Short answer: there's no single best time to post on Hacker News. The front page rewards posts that get several upvotes and comments soon after submission, so the best hour is one where (1) enough of your likely readers are online, (2) the New page isn't moving so fast that you scroll off unseen, and (3) you are free to answer comments for the next few hours. The free HN Best Time tool shows live submission counts, average scores and comments by hour (UTC) so you can check the current pattern instead of guessing.
If you're preparing a Show HN, read our Show HN guide first. Timing matters far less than the title, the demo and how you handle the thread.
Why timing matters on HN: the ranking formula
Hacker News doesn't publish its current ranking code, but the widely cited core formula from its original codebase is:
$$\text{Score} = \frac{(P - 1)}{(T + 2)^G}$$
Where:
- $P$ is the post's points (minus 1 for the submitter's own vote).
- $T$ is the post's age in hours.
- $G$ is "gravity", usually quoted as 1.8.
On top of this, the live site applies penalties (for example to flame-war threads and some domains), user flags and moderator adjustments.
The practical takeaway: age is in the denominator and grows quickly. A vote in the first hour is worth far more than the same vote six hours later. A post that gets no early traction rarely recovers, however good it is.
How to choose your posting hour
Think about three things.
- Who you want to reach. If your product is for European developers, a slot that suits US West Coast mornings may land in their evening. The HN audience is international, but it isn't evenly spread across time zones.
- How crowded the New page is. More submissions per hour means each post is visible on New for less time. Busy hours have more potential voters but also more competition.
- Whether you can stay. Founders who reply quickly and thoughtfully in the first few hours give the thread momentum. Don't post right before a flight or a meeting.
Weekdays versus weekends is the same trade-off. Weekends usually have fewer submissions and fewer readers. Neither is automatically better.
Check the live numbers before you post
The HN Best Time tool pulls the 500 most recent stories from the official Hacker News API and groups them by hour (UTC). For each hour it shows:
- Submissions: how many of those recent stories were posted then, a proxy for how crowded New is.
- Average score and average comments: how well posts from that hour have done so far.
- Top hours by activity and by average score.
- Trending title keywords across the sample.
It's a snapshot of recent activity, not a long-term study, and scores for the newest posts are still climbing. Use it to compare hours on the day you plan to post. Look for hours where average scores are solid but submissions aren't at their peak, then convert from UTC to your own time zone.
What matters more than the hour
- The title. Plain, specific and accurate. For a Show HN: "Show HN: [Name] – [what it does in plain words]". No marketing adjectives.
- Something people can try. Show HN is for things readers can use right now, without a sign-up wall if at all possible.
- A first comment from you. Explain who you are, why you built it and what feedback you want.
- No vote requests. Asking friends or colleagues to upvote can get the post penalized. Share the link for reading, not voting.
- Reposts are allowed, sparingly. The HN FAQ allows a small number of reposts of a story that hasn't had significant attention, and moderators sometimes give promising posts a second chance. Don't delete and resubmit the same link over and over.
Related
- Show HN guide: how to launch on Hacker News
- Lobsters vs Hacker News if your audience is deeply technical
- HN Best Time tool