The best time to post on Instagram in the UK, and on Facebook

Why there is no single best time

Whether you call it the best time to post or the best time to upload to Instagram, the honest answer for a UK venue is the same: it depends on your followers.

The best-known figures come from social media software companies analysing their own customers' posts. They are useful for spotting broad patterns, but they have two limits for a venue. They average together businesses whose customers live very different days, and they measure engagement with posts, not bookings or people through the door.

Even one company's figures point different ways depending on how the data is cut. In March 2026, Sprout Social, a social media software company, published these:

• UK brand accounts overall: the best times for Instagram are Monday to Thursday, 5pm to 9pm, and for Facebook, Tuesday to Thursday, 3pm to 9pm. Sprout lists the times in GMT and advises UK accounts to schedule on GMT, or BST in summer.
• Food and beverage brands worldwide: the best time for Instagram is Monday to Friday between 11am and 1pm, in each audience's local time.

Evenings for UK accounts in general, lunchtimes for food brands worldwide. Both can be true for different audiences, which is exactly the point. Treat any published time as a first guess to test, not a rule. The rest of this guide shows you how to find your own.

Start with when your customers decide

Before you open any insights, think about when your customers make their choices. This is reasoning rather than research, but it is the best filter for any figure you read.

• Lunch. A lunch offer does most good before people have decided where to eat, so get it out ahead of your lunch service, not in the middle of it.
• Dinner and table bookings. Evening plans are often made during the afternoon or on the way home. Post while people are still deciding, not once they have sat down somewhere else.
• After-work drinks. A Friday drink after work tends to be arranged during the day, so post by early afternoon and add a story as a reminder.
• Weekends and Sunday lunch. Weekend plans are often made midweek. Post weekend events and Sunday lunch bookings by Wednesday or Thursday, then add a short reminder on the day.
• Cafes. Mornings matter most: people planning a coffee stop, a brunch or a morning out.
• Hotels, inns and B&Bs. Stays are planned further ahead, so a steady rhythm of posts matters more than the exact hour.
• Events. Announce well ahead, remind people the week before, then again on the day. Our guide to promoting an event on Facebook and Instagram sets out a full run-up.

Think about when you can reply, too. A post that draws questions in the middle of Saturday service, with nobody free to answer, loses some of its pull. Schedule for times when someone can respond to comments and messages.

Whatever the time, keep drinks posts responsible: sell the atmosphere, the food and the company rather than the quantity, and never aim them at under-18s.

How to find your best times on Instagram

Instagram gives insights to any public account, personal or professional. Three things to know first:

• The times your followers are most active are part of your follower insights, which appear once you have at least 100 followers.
• You can look at any period within the last 90 days.
• Audience details such as location and age need your content to reach or engage more than 100 accounts.

In the app:

1. Go to your profile and tap Professional dashboard (on a personal account, Your dashboard). If you cannot see it, tap More to open Settings and activity, then tap Insights under For professionals (or Your dashboard on a personal account).
2. Tap into your insights for more detail and look for your follower information. Instagram's help centre says it includes the times your followers are most active.
3. Choose a longer period, such as the last 30 or 90 days, for a steadier picture.

On a computer, go to instagram.com, select Dashboard from the left-hand menu, then Insights under For professionals (or Your dashboard on a personal account). Choose Account or Content, then a date range: the last 7, 14, 30 or 90 days, or your own dates.

Then look at individual posts. Open a post and tap View insights to see its views, interactions and profile activity. Comparing similar posts published at different times tells you more than any chart.

How to find your best times on Facebook

For your Facebook Page, use Meta Business Suite, which is free:

1. Go to business.facebook.com and pick your Page from the drop-down menu in the top left.
2. Click Insights in the left menu.
3. Open the Audience tab. Meta says it shows trends including when your followers are more active, alongside details such as age and where they live. The tabs vary a little between accounts.
4. Open Content for a table of results for individual posts, so you can compare posts that went out at different times.

Watch for these patterns and use them to decide when to schedule content.

There is a shortcut, too. When you schedule a post in Business Suite, Active times recommends times based on when your followers were most active on Facebook and Instagram over the past seven days.

Test your times for four weeks

Insights show when people are online. A short test shows which slots actually work for your venue.

1. Pick two or three slots, using your insights and your customers' decision times.
2. For four weeks, post similar content in each slot: for example, a food photo at 11am one day and at 5pm another.
3. Keep a simple log for each post, using the template below.
4. Compare like with like, and set aside odd weeks: a heatwave, a big match or a bank holiday can skew everything.
5. Keep the slots that win, and run the test again when the season changes.

Views and interactions tell you who saw a post. The last column tells you whether it filled tables, and that is the one that pays the bills.

UK details to allow for

• The clocks. UK clocks go back at 2am on Sunday 25 October 2026 and forward at 1am on Sunday 28 March 2027. Meta says Facebook scheduling times follow your current time zone, so check anything booked in across those weekends. Look at your insights again a few weeks after each change too, because lighter or darker evenings change how people spend them.
• Bank holidays and school holidays. Both shift the week. A bank holiday Monday can behave more like a Sunday.
• Big sporting fixtures. If you show sport, match days bring their own peak before kick-off.
• Weather. A sunny spell changes plans fast, and that is where a live post beats a scheduled one.
• Seasons. Summer and winter habits differ, so check your insights again as the seasons turn.

Schedule posts for those times

Once you know your slots, schedule posts to hit them rather than relying on remembering mid-service.

• Instagram: schedule posts, carousels and reels in the app up to 30 days ahead, up to 25 a day. See how to schedule Instagram posts.
• Facebook: schedule Page posts in Meta Business Suite from 20 minutes to 29 days ahead. See how to schedule Facebook posts.
• Your weekly pattern: build your best slots into your social media content calendar, so each week starts with the important posts already booked in.
• Room for live posts: the specials board, the first warm afternoon, a full house on quiz night.