Best time to post Reels on Instagram: Engagement, impressions & follows

Alan Bernal

Getting the most bang for your Reel on Instagram can take a bit of time and attention to how viewer engagement changes. Here are the best times to post reels on Instagram for optimal engagement and impressions.

Gaining traction on social media can sometimes be more than just a shot in the dark to the endless abyss of content across major platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, and more.

Instagram posts, too, can be thought out and spaced enough to find optimal audience engagements with your region of users.

All one needs to arm themselves with is some handy times throughout the day to post, some record tracking, and, most importantly, consistency to grow their audience. Here’s the best time to send out Reels on Instagram.

instagram reels publish
Instagram Reels lets people tie short-form videos to their profiles.

Best time for Instagram Reel posts

The best post time for Instagram Reels is 9 AM and 12 PM, Monday to Thursday, according to a Hootsuite study.

Some other times that are ideal for posting an Instagram Reel are as follows:

  • US and Canada (Western): 12AM – 6AM
  • US and Canada (Central): 6AM – 8AM
  • US and Canada (Eastern): 4AM – 9AM
  • South America: 4AM
  • UK: 4AM – 6AM
  • Europe (Western): 6 – 8PM
  • Europe (Eastern): 5AM – 7AM
  • Africa: 6AM
  • South Asia and Middle East: 3AM
  • East Asia and Southeast Asia: 11PM – 4AM
  • Australasia: 11PM – 2AM

This is based on Later’s look into 35 million posts and how they performed and showed when the best time to put some content up would be across different places.

instagram reels
People can implement a method to post on Instagram Reels.

Though this experiment didn’t account for Instagram Reels, this is a perfect launchpad to see what times could work for your audience at the local level.

From here, you give yourself a chance at organic engagement that could lead to a better chance of ending up in the platforms’ respective algorithms.

Testing out Instagram Reels on different hours of different days, while taking note of impression data, can help you find the best times to post content on your feed.

About The Author

Alan is a former staff writer for Dexerto based in Southern California who covered esports, internet culture, and the broader games/streaming industry. He is a CSUF Alum with a B.A. in Journalism. He's reported on sports medicine, emerging technology, and local community issues. Got a tip or want to talk?