The Best Time To Post YouTube Shorts (2024 Data)

Psst… want to know the best time to post YouTube Shorts? We’ve got you covered.

In this post, we’ll tell you everything you need to know to determine the optimal time to publish Shorts to your YouTube channel.

First, we’ll talk about why publishing Shorts at the right time is so important, and explain why it can be tricky to determine exactly when that is.

Then, we’ll take a look at the latest data on what the general best time to post YouTube Shorts might be and show you how to find your personalized best time to post Shorts using your own data.

If you stick around until the end, we’ll also share some bonus tips to help you get more views and engagements on your Shorts.

Benefits of posting YouTube Shorts at the right time

First off, let’s look at why it’s so important for creators to post their YouTube Shorts at the right time. Here are some of the biggest benefits.

It ensures you reach the right target audience

Ever wonder how the YouTube Shorts algorithm works?

Well, the gist of it is that when you publish a video, it’s first shown to a ‘seed audience’. And how that initial seed audience engages with your video determines its eventual reach.

But here’s the thing: If you post your video at the wrong time, YouTube will show it to the wrong seed audience, and it’ll flop.

For example, let’s say you publish a Short that’s aimed at viewers in the UK, but you post it at 6 PM PST. 

At that time, most people in the UK will be asleep, but it also happens to be peak time on the west coast of the US. So, YouTube is naturally going to assume that your target audience is in the western US and seed the video to the wrong audience. Not good.

On the flip side, if you post your video when your target audience is active, it’ll stand a better chance of reaching the right audience.

It boosts visibility and engagement

If you post your YouTube Shorts at the right time, it’s going to be more visible in the feeds of your target audience.

And as a result, you’ll get more views and engagements right off the bat.

This can then start a domino effect: YouTube sees that your video is performing well, so the algorithm shows it to more and more people in your target audience, and your views and engagements continue to rack up.

It can help you to grow your channel

For the reasons we explained above, posting Shorts at the right time helps increase their reach and gives them the best possible chance of going viral.

And the more viewers your Shorts reach, the more opportunities you have to earn new followers and grow your channel.

Is there really a ‘best time’ to publish YouTube Shorts?

Yes, there really is a best time to publish YouTube Shorts, but it’s different for every creator.

Generally, the best time to post YouTube Shorts is when your target audience is most active on the app and most likely to engage with your content.

And that’ll vary depending on your location (time zone), your video niche, the day of the week, and lots of other factors.

So ultimately, the only way to work it out is to experiment with different posting times, and then look at your YouTube analytics to see when your Shorts tend to perform best. We’ll show you how to do that later.

First, though, we’re going to look at what the statistics say the best time to post YouTube Shorts is. 

What’s the best time to post YouTube shorts? (Research)

If you search the web for the best time to post YouTube Shorts, you’ll find a lot of conflicting information.

It seems like everyone has a different answer. And to make matters worse, there don’t seem to be any reliable, large-scale studies to go off.

The best data we have seems to come from Statusbrew, who found that:

• The best time to post YouTube Shorts on weekdays is 6-10 PM
• The best time to post YouTube Shorts on weekends is 12-6 PM
• The best days to post YouTube Shorts are Mondays and Tuesdays

This is backed up by data from Sprout Social and TubeBuddy, who both found similar best times to post.

It also makes sense that 6-10 PM would be a good time to post on weekdays, given that most people finish work at around that time.

In contrast, on weekends, peak viewing times fall from around 12-6 PM as most people are off work and have free time in the afternoon to spend browsing their socials. 

The reason peak times don’t start earlier may be due to the tendency of many people to ‘sleep in’ on the weekend and wake up later than they would during the week. And the reason peak hours finish at 6 PM may be because a lot of users go out on weekend evenings.

It’s important to note, though, that not everyone agrees with Statusbrew’s data. Below, I’ve included a table that compares what different sources say the best time to post YouTube Shorts is to help you arrive at your own conclusions.

Source	Best time to post YouTube Shorts
Statusbrew	6-10 PM on weekdays &12-6 PM on weekends
HopperHQ	12-3 PM & 7-10 PM on weekdays
SocialPilot	12-3 PM & 7-10 PM on weekdays
TubeBuddy	3-6 PM on Mondays & Tuesdays
Bloggerspassion	6-10 PM on Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays
Robert Benjamin	10 AM – 1 PM, 3-5 PM, 6:30-8:30 PM

Most of the sources above don’t make it clear how they determined the best time to post or how they gathered data to inform their conclusions, so it’s important to take them with more than a pinch of salt.

Best time to post YouTube Shorts by day

The best time to post YouTube Shorts varies depending on the day of the week. Here’s an overview of the best posting times on each day, according to data from Statusbrew:

Day of the week	Best times to post YouTube Shorts
Monday	7 AM, 12 PM, 8-10 PM
Tuesday	7 AM, 11 AM-12 PM, 5-7 PM, 9-10 PM
Wednesday	12 PM, 3-6 PM
Thursday	7-11 PM
Friday	7-9 AM, 11 AM-1 PM, 4-6 PM, 9-11 PM
Saturday	9-10 AM, 3-6 PM, 10 PM-12 AM
Sunday	10-11 AM, 3-5 PM, 9 PM

Interestingly, you’ll notice that on most days, there are three distinct best times to post spread throughout the day. 

The first is in the morning at around 7 AM, suggesting that many users browse YouTube Shorts at breakfast before they start their day.

The next is midday at around 12 PM, suggesting that a lot of users like to browse Shorts on their lunch hour.

And the last is in the evening at around 5-10 PM, suggesting that users also watch Shorts in their free time after they’ve finished work.

Best time to post YouTube Shorts by niche

The best time to post YouTube shorts varies depending on what kind of videos you create, and who your target audience is. 

With that in mind, let’s look at the best time to post Shorts by video niche, per data from Statusbrew:

Niche	Best times to post YouTube Shorts
Food	7 AM, 11AM, 1-2 PM, 5-6 PM
Entertainment	7 AM, 12-1 PM, 9-10 PM
Education	8 AM, 11 AM, 3-4 PM
Travel	10 AM -1 PM, 9-11 PM

As you can see, the best time to post food-related Shorts is around meal times, which makes sense. These are the times when people are hungry and looking for inspiration for what to eat.

Likewise, the best times to post education-related Shorts all fall within a typical school/college day. For example, at 3-4 PM, many teachers across the country will be planning their next lesson and looking for inspiration.

How to find your personal best time to post YouTube Shorts

So, 6 to 10 PM is generally a good time to post YouTube Shorts for many creators—but as we discussed earlier, that doesn’t mean it’s the best time for you. 

That’s why next, we’re going to show you some methods you can use to find your personal best time to post YouTube Shorts.

Use YouTube Studio to find when your viewers are most active

The easiest way to find your best time to post YouTube Shorts is to look at your channel analytics.

First, open up the YouTube app and go to YouTube Studio. Then, click Analytics and open up your Audience report.

Here, you should see a color-coded chart under the heading ‘When your viewers are on YouTube’ that displays hourly time slots for every day of the week. 

Look for time slots that are darker colored and labeled ‘many of your viewers are online’ when you hover over them. These are your best times to post Shorts. 

Avoid posting during time slots that are lighter colored and labeled ‘few/some of your viewers are online’.

Important note: For this to work optimally, you’ll first need to experiment with lots of different posting times so that YouTube can gather sufficient data on your viewers. If you’ve only ever posted at one particular time, it’s going to skew the results.

Use the real-time view chart to identify patterns

Unfortunately, the ‘When your viewers are on YouTube’ chart isn’t available for every creator. 

You need to have a lot of viewer data for it to show up in the report, so if you only have a small number of video views/subscribers, you’re probably not going to be able to use it to determine your best time to post.

In that case, you can look at the ‘real-time views’ graph instead as a workaround. It tells you how many views each of your uploaded videos have received in each hour over the last 48 hours.

A day or two after you’ve posted a new Short, take a look at the real-time view graph and see if you can find any patterns. For example, you might notice views tend to spike from 5 to 7 PM, in which case that might be your best time to post.

Use a third-party analytics tool to find your best time to post

Another workaround, if you can’t see the ‘when your viewers are on YouTube’ chart in YouTube Studio, is to use a third-party analytics tool instead.

For example, you can connect your YouTube account to VidIQ, and it’ll calculate your best time to post on each day of the week based on your historical performance data.

Look at your TikTok/Instagram Reels data

If you already know your best time to post on TikTok or Instagram Reels, try posting at the same time on YouTube Shorts.

All three platforms focus on short-form content, so peak viewing times tend to be similar across them.

Bonus tips

Publishing your YouTube Shorts at the optimal time is one way to boost your reach, engagement, and followers—but it isn’t the only way.

So before we wrap up, we’re going to share a few bonus tips to help you get more out of your YouTube Shorts and grow your audience fast.

Use a scheduling tool

Once you’ve determined your best time to post, you can use a tool like SocialBee to schedule all your Shorts in advance and have them auto-posted to your channel.

All you have to do is connect your YouTube channel to your social media scheduler, upload YouTube videos, and choose the time/date you want them to get published. This makes it much easier to manage your posting schedule.

Start with a strong hook

Average view duration is the most important metric when it comes to YouTube Shorts. The YouTube algorithm likes to show Shorts that have a high average view duration more frequently in users’ feeds and recommendation tabs.

So, the longer people watch your YouTube video, the greater its reach.

And the easiest way to get people to watch your video until the end is to start with a strong hook. Capture their attention in the first couple of seconds with an irresistibly interesting introduction that they won’t want to swipe past.

Post Shorts more often

Posting a video a month might be okay for regular YouTube videos, but it’s not going to cut it for Shorts.

The most successful YouTube Shorts creators tend to publish a lot of content, often as much as 2-3 Shorts per day.

So if you’ve only been posting one or two Shorts per week so far, try increasing your output and you might see much faster growth.

Promote your channel

Another way to get more views on your Shorts is to promote your YouTube channel outside of the platform.

For example, you could try to get it featured in popular blog posts/articles in your niche or promote it on other social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

We’ve written a complete guide on how to promote your YouTube channel here, so check that out for more tips.

Engage with your audience

Engaging with your audience is another great way to promote your YouTube Shorts. It helps turn one-time viewers into repeat viewers and loyal subscribers.

The easiest way to engage with your audience is to reply to every comment you get. You could also try going live to interact with your viewers in real time.

Experiment with different video ideas

If your Shorts aren’t getting a lot of views, regardless of the time you post them, it might be that the content you’re creating just isn’t a good fit for your target audience.

In that case, try experimenting with different types of videos. You can start by checking out our roundup of YouTube video ideas that get more engagement.

Final thoughts

So, let’s quickly recap what we’ve learned in this post.

The overall best time to post YouTube Shorts according to the latest data is 6 to 10 PM mid-week (particularly on Mondays and Tuesdays).

However, that might not be the best time for your audience. It’s a better idea to look at your Audience Analytics inside YouTube Studio to find out when your viewers are most active and publish your Shorts at those times.

If you’re not sure what kind of Shorts you want to create, check out these awesome YouTube channel ideas.

To learn how to monetize your Shorts, see our guide on how to make money on YouTube and find out how many subscribers you need to start earning. You might also want to take a look at these interesting YouTube statistics.

Sources

• Statusbrew
• HopperHQ
• SocialPilot
• TubeBuddy
• Bloggerspassion
• Robert Benjamin