How Planagram finds your best time to post
The heat map is built from your own results, not a generic chart. Here is exactly which data goes into it, what the scores mean, and how to use them without turning your week into a science project.
Why timing is worth measuring
Two people post the same reel with the same caption. One goes out at 7pm, while their audience is scrolling on the couch. The other goes out at 7am, while that same audience is driving to work. Same content, same effort, completely different week.
You cannot control the algorithm. You can control when you show up, and you can stop guessing at it.
What the heat map shows
The heat map is seven rows — Sunday to Saturday — and twenty-four columns, midnight to 11pm. Every cell is one hour of your week, scored from 0 to 100.
- Darker means better. The strongest slot of your week is 100, and every other hour is measured against it.
- The ringed cells are your top three slots, the ones worth building your week around.
- Times are shown in your own timezone, the one saved in your account settings, so what you see is what you schedule.
Where the numbers come from
Planagram looks for the strongest signal available for that specific account, in this order.
1. Your audience's own activity
When a network shares when your followers are online — Instagram is the first to expose it — that is the closest thing to ground truth. It tells you when the people who already follow you are awake and scrolling, rather than when the internet as a whole is busy.
2. Your own published posts
Without audience data, Planagram scores the hours you have already published in over the last 90 days, using the engagement those posts actually earned: likes, comments, saves, shares and reach. This is the part that makes the map personal. It does not matter what a generic study says about your industry; it looks at what worked for you.
3. General patterns, clearly labelled
If you have only published a handful of posts, there is nothing reliable to learn from yet. Instead of inventing precision, the map falls back to general per-platform and per-industry patterns, and the label above it says so.
That label is always honest. Based on your audience means your own data. General best times means a sensible starting position until your own results come in. You should never have to wonder which one you are looking at.
How to use it without overthinking it
- Pick two or three slots per network, not all of them. Consistency in a good slot beats scattershot posting in perfect ones.
- Give it two or three weeks before you judge it. One post proves nothing.
- Change one thing at a time. Move one slot and results drop, you learned something. Move five and you learned nothing.
- Treat it as a starting point, not a cage. A post tied to a live event still belongs at the moment it matters.
What to expect over time
The map rebuilds as you publish. Early on it leans on general patterns; after a few weeks of real posts it is mostly your own data, and the label above it changes with it. Every map carries the date it was last recalculated, so you are never looking at stale numbers without knowing.
Where to find it
Open Best Time to Post in your dashboard for the full map, or glance at the Best Times card on your dashboard for the highlights. The Schedule button next to any slot hands the day and the hour straight to your composer, already filled in.
Frequently asked
Does Planagram publish at those times for me?
It can. Scheduling a post and letting it auto-publish are two separate things: the heat map tells you when your audience is most likely to act, and the auto-publish switch on the post decides whether it goes out on its own. You keep the last word either way.
Why does my map say “General best times”?
Because there is not enough of your own data yet. Publish a handful of posts and the map switches to your own engagement on its own. There is nothing you need to turn on.
How often is it recalculated?
Every time you open it, if the data behind it has changed. The date under the map shows when it was last rebuilt, so you can tell how fresh it is.
Which networks and accounts does it cover?
One map per connected account, so an Instagram profile and a LinkedIn page get their own. Instagram is the first network to share follower-activity data; the others build from the engagement on the posts you have already published.
See your own best times
Connect an account and your heat map is waiting on the dashboard. Free to start, no credit card.