YouTube's algorithm rewards consistency over hour-of-day. Best publish windows are weekday late afternoons (3–6 PM ET) so videos accumulate watch-time before evening prime time, plus Saturday and Sunday 9–11 AM ET when family/leisure viewing peaks.
Calibrated to US Eastern — converted to US Eastern.
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Darker cells = higher engagement. Hours shown in your local timezone. Hover (or tap on mobile) for the score.
Times shown in US Eastern. Use the calculator above to convert to your timezone.
Monday is a weak publish day for long-form YouTube — the audience is in catch-up mode and CTR on new uploads runs 15–20% lower than Tuesday. If your release schedule is fixed to Monday, publish 3–5 PM ET so the video matures into Monday-night prime time. Shorts perform fine Monday evening (8–10 PM ET).
Tuesday at 4 PM ET is a strong publish slot for weekly long-form: it captures end-of-workday browse, evening prime time, and the early-Wednesday morning recommendation cycle. Tuesday outperforms Monday by ~15% for first-24-hour CTR.
Wednesday is the optimal weekday publish slot — videos benefit from Thursday and Friday's strong engagement curves on top of midweek prime time. Tutorial and educational content over-indexes Wednesday evening viewing.
Thursday matches Wednesday closely. Slightly stronger evening curve (7–10 PM ET) makes it the best day for entertainment-focused content where total watch-time matters more than CTR. Avoid publishing Thursday after 7 PM — you give up the Friday recommendation push.
Friday afternoon (2–6 PM ET) is the strongest weekday publish window because the video has all weekend to accumulate watch-time and CTR. Friday-night viewing (7–11 PM) is the highest-volume of the week. This is the optimal slot for long-form entertainment, deep dives, and weekend-binge content.
Saturday morning (9–11 AM ET) is the highest-engagement publish slot of the entire week for family-friendly, kids', and weekend-leisure content. Don't publish Saturday during prime time (8 PM ET) — you'll get the engagement but lose the next-day recommendation surface that Sunday morning needs.
Sunday morning is the single best window for evergreen and tutorial content. Sunday-morning viewers are deliberate browsers (not algorithm-fed), so they tend to subscribe at higher rates than weekday viewers. Sunday evening (7–10 PM ET) is dominant for movie-length and series content.
Click-through and average view duration decide initial reach.
Subscriber notifications boost channels with consistent upload cadence.
Shorts mirror TikTok’s 1–2 hour spike pattern, not multi-day decay.
Drop video 1–2 hours before audience peak so it accumulates watch-time.
Gaming channels peak Fri–Sun 6–11 PM ET. Long-plays and let's-plays specifically over-index Saturday evening. Avoid publishing weekday mornings — gaming CTR is 50% lower before noon.
How-to content thrives Sun 9 AM – 12 PM ET (deliberate-learning window) and weekday evenings 6–9 PM ET. Sunday morning specifically beats every other slot for course-style videos.
Kids' content peaks Sat–Sun 9 AM – 12 PM ET. Weekday after-school window (3–5 PM ET) is the second-strongest. Avoid evenings — that's adult-watch territory and CTR collapses.
B2B-style YouTube channels do best Tue–Thu 4–7 PM ET (after-work learning) and Sun 9–11 AM ET (week-prep). Avoid weekend evenings entirely.
YouTube Shorts mirror TikTok timing more than long-form: weekday 7–10 PM ET and weekend 10 AM – 1 PM ET. The recommendation surface refreshes hourly so consistency matters more than the slot.
Sources: YouTube Creator Insider Channel (2026), Sprout Social Best Times Report (2026), Hootsuite Best Time to Post Research (2026). Last updated 2026-04-29.
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