The best time to post Facebook Reels

Most timing studies pour every Facebook format into one result. Dash Social is the exception among the studies we read, and its sample sets the limits on how far you can stretch it: about 1.4 million posts from more than 1,000 brands, all in beauty, retail, publishing or fashion, all published in 2024, ranked by engagement rate.

So 9 p.m. is a fair first guess for a consumer brand with a following like those. It says much less about a dentist, a software company or a local council, whose viewers may keep different hours. Buffer’s and Sprout Social’s Facebook studies give no Reels split at all, so their times cover every kind of post together.

Dash Social’s evening lean isn’t special to Reels. Its best time for all Facebook posts is also 9 p.m., and its Monday-to-Thursday picks sit late as well: 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Monday, 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Tuesday, 9 p.m. on Wednesday and 10 p.m. on Thursday. So the Reels result may say as much about who follows those brands as about the format.

Buffer’s data tilts toward mornings. On Tuesday to Friday, and on Sunday, its top slot falls between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., and it calls 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. the weakest part of the day. Sprout Social lands in between, with Tuesday and Wednesday peaks that start at 12 p.m. and run to 8 p.m.

Tip: Monday at 9 p.m. and Thursday at 8 p.m. are the hours where a Reels result and an all-posts result agree. That makes them good first tests, not proof: every study here measured other people’s Pages.

1. Pick two slots: one evening slot from the table and Thursday at 9 a.m.
2. Alternate them for four to six weeks with Reels of a similar length and subject, so the clock is the main thing that changes.
3. Schedule the late or early ones in Meta Business Suite instead of staying up to post by hand.
4. Compare every Reel at the same age, for example seven days after it went up, because a Reel can keep collecting views well after its first day.
5. Weigh views, average watch time, shares and comments, not likes alone, and keep the slot that wins across several Reels rather than once.

Expect noise. A single Reel that Facebook starts recommending widely can outdo a month of others, whatever time it went out. That is why several Reels per slot tell you more than one striking result.

For your own followers’ hours, Sprout Social’s guide sends you to Meta Business Suite: in the Planner, the Active times option charts when followers were online during the previous seven days. Use it to sanity-check any slot you pick.

Reels add a wrinkle. Facebook also recommends Reels to people who don’t follow your Page, and their habits never appear in a chart of your followers. If your followers peak at 9 p.m. and Dash Social points there too, test that first. If they peak at lunchtime, add a 12 p.m. slot and let the Reels results decide.

All three studies report local time. Dash Social localises post times so they fit your time zone, Buffer tells readers in EST, PST and IST alike to use its times as they are, and Sprout Social lists local times. If most of your followers live in one country, read 9 p.m. as 9 p.m. on their clock.