouTube Analytics?
Your channel's data beats any study, because it describes your viewers. YouTube gives you a report built for this. Here is how to open it.
- Sign in to YouTube Studio.
- Choose Analytics from the left menu.
- Open the Audience tab at the top.
- Find the "When your viewers are on YouTube" report.
YouTube describes it as showing when your viewers are online across YouTube in the last 28 days. The darker the block, the more of your viewers are active in that hour.
Now turn the heat map into a test. Pick two or three dark blocks and publish into them on different weeks. Many practitioners post an hour or two before the peak so a video has time to process, though that is a rule of thumb rather than a YouTube rule. Log views and average view duration at 48 hours for each upload, and compare like with like: Shorts against Shorts, long-form against long-form.
How do you schedule YouTube uploads?
You do not have to be at your desk at 10 a.m. on a Sunday. In YouTube Studio, the upload flow has a Visibility step where you can choose to schedule a date and time instead of publishing right away. The video stays private until that moment.
Check the time zone shown on the screen before you confirm. A slot that looks right in your zone can land at 3 a.m. for the audience you care about. Batching a week of uploads in one sitting is the easiest way to keep a steady rhythm. For the wider system around this, see our guide to social media automation.
Your first-week timing plan
Keep it small enough to finish.
- Open the audience report and note your three darkest blocks.
- Schedule one long-form video into your best block and one Short into your second.
- Repeat the following week, but swap the slots.
- Compare views and average view duration at 48 hours.
- Keep the winner and test a new slot against it.
Log each test in a simple sheet like this one.
| Week | Slot tested | Format | Views at 48 hours | Average view duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sunday 10 a.m. | Long-form | ||
| 1 | Friday 4 p.m. | Short | ||
| 2 | Tuesday 10 a.m. | Long-form |
How Publiqa helps with YouTube timing
Publiqa is an AI social media and cloud video studio that turns one idea, article or competitor link into content for 12 channels, including YouTube and YouTube Shorts. For timing, the useful piece is the Smart Planner: a drag-and-drop calendar that suggests posting times and lets you move items between slots.
Those suggestions are a starting point, not measured data about your audience, so check them against the YouTube report above. The AI video studio renders vertical 1080x1920 video at 30 fps, with 30, 45 or 60 second lengths in Simple mode, and Campaign Studio adapts one idea into versions for each channel.
A realistic example: write one idea in Campaign Studio, render a 45-second Short, drop it into Friday 4 p.m. on the Planner, and compare it later with the Sunday long-form version. Direct posting to social networks is being rolled out in stages. Publiqa sends content through outgoing webhooks and headless CMS integrations, which are live, so you may upload to YouTube Studio yourself for now.
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FAQ
What is the best time to post on YouTube?
There is no single hour that works for everyone. Public data points to Sunday at 10 a.m. for long-form videos and Friday at 4 p.m. for Shorts. Check your own audience report, then test two or three windows over a few weeks before you commit.
When is the best time to post on YouTube Shorts?
Buffer's 2026 data puts Friday at 4 p.m. first for Shorts, followed by 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., with Friday, Saturday and Thursday as the best days. Shorts viewing is casual, so evenings and the end of the week are sensible places to start testing.
What's the best time to post on YouTube if I have a small channel?
Use the same method with less data. Your audience report may be thin, so test Friday afternoon for Shorts and Sunday morning for long-form, then watch 48-hour views. Small channels often gain more from a clearer title and thumbnail than from an exact hour.
Does posting time matter on YouTube?
It matters less than on feed platforms, because search and suggested videos keep distributing a video for months. Timing helps most for Premieres, live streams and the first hours after upload. We found no official YouTube statement that a specific hour boosts ranking.