Best time to post on social media, by network and weekday API

Three large studies, side by side for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X and TikTok, so you can see where they agree, where they don't, and test from there.

• Endpoint: GET https://postboost.co/app/api/tools/best-time-to-post (operationId getBestTimesToPost)
• Web tool: postboost.co/tools/best-time-to-post
• Token: optional (limits)
• MCP: tool get-best-times-to-post on https://postboost.co/mcp/tools

Request

Query parameter	Type	Default	Description
network	string		Network key, e.g. linkedin. Omit it for every network; an unknown key is a 422 that lists the allowed ones.

Call it

curl

curl 'https://postboost.co/app/api/tools/best-time-to-post?network=linkedin'

Python

from postboost import ApiClient, Configuration
from postboost.api.free_tools_api import FreeToolsApi

with ApiClient(Configuration()) as client:
    api = FreeToolsApi(client)
    result = api.get_best_times_to_post(network='linkedin')
    print(result.to_dict())

Node.js

import { FreeToolsApi } from 'postboost';

const api = new FreeToolsApi();
const { body } = await api.getBestTimesToPost('linkedin');
console.log(body);

PHP

use PostBoostClient\Api\FreeToolsApi;

$api = new FreeToolsApi(new GuzzleHttp\Client());
$result = $api->getBestTimesToPost("linkedin");
echo $result;

Go

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"

    postboost "github.com/postboost-co/postboost-go"
)

client := postboost.NewAPIClient(postboost.NewConfiguration())
result, _, err := client.FreeToolsAPI.GetBestTimesToPost(context.Background()).Network("linkedin").Execute()
fmt.Println(result, err)

Ruby

require 'postboost'

api = PostBoost::FreeToolsApi.new
result = api.get_best_times_to_post(network: 'linkedin')
puts result.to_hash

Java

import com.postboost.ApiClient;
import com.postboost.api.FreeToolsApi;
import com.postboost.model.FreeToolGetBestTimesToPostResponse;

FreeToolsApi api = new FreeToolsApi(new ApiClient());
FreeToolGetBestTimesToPostResponse result = api.getBestTimesToPost("linkedin");
System.out.println(result.toJson());

C#

using PostBoost.Client.Api;
using PostBoost.Client.Client;

var api = new FreeToolsApi(new Configuration());
var result = await api.GetBestTimesToPostAsync("linkedin");
Console.WriteLine(result.ToJson());

Rust

use postboost::apis::configuration::Configuration;
use postboost::apis::free_tools_api;

let config = Configuration::new();
let result = free_tools_api::get_best_times_to_post(&config, Some("linkedin")).await?;
println!("{:?}", result);

CLI

./postboost-cli getBestTimesToPost network='linkedin'

With a token, send Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN as a default header (how, per SDK).

Response

{
    "networks": [
        {
            "network": "LinkedIn",
            "network_key": "linkedin",
            "columns": [
                "Sprout Social 2026",
                "Buffer (top 3 hours)",
                "Hootsuite"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "Mon",
                    "1–2 p.m.",
                    "10 p.m., 5 p.m., 9 p.m.",
                    "11 a.m."
                ],
                [
                    "Tue",
                    "11 a.m.–5 p.m.",
                    "4 p.m., 5 p.m., 10 p.m.",
                    "6–8 a.m."
                ],
                [
                    "Wed",
                    "11 a.m.–4 p.m.",
                    "4 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m.",
                    "9 a.m."
                ],
                [
                    "Thu",
                    "11 a.m., 1–5 p.m.",
                    "5 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m.",
                    "2 p.m."
                ],
                [
                    "Fri",
                    "11 a.m., 1–2 p.m.",
                    "3 p.m., 4 p.m., 5 p.m.",
                    "8 p.m."
                ],
                [
                    "Sat",
                    "—",
                    "9 a.m., 6 p.m., 10 p.m.",
                    "4–5 a.m."
                ],
                [
                    "Sun",
                    "—",
                    "10 p.m., 9 p.m., 6 a.m.",
                    "6 a.m."
                ],
                [
                    "Best",
                    "Tue–Thu 11 a.m.–5 p.m.",
                    "Wed 4 p.m.; weekdays 3–8 p.m.; best day Wed",
                    "the page contradicts itself (Tue/Wed 8–9 a.m. vs 4–6 a.m.)"
                ],
                [
                    "Worst",
                    "weekends",
                    "Mon (Tue close)",
                    "weekends"
                ]
            ]
        }
    ],
    "last_verified": "2026-10-13",
    "sources": [
        {
            "label": "Sprout Social, Best times to post on social media (2026-03-31; local time; ~2B engagements, ~307k profiles, 2025-11-27 to 2026-02-27)",
            "url": "https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/"
        },
        {
            "label": "Buffer, best time to post on Instagram (2026-09-23; 9.6M posts)",
            "url": "https://buffer.com/resources/when-is-the-best-time-to-post-on-instagram/"
        },
        {
            "label": "Buffer, best time to post on Facebook (2026-02-26; 14M+ posts)",
            "url": "https://buffer.com/resources/best-time-to-post-on-facebook/"
        },
        {
            "label": "Buffer, best time to post on LinkedIn (2026-09-09; 4.8M+ posts)",
            "url": "https://buffer.com/resources/best-time-to-post-on-linkedin/"
        },
        {
            "label": "Buffer, best time to post on X (2026-03-13; 8.7M+ posts)",
            "url": "https://buffer.com/resources/best-time-to-post-on-twitter-x/"
        },
        {
            "label": "Buffer, best time to post on TikTok (2026-09-14; 7.1M+ posts)",
            "url": "https://buffer.com/resources/best-time-to-post-on-tiktok/"
        },
        {
            "label": "Hootsuite, best time to post on Instagram (2026-07-14)",
            "url": "https://blog.hootsuite.com/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/"
        },
        {
            "label": "Hootsuite, best time to post on Facebook (2025-11-19)",
            "url": "https://blog.hootsuite.com/best-time-to-post-on-facebook/"
        },
        {
            "label": "Hootsuite, best time to post on LinkedIn (2025-11-19)",
            "url": "https://blog.hootsuite.com/best-time-to-post-on-linkedin/"
        },
        {
            "label": "Hootsuite, best time to post on TikTok (2025-11-19)",
            "url": "https://blog.hootsuite.com/best-time-to-post-on-tiktok/"
        },
        {
            "label": "Hootsuite, best time to post on social media, overview with X times (2025-11-19)",
            "url": "https://blog.hootsuite.com/best-time-to-post-on-social-media/"
        }
    ],
    "per_account": "These are study averages. With a PostBoost account, the getBestPostingTimes API operation (also an MCP tool) returns the best times from your own accounts' results."
}

With MCP

Connect https://postboost.co/mcp/tools (setup) and ask, for example: Get the best times to post per network from published studies, with sources with the PostBoost get-best-times-to-post tool.

Errors

Status	When
401	The Authorization header holds an invalid token. Leave it out to call as a guest.
413	The JSON body is larger than 128 KB.
422	A field is invalid; the body lists the errors per field.
429	A limit is reached; see limits.