PusharooThe best time to send push notifications
The honest answer is “when your subscribers are awake and likely to act” — and you can find that window in a couple of weeks with your own data. Here’s how.
- There’s no universal best time; it depends on your audience’s routines and your content.
- Never send in the middle of the night where your subscribers live.
- Match timing to intent: commuting reads in the morning, shopping in the evening, B2B during work hours.
- Find your window by sending at a few different times and comparing click-through.
Why “best time” lists mislead
Many articles publish a single best hour, but those figures come from one vendor’s customer mix — often apps, often one country. A news site, a B2B SaaS and a pizza shop have completely different peaks. Use general patterns as a starting hypothesis, then measure your own audience.
Reasonable starting points
| Site type | Try first | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| News and blogs | 7–9 a.m. and lunchtime | Late night unless it’s breaking news |
| Online stores | Early evening, weekends for leisure products | Early morning commute |
| B2B and SaaS | Tuesday–Thursday, mid-morning | Weekends and evenings |
| Restaurants and cafés | 1–2 hours before the meal you’re promoting | After closing time |
| Events | Day before + 30–60 minutes before start | Right as it starts (too late to act) |
These are hypotheses, not rules. Your data wins.
Time zones and quiet hours
If your audience spans time zones, a 9 a.m. Toronto send hits Vancouver at 6 a.m. and London at 2 p.m. Two options:
- Segment by timezone and schedule one send per region. Pusharoo stores each subscriber’s timezone and language, and the segments page explains how to slice by them.
- Pick a compromise window that is daytime for most of your list, and accept a lower click rate at the edges.
Whatever you choose, set a personal quiet-hours rule — for example, nothing between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. local time unless it’s truly urgent.
A two-week method to find your best time
- Pick three candidate windows (for example 8 a.m., 12 p.m. and 6 p.m.).
- Over two weeks, send comparable notifications in each window — similar content, similar audience.
- Record click-through rate (clicks ÷ sent) for each.
- Keep the winner, then test it against one new window. Repeat quarterly — habits change with seasons.
Schedule sends ahead of time so you’re not tied to your desk: Pusharoo’s scheduler queues a campaign for a date and time you choose (campaigns).
Starting points by industry
| Site type | Try first | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| News | Breaking: when it happens · digests: 7–8 a.m. local | Non-urgent sends late evening |
| Ecommerce | 11 a.m.–1 p.m. and 7–9 p.m.; weekends for leisure products | Before 8 a.m. |
| B2B SaaS | Tue–Thu, 9–11 a.m. local | Weekends |
| Local business | 1–3 hours before the moment (lunch special at 10:30 a.m.) | After closing |
| Events | At on-sale time; day-of info in the morning | Overnight |
These are hypotheses to test, not rules. Your own A/B tests and click data decide.
Sending at local time
Pusharoo stores each subscriber’s timezone, so you can create segments by timezone (for example America/ or Europe/) and schedule a send per region at a sensible local hour. For global lists, three regional sends usually cover most people well.
Timing and offline devices
A notification sent at 9 a.m. to a laptop that’s closed until 2 p.m. may arrive at 2 p.m. — or not at all, if its time-to-live has expired. For time-sensitive messages (a lunch special) that’s good: no one wants a stale offer. For evergreen content, a longer time-to-live helps it arrive later. See deliverability for how TTL works.
Questions
What is the best day to send push notifications?
It depends on your audience. B2B audiences often respond mid-week; retail and leisure audiences often respond at weekends. Test two or three days and compare click-through.
Should I send push notifications at night?
Generally no. Late-night pushes annoy people and drive unsubscribes. Reserve night sends for genuinely urgent news people asked for.
Can I schedule push notifications in my subscribers’ local time?
You can segment by timezone and schedule one send per zone. Pusharoo stores each subscriber’s timezone for this.
Is there a best day of the week for push?
It depends on your audience. Test the same message on two days with A/B or split segments and repeat before concluding.
Should I send at night?
Generally no; quiet hours and Do Not Disturb hide them anyway. Use time zones so night sends don’t happen by accident.
Keep reading
How often should you send push notifications?
Frequency guidelines by site type, the warning signs of over-sending, and how to set expectations at opt-in.
Push notification segmentation that actually helps
Filter by site, device, language, recency and inactivity. Six recipes you can copy.
Writing and scheduling push campaigns
Copy length, images, links, timing, frequency and how to read your stats.
Web push notification best practices (2026 checklist)
A one-page checklist covering opt-in, iPhone, copy, timing, frequency, segments, deliverability and privacy.
More in Writing & timing: 30 web push notification examples (and why they work) · Push notification character limits, in practice · Push notification copywriting: 12 rules that earn the tap · Welcome push notifications that set the tone · Holiday push notification calendar for 2026–2027 · All guides
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