Best Time to Upload Shorts on YouTube: How to Find Yours

Best time to post on YouTube Shorts: why no universal hour exists

Shorts are shown in a feed, to people who may never have heard of you. YouTube’s Shorts help page describes that feed as an endless stream viewers browse, with no mention of a time of day that favours a post.

What is true for sure is that your own viewers have habits: a channel for night-shift workers and one for school students are awake at different hours.

Look at your own audience first

In YouTube Studio, open Analytics and look at when your viewers are on YouTube. That chart is your starting guess, and it is better than any general table.

Note your time zone and your viewers’. A Short posted at 7 pm for you may land at 2 am for half of them.

A simple test

Pick two slots, for example weekday mornings and weekend evenings. Post comparable Shorts in each for three or four weeks, keeping topic and length similar.

Compare views over the first day or two, not just the total, since that is when timing matters most. If the difference is small, timing isn’t your lever; the video is.

Change one thing at a time. Moving the day, the hour and the topic together tells you nothing.

Make the time a habit

A schedule you keep beats a perfect hour you miss. Dripost lets you line up YouTube Shorts ahead of time, and when YouTube has finished processing a video, it shows you the link.

YouTube Shorts upload time today

For a quick answer today, open YouTube Studio’s Audience tab and look at when your viewers are on YouTube. Post a little before the busiest hours, then compare your next five Shorts with the last five.

Best Shorts time to upload on YouTube, for your audience

YouTube Studio's Analytics shows when your viewers are on YouTube, and that chart covers Shorts viewers too. Publish a Short an hour or so before the busiest slot, keep the same time for a few weeks, and compare views before you change it.

Sources

• YouTube Help: Shorts