Best Posting Times for TikTok by Region and Niche

The best time to post on TikTok varies significantly by region and niche, but aggregated data from over 100,000 creator accounts shows that posts published between 7:00-9:00 AM and 7:00-11:00 PM local time consistently generate 22-38% more views than content posted at other hours. TikTok's algorithm distributes content based on audience activity patterns, so understanding when your specific followers are online is the difference between a video that gets 500 views and one that gets 50,000.

Best Posting Times by the Numbers

Posting time affects the critical first hour of a video's life on TikTok. When you publish during a high-activity window, your video gets served to a larger initial test audience. If that test group engages well, the algorithm pushes it further. Data from creator analytics platforms in 2025-2026 reveals that videos posted during peak windows receive 31% higher average watch time and 28% more shares in their first two hours compared to off-peak posts.

This does not mean every creator should post at the same time. The optimal window depends on three factors: where your audience is located, what niche you are in, and what day of the week it is. A fitness creator targeting US audiences has a very different ideal posting schedule than a K-beauty creator with a primarily Southeast Asian following.

The data below is compiled from multiple creator analytics platforms analyzing engagement patterns across 2025 and early 2026. All times listed are in the local timezone of the target audience.

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Best Posting Times for US Audiences

The United States remains TikTok's largest market by revenue, with over 170 million monthly active users. US audience activity follows predictable patterns tied to work and school schedules, commute times, and evening leisure hours.

US Eastern Time (ET)

The morning commute window (7:00-9:00 AM ET) is particularly strong on weekdays. Users scroll TikTok during commutes and breakfast, creating a brief but high-engagement spike. The evening window is broader and typically delivers more total views, but the morning slot often yields higher completion rates because viewers are less likely to be multitasking.

US Pacific Time (PT)

Pacific Time users tend to engage slightly earlier in the evening compared to Eastern Time audiences, partly because West Coast work schedules end at roughly the same clock hour but coincide with a less crowded posting window. Creators who post at 6:00 AM PT can also capture the tail end of the East Coast morning commute, effectively doubling their initial reach.

Best Posting Times for UK Audiences

The UK market has approximately 23 million TikTok monthly active users, and engagement patterns differ from US audiences due to shorter commute times and different social rhythms.

A notable UK-specific pattern is the strong lunchtime window on Wednesdays, which consistently outperforms other midday slots. Sunday evenings also show unusually high engagement in the UK, likely tied to the cultural habit of winding down before the work week.

Best Posting Times for Australian Audiences

Australia represents a smaller but highly engaged TikTok market with around 8.5 million monthly active users. The timezone difference (AEST/AEDT) means Australian peak hours are off-peak for US and UK audiences, which can be advantageous for reducing competition in the content queue.

Australian audiences show stronger weekend engagement overall compared to US and UK users, with Saturday mornings being an especially effective window for lifestyle, food, and travel content.

How Posting Times Vary by Niche

Aggregate "best times" only tell part of the story. Different niches attract audiences with distinct daily habits, and adjusting your posting schedule to match your niche can improve performance by an additional 15-25%.

Fitness creators see the strongest niche-specific effect. Posting a morning workout video at 6:00 AM captures users who are about to exercise and actively looking for motivation. Similarly, parenting creators benefit enormously from the 8:00-9:30 PM window because parents are finally free after bedtime routines.

You can track how different posting windows affect your specific audience using an engagement rate calculator alongside your TikTok analytics data.

Why Posting Time Affects the Algorithm

TikTok does not simply show your video to all your followers the moment you post. Instead, the algorithm sends your video to a small test batch of users (typically 200-500 people) and measures how they respond. If the initial batch shows strong signals, including watch time, completion rate, shares, comments, and replays, TikTok pushes the video to progressively larger audiences.

Posting when your target audience is most active increases the probability that your test batch contains genuinely interested viewers rather than passive scrollers. This leads to higher initial engagement metrics, which triggers the algorithm to expand distribution.

The compounding effect is significant. A video posted at the right time might achieve a 45% completion rate in its first hour, while the same video posted at 3:00 AM might only achieve 30%. That 15-percentage-point gap in the test batch can be the difference between reaching 10,000 people and reaching 100,000.

Using Analytics to Find Your Personal Best Times

While the data tables above provide strong starting points, the most accurate posting times come from your own TikTok analytics.

Step 1: Access your follower activity data. In TikTok's native analytics (available on business and creator accounts), navigate to the Followers tab. The "Follower activity" section shows when your specific followers are most active, broken down by hour and day.

Step 2: Cross-reference with your top-performing posts. Review your 20 best-performing videos from the past 90 days. Note the exact posting times and map them against your follower activity chart. Look for patterns where high performance correlates with high follower activity.

Step 3: Run posting time experiments. For two weeks, vary your posting times systematically. Post the same type of content at your hypothesized best time, then at two alternate times. Compare the results using views at 24 hours, not at 1 hour, since some videos have delayed spikes.

Step 4: Account for audience timezone mix. If your analytics show followers spread across multiple timezones, you may need to post twice per day to capture both peak windows. Creators with a 60/40 US East/West split often find that posting at 7:00 AM ET and 7:00 PM PT maximizes total reach.

For a faster approach, use our posting time optimization calculator which factors in your audience location, niche, and historical performance data to generate a personalized posting schedule.

Building a Consistent Posting Schedule

Consistency matters as much as timing. TikTok's algorithm tends to reward accounts that post on a predictable schedule because it can anticipate when to distribute your content. Creators who post at roughly the same times each day see 18% higher average views compared to those who post randomly, even when both groups hit peak activity windows.

Start with three to five posts per week at your identified best times. Use a scheduling tool or TikTok's built-in post scheduler to maintain consistency even when your personal schedule varies.

Batch-create content to avoid the pressure of producing and posting in real time. Film and edit multiple videos in one session, then schedule them across the week. This approach also lets you maintain quality while hitting optimal windows.

Re-evaluate monthly. Audience behavior shifts with seasons, holidays, and cultural events. The best posting time in January may not be the best in July. Check your TikTok analytics at the start of each month and adjust your schedule if the data warrants it.

For more data-driven strategies on growing your audience, explore the full TikTok Growth Hub. If you are focused on monetizing your growing viewership, the TikTok monetization guide covers revenue strategies for every follower count tier.