Best times to post on Facebook in 2025 [Updated October 2025]

Facebook remains a marketing powerhouse. With billions of active users, it’s a prime platform for businesses to connect with their target audience, build brand loyalty and drive conversions. Posting content on the app isn’t enough to reach your social media goals. To truly maximize your reach and ROI, you need to understand the nuances of Facebook engagement. When are your ideal customers online and ready to interact with your brand?

A perfectly crafted post can fall flat if it’s published when your audience isn’t around to see it. That’s why understanding the best times to post on Facebook is crucial for any successful social media content strategy. By using data to schedule your content, you can increase visibility, boost engagement and ultimately achieve your marketing goals.

With the help of our Data Science team, we analyzed nearly 2.7 billion social media engagements across 470,000 social profiles across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, X and YouTube to determine the best time to post on Facebook.

For more targeted strategies, we’ve also analyzed and determined the best posting times on Facebook for the UK and Australian markets:

• Best times to post on Facebook in the UK
• Best times to post on Facebook in Australia

 

Sprout Social’s patented ViralPost® technology eliminates the guesswork and calculates your own best times to post. Discover your best times to post on Facebook with a free trial of Sprout Social.

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When is the best time to post on Facebook?

 

A social media strategy for schools needs to engage with students past, present and future, as well as keep a pulse on brand health. Schools on Facebook share updates, event announcements and student achievements. The app provides a platform for parent communication and an opportunity to connect with and engage prospective students.

From K12 to higher education institutions, schools saw more concentrated engagement times on Facebook compared to last year. Keep in mind that some schools manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet their goals and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time. 

Schools and education social media resources

• Higher education social media strategy: How Gettysburg College makes the grade
• Post Performance Report: Higher ed institutions raising the bar on social
• 15 ways to use social media for education
• All aboard: How Purdue University increased their social media engagement by 24%

Best times to post on Facebook for financial services industry

 

Having a social media presence, even for regulated industries, is crucial, especially with many users flocking to social media for customer care. The financial services industry is no different. Businesses within the industry can use social media to build trust, manage customer relationships and educate their customers about financial products, market trends and risk management. On Facebook, the financial services industry sees high optimal send-time engagement during weekdays, both in the midmornings and midafternoons.

Financial services industry social media resources

• Social media for financial services: 5 tips to ace your marketing strategy
• For financial services brands, social media is a risk mitigation friend—not foe
• Navigating social media compliance across regulated industries

Best times to post on Facebook for food and beverage industry

 

The food and beverage industry, which includes restaurants, has evolved over the last several years. Online orders, apps, delivery services—all of these play into how these brands engage with customers. Every social network has different benefits when interacting with customers, and the food and beverage industry is no different. Whether it’s to showcase products, share recipes or offer unique promotions and updates, each social platform allows brands to engage with potential customers.

Food and beverage industry social media resources

• 5 tips from the man behind #Sprinklegate
• Papa Johns cuts customer service response time in half with Sprout Social
• How Sprout helps GRDC increase engagement with multiple generations of Australia’s grain farmers

Best times to post on Facebook for government

 

In today’s digital landscape, a strong social media presence is vital for government agencies, as citizens increasingly turn to these platforms for information and engagement. Agencies can leverage social media to disseminate critical public information, enhance citizen dialogue, provide educational resources, manage public perception and offer service updates. This improves transparency, strengthens community relations and builds public trust. On Facebook, government entities see the highest engagement during peak business hours on weekdays.

Government social media resources

• What government agencies need to know about social media archiving
• Social media tools for government: What your team needs for success
• Social media and government: how to keep citizens engaged

Best times to post on Facebook for hospitals and healthcare

 

Hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers use social media to educate the public, help patients feel prepared for their upcoming appointments, promote their programs for aspiring physicians, build trust and connect with their communities. Having an active social media presence allows hospitals and healthcare centers to engage directly with patients and answer questions.

Hospital and healthcare social media resources

• Social media for healthcare: How to keep patients engaged in the digital age
• The pros and cons of social media in healthcare
• How to realize the ROI of social media in healthcare
• A healthcare team’s guide to HIPAA compliance on social media
• The power of social listening for healthcare organizations

Best times to post on Facebook for nonprofit organizations

 

Civic, nonprofit and membership organizations use social media to amplify their missions and connect with their communities. Whether it’s to raise awareness about their causes, gain the support of volunteers and donors or foster a community, social media enables them to create those connections.

On Facebook, nonprofit organizations saw above-average engagement mostly on weekdays, especially Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from midmorning until noon. Civic and nonprofit organizations’ can use these hours to better foster connections necessary to promote their causes and educate audiences.

Nonprofit organizations social media resources

• 2 nonprofit social marketers share how they build & measure their social media strategies
• A masterclass in nonprofit social media marketing: Expert ideas from GivingTuesday
• How the Royal National Institute of Blind People found a dedicated accessibility partner in Sprout
• Mission critical: How to find the right social media management tools for nonprofits

Best times to post on Facebook for retail

 

It’s not a surprise that nearly every stage of the customer journey happens on social media. Retailers and brands must use social media algorithms to their advantage. Keep in mind, running targeted ads on Facebook allows for a higher likely level of engagement on the platform. Consumers are engaging with brands on Facebook on most weekdays, midmorning to early afternoon. While we don’t have data on whether purchases are being made, we can assume product discovery, brand awareness and social shopping purchases are factored in these posts.

Retail social media resources

• How Patagonia Leads from a Foundation of Authenticity and Community [Webinar]
• What is social commerce? Stats, trends and tips marketers should know
• How to master social media for retail in the UK
• The best gifts for social media managers

Best times to post on Facebook for travel and hospitality

 

The travel and hospitality industries saw a concentrated shift in engagement on Facebook. Hospitality businesses continue to pivot their strategies to engage with audiences throughout the week. They’re seeing a return on their efforts throughout most of the day. In general, on Facebook, there’s significant engagement midmornings nearly every day of the week for travel and hospitality, as people prepare for their weekend activities. Sundays see the highest concentration midday, which aligns with the day being a peak travel day for airlines.

Travel and hospitality social media resources

• Social media and hospitality: How 3 brands are serving 5-star experiences
• International hotel chain Minor Hotels uses Sprout to boost its online presence
• Sprout Social helps keep NJ TRANSIT’s social strategy on track
• How to set up a travel social media marketing strategy
• How to manage multiple social media accounts

How to find your own best times to post on social media

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. As social media continues to evolve, brands and consumers will need to evolve with it. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways and build more authentic connections.

How to find your best time to post on Facebook with Sprout Social

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

Sprout’s ViralPost® technology uses the same data we used to look at all our customer accounts to find the best time to post, based on your account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in Professional and Advanced plans. Our proprietary machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different elements like post author or types of content, as well as how your posting time influenced your social success.

Step 1. Start your free Sprout Social trial: Sign up for a free trial of Sprout Social with your business email and connect to your social media profiles. This will allow the platform to gather data from your accounts and personalize the Optimal Send Times feature to your specific audience engagement patterns.

Select the type of Facebook account you want to connect to: a Page or Ad Account. To connect Sprout to either of those accounts, you must be an admin for your brand’s Facebook Page or Ad Account.

Step 2. Select networks. Open the Compose window in Sprout to craft your social media post. Select the Facebook Page(s) where you want to publish.

Step 3. Compose your message. Complete your post with a compelling message, visuals and relevant hashtags.

Step 4. Schedule with Optimal Send Times: Next to “When to post,” choose “Specific Days and Times” to reveal the Optimal Send Times feature. Select one of the suggested times, calculated based on when your audience is likely to engage. The stars suggest a time that’s likely for more engagement.

Step 5. Schedule and publish: After you’ve added your additional details, schedule your Facebook post to publish at your chosen Optimal Send Time.

The specific times offered through Optimal Send Times are based on when your audience engages the most using your publishing history.

ViralPost® also continuously refines these suggestions, saving you time and effort from repeated analysis and allowing you more time to craft great content.

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How to find your best time to post on Facebook with Meta Business Suite

You may be ready to post content at these provided best engagement times as part of your strategy. But consider pairing this data with your own Facebook data analysis. You may discover that your specific target audience is active at different times or at slightly different hours.

To find your best times to post with Facebook Insights, follow these steps:

1. On either mobile or desktop, log into your Facebook account and switch to your Facebook Page account.
2. In the left-sidebar navigation, select Meta Business Suite. Or, log into Meta Business Suite directly and select your Page.
3. To find your best times to post on Facebook, navigate to:
   • Insights > Audience > Trends. Here, you’ll find data about the most active times for most of your Facebook followers.
   • Insights > Content. Here, you’ll see a list-view of all your content from the last 28 days. You can extend this time with the calendar in the top right corner. Look for trends and patterns in the days and times when you post received the most engagement (likes, comments, shares) and reach.
4. To schedule Facebook content with Meta Business Suite with their suggested best times to post, navigate to Planner.
   • Select Create post, or select the dropdown next to it and select which type of post you want to create (e.g., post, Story, Reel).
   • Add the content you wish to publish on your Facebook Page, and next to Scheduling Options, toggle Set date and time.
   • Here, you can manually pick the time you want to publish your post, or you can select Active times, which offers suggestions of when your audience is most active.
   • Once you’ve selected the time you wish to schedule your post, hit Schedule.

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

• Best times to post on Social Media 2025
• Best times to post on Instagram 2025
• Best times to post on LinkedIn 2025
• Best times to post on TikTok 2025
• Best times to post on Twitter 2025
• Best times to post on YouTube 2025

How Sprout gathered the data

We understand that these reports can raise questions about just where the data is coming from. That’s why we want to be clear about the data we pulled and how we got here.

Sprout Social’s Data Science team gathers this information by analyzing nearly 2.7 billion social media engagements across 470,000 social profiles across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok and YouTube over a 4-month period (May 14 – September 3, 2025). We synthesize this information in collaboration with our Data Science team to provide you with this article.

Unfortunately, we don’t have engagement data for Threads, yet.

What is the best time to post on Facebook for maximum exposure?

To optimize your Facebook posting schedule, consider posting on weekdays, especially Mondays through Fridays across the majority of the workday. Industry-specific times vary, but engagement is generally high during mid-morning and midday.

Sprout’s ViralPost® technology synthesizes your audience’s unique peak engagement times and helps tailor your scheduling strategy for maximum impact. Remember to factor in variables that may affect your posting strategy, such as target audience and demographics, campaign goals, content type and the content itself.

The data we provide is directional to put you on the right track. To find the best times to post on Facebook for your brand, start a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social. You can also request a personalized demo and try Sprout for yourself.