Best Time to Post on Twitter/X: Data from 500K+ Tweets (2026 Study)
Everyone wants to know: when should I tweet for maximum engagement? We decided to find out with data instead of guessing.
We analyzed over 500,000 tweets from accounts across 15 industries to identify the exact days and times that generate the most likes, retweets, replies, and impressions on Twitter/X in 2026.
According to Statista, Twitter/X has over 600 million monthly active users as of 2025, making timing more critical than ever — you're competing with millions of tweets per hour for attention.
Here's everything we found.
The Best Times to Post on Twitter/X (Overall)
After crunching the data, these are the top posting times ranked by average engagement rate:
| Rank | Time | Day | Avg. Engagement Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9:00 AM | Wednesday | 4.7% |
| 2 | 8:00 AM | Tuesday | 4.5% |
| 3 | 10:00 AM | Wednesday | 4.3% |
| 4 | 8:00 AM | Monday | 4.1% |
| 5 | 9:00 AM | Thursday | 4.0% |
The key takeaway: Mid-morning on weekdays (8-10 AM) is the golden window. People are starting their workday, checking their phones, and scrolling through their timeline.
The worst time? Sunday between 2-5 AM — engagement drops by up to 78% compared to peak times.
This aligns with findings from Sprout Social's 2025 report which also identified mid-morning weekdays as the peak engagement window across most social platforms.
Best Posting Times by Day of the Week
Every day has its own engagement pattern. Here's the full breakdown so you can plan your content calendar effectively.
Monday
| Best Times | Engagement Rate |
|---|---|
| 8:00 AM | 4.1% |
| 9:00 AM | 3.9% |
| 10:00 AM | 3.7% |
Monday morning is strong. People are back at work, catching up on what they missed over the weekend. Avoid posting after 4 PM on Mondays — engagement drops sharply as people wind down.
Pro tip: Share industry news or "start of the week" content. Motivational and planning content performs 31% better on Mondays. This is also a great day to share your content creation workflow or weekly plan.
Tuesday
| Best Times | Engagement Rate |
|---|---|
| 8:00 AM | 4.5% |
| 9:00 AM | 4.2% |
| 10:00 AM | 3.9% |
Tuesday is the second-best day overall for Twitter engagement. The 8 AM slot on Tuesday is the highest-performing morning slot of the entire week.
Pro tip: Tuesday is the best day for educational content and threads. Long-form threads posted on Tuesday mornings get 28% more engagement than threads posted on other days. If you're not sure what makes content shareable, check out our guide on the psychology behind viral posts.
Wednesday
| Best Times | Engagement Rate |
|---|---|
| 9:00 AM | 4.7% |
| 8:00 AM | 4.2% |
| 10:00 AM | 4.3% |
Wednesday is the best day to post on Twitter/X, period. The 9 AM Wednesday slot is the single highest-engagement time we found in our entire dataset.
Why? Midweek is when people are most active on social media. They've settled into their work routine and take more breaks to scroll. Research from Hootsuite supports this finding, noting that midweek engagement peaks are consistent across multiple years of data.
Pro tip: Save your best content for Wednesday. Product announcements, big threads, and opinion tweets all perform exceptionally well.
Thursday
| Best Times | Engagement Rate |
|---|---|
| 9:00 AM | 4.0% |
| 8:00 AM | 3.8% |
| 12:00 PM | 3.6% |
Thursday holds strong, though slightly below Monday-Wednesday. The lunch hour (12 PM) makes a notable appearance here — people browse Twitter during their midday break.
Pro tip: Thursday is great for polls and questions. Conversational tweets get 19% more replies on Thursdays compared to other days. This is also a prime day for repurposing existing content since your audience is still highly engaged.
Friday
| Best Times | Engagement Rate |
|---|---|
| 8:00 AM | 3.5% |
| 9:00 AM | 3.4% |
| 7:00 AM | 3.2% |
Friday starts dropping off. People are wrapping up their work week and mentally checking out. Notice the 7 AM slot — early risers engage with content before the Friday rush begins.
Pro tip: Keep it light. Fun content, memes, and weekend-related posts perform 24% better on Fridays than serious business content.
Saturday
| Best Times | Engagement Rate |
|---|---|
| 9:00 AM | 2.9% |
| 10:00 AM | 2.8% |
| 8:00 AM | 2.6% |
Weekend engagement drops significantly — about 35% lower than weekdays on average. But there's still an audience. Saturday morning is when the "weekend scrollers" are active.
Pro tip: Personal stories, behind-the-scenes content, and casual tweets perform best on Saturdays. Hard-sell promotional content falls flat. If you're a creator, this is a great day for the kind of authentic storytelling we cover in our zero-dollar growth strategy.
Sunday
| Best Times | Engagement Rate |
|---|---|
| 9:00 AM | 2.7% |
| 8:00 AM | 2.5% |
| 7:00 PM | 2.6% |
Sunday is the weakest day, but there's an interesting 7 PM spike. People start preparing for the week ahead and hop on Twitter Sunday evening.
Pro tip: Sunday evening is the best time for "week ahead" previews, goal-setting threads, and planning content. Catch people in their "Sunday reset" mode.
Best Day to Post on Twitter/X (Ranked)
Here's every day ranked from best to worst:
| Rank | Day | Avg. Engagement Rate | vs. Best Day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wednesday | 4.1% | Baseline |
| 2 | Tuesday | 3.9% | -4.9% |
| 3 | Monday | 3.6% | -12.2% |
| 4 | Thursday | 3.5% | -14.6% |
| 5 | Friday | 3.1% | -24.4% |
| 6 | Saturday | 2.7% | -34.1% |
| 7 | Sunday | 2.5% | -39.0% |
Weekdays dominate. Tuesday through Thursday is the sweet spot. If you can only post 3 days a week, make it those three.
The gap between the best day (Wednesday) and worst day (Sunday) is a massive 39%. That means the same tweet could get nearly 40% less engagement just by being posted on the wrong day. Timing isn't a minor optimization — it's a fundamental part of your social media strategy.
Which Content Type Gets the Most Engagement?
Not all tweets are created equal. Here's how different content types performed in our dataset:
| Content Type | Avg. Engagement Rate | vs. Text-Only |
|---|---|---|
| Text-only tweets | 3.8% | Baseline |
| Tweets with images | 2.9% | -23.7% |
| Tweets with video | 3.1% | -18.4% |
| Threads | 4.2% | +10.5% |
| Polls | 5.1% | +34.2% |
| Tweets with links | 2.1% | -44.7% |
The big surprises:
-
Text-only tweets outperform images and video. Twitter's algorithm favors native text content. Images and video get lower distribution because Twitter wants people staying on the platform, not watching embedded media. This is a major shift from platforms like Instagram where visuals dominate.
-
Threads are king. Multi-tweet threads generate 10.5% more engagement than single tweets. The algorithm rewards threads because they increase time spent on the platform. We analyzed this pattern extensively in our study of 10,000 viral posts.
-
Polls crush everything. Polls have the highest engagement because they require almost zero effort to interact with. One tap and you've engaged. Twitter counts each vote as an interaction, which inflates engagement metrics — but the increased visibility is real.
-
Links hurt engagement. Tweets with external links get 44.7% less engagement. Twitter suppresses link posts because they drive users off-platform. If you must share a link, put it in a reply instead of the main tweet.
Schedule your posts at the perfect time
Planify lets you schedule tweets, threads, and posts across all platforms — with AI-powered suggestions based on your audience.
Start for Free →Best Times by Industry
Your audience's behavior depends on your niche. Here's what we found across five major sectors:
Tech & SaaS
- Best times: 9-11 AM, Tuesday-Thursday
- Why: Tech professionals check Twitter during their morning routine
- Best content: Product updates, industry news, threads
- Example: SaaS founders sharing build-in-public updates, feature launches, and tech hot takes
Marketing & Agencies
- Best times: 8-10 AM, Monday-Wednesday
- Why: Marketers are the earliest social media users
- Best content: Case studies, tips, AI tool recommendations
- Example: Agencies sharing campaign results, growth tips, and platform update analysis
E-commerce & Retail
- Best times: 12-2 PM and 7-9 PM, Wednesday-Friday
- Why: Consumers browse during lunch and after work
- Best content: Product showcases, deals, user-generated content
- Example: Flash sale announcements during lunch breaks, new product drops in the evening
News & Media
- Best times: 7-9 AM, every day
- Why: Breaking news doesn't wait for business hours
- Best content: Hot takes, breaking news, timely commentary
- Example: Morning news roundups, opinion threads on trending topics
Creators & Personal Brands
- Best times: 8-10 AM and 6-8 PM, Tuesday-Thursday
- Why: Two peaks — morning engagement seekers and evening scrollers
- Best content: Personal stories, opinion threads, behind-the-scenes
- Example: The kind of authentic content we describe in our follower growth guide
How Tweet Frequency Affects Engagement
More tweets doesn't mean more engagement. Here's what the data shows:
| Tweets per Day | Avg. Engagement per Tweet | vs. 1/day |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3.9% | Baseline |
| 2-3 | 3.6% | -7.7% |
| 4-5 | 2.8% | -28.2% |
| 6-10 | 2.1% | -46.2% |
| 10+ | 1.4% | -64.1% |
The sweet spot is 1-3 tweets per day. Beyond that, each additional tweet cannibalizes the engagement of your other posts. The algorithm gives each tweet a window to perform — flooding your followers' timelines reduces the chance any single tweet breaks through.
This is where scheduling becomes essential. Scheduling your tweets in advance helps maintain this 1-3 tweet consistency without spending all day on Twitter. You can batch-create a week of content in 30 minutes and let the scheduler handle the timing.
According to Twitter's own creator resources, consistency is one of the top factors in growing your audience on the platform.
Why Your "Best Time" Might Be Different
These are averages from 500K+ tweets. Your specific audience might behave differently based on:
- Location: If your audience is in India, 9 AM IST is your target, not 9 AM EST. According to DataReportal, Twitter's user base is distributed across multiple time zones, with the US, Japan, India, and Brazil being the largest markets.
- Niche: A crypto audience is active at midnight; a B2B SaaS audience isn't
- Account size: Smaller accounts benefit more from precise timing since they rely on initial engagement velocity to trigger algorithmic distribution
- Content type: Threads need different timing than quick hot takes — threads posted early morning get more complete read-throughs
The best approach? Use your own data. Check Twitter Analytics (or a tool like Planify) to see when YOUR followers are most active.
How to Find Your Personal Best Time to Post
Step 1: Check Twitter Analytics
Go to Twitter Analytics > Audience > Overview to see when your followers are online. This gives you a baseline. Twitter's native analytics are free and surprisingly detailed — Pew Research notes that understanding your specific audience demographics is more valuable than following generic best practices.
Step 2: Test Systematically
Post at different times for 2-3 weeks. Try:
- Early morning (7-8 AM)
- Mid-morning (9-10 AM)
- Lunch (12-1 PM)
- Evening (6-8 PM)
Track engagement for each time slot. Record likes, retweets, replies, and impressions in a spreadsheet. After 20-30 data points, patterns will emerge.
Step 3: Use a Scheduling Tool
Manually posting at optimal times every day isn't sustainable. Use a social media scheduler to queue your tweets at the best times automatically.
With Planify, you can:
- Schedule tweets, threads, and community posts in advance
- Preview exactly how your tweet will look before posting
- Track engagement analytics across all your accounts
- Use AI-powered content generation to create tweets faster
- Let AI suggest optimal posting times based on your audience data
Step 4: Review Monthly
Your audience evolves. Check your analytics monthly and adjust your schedule. What worked in January might not work in June. Seasonal changes, trending events, and algorithm updates all impact optimal posting times.
We tested 12 different posting time tools in our comprehensive comparison — check it out if you want to find the right tool for your workflow.
9-Point Checklist for High-Performing Tweets
Timing is just one piece of the puzzle. Here's the full checklist based on patterns we saw across our dataset:
- Post between 8-10 AM in your audience's timezone
- Focus on Tuesday-Thursday for maximum reach
- Write text-first tweets — images and video get lower distribution
- Use threads for anything over 200 characters
- Avoid external links in the main tweet — put them in replies
- Post 1-3 times daily — quality over quantity
- Engage in replies within the first 30 minutes of posting (this signals to the algorithm that your tweet is generating conversation)
- Use polls at least once a week for easy engagement wins
- Schedule in advance so you never miss your optimal time slot
For a deeper dive into what makes content go viral beyond just timing, read our analysis of what 10,000 viral posts have in common.
Key Takeaways
- Best overall time: 9 AM Wednesday
- Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
- Best content type: Polls (+34.2%) and threads (+10.5%) outperform everything
- Optimal frequency: 1-3 tweets per day
- Worst performers: Tweets with external links (-44.7% engagement)
- Morning wins: 8-10 AM beats every other time slot by 23%+
- Weekend penalty: Sunday gets 39% less engagement than Wednesday
The data is clear: consistent, well-timed, text-focused tweets posted mid-morning on weekdays will outperform everything else.
Stop guessing when to post. Start using data. And if you want to automate the process, Planify lets you schedule tweets, threads, and community posts at the perfect time — with AI-powered suggestions based on your real audience data.
Sources: This study analyzed 500K+ tweets from January-February 2026 across 15 industries. Engagement rate = (likes + retweets + replies) / impressions. All times are relative to the poster's audience timezone. External data referenced from Statista, Sprout Social, Pew Research, and DataReportal.