Updated Oct 2026

Schedule posts for later

Scheduling gives a post a date and time to go out on its own. You don’t have to come back and select Post Now. You can schedule from the Posts page, from the post’s page, or from the calendar.

Before you start

The post must already exist. The Create Post dialog has no schedule step. Make the post first, then schedule it.
Scheduling sets a time. It doesn’t approve the post. A post that is still in Needs approval when its time comes won’t publish.
The time has to be at least 5 minutes from now. For anything sooner, use Post Now.
Dates and times are in your brand’s time zone, not your device’s. You set it on the Brands page. See Set up your brand.
Your plan sets how many days ahead you can schedule. Days count on the brand’s clock. No plan goes past two years (730 days). See Understand your plan and usage.
A post in a campaign gets its time from the campaign. You can’t schedule it by itself. See Organize posts with campaigns.

Schedule from the Posts page

On the Posts page, find the post’s row.
Select the Schedule icon (the calendar icon) in the row’s action buttons. On a phone, open the row’s ⋯ menu and select Schedule.
In the Schedule dialog, set a Date and a Time.
Select Schedule.

A line near the top of the dialog names the time zone, for example “Times are in America/Chicago (Acme)”. That’s your brand’s zone. The date and time you enter are on its clock, wherever you are. So a teammate in another city picks the same clock time you would.

If the post has no time yet, the dialog starts at tomorrow, 10:00, on the brand’s clock. Change it before you select Schedule if you want a different time.

If the post already has a time, the dialog opens with that date and time filled in. You can change them there.

The one-time time zone question

Some brands may still be on UTC. It might be an older brand. Or it might be the one made when you signed up with Google. The first time you schedule for it from a device in another zone, the dialog asks at the top:

“Acme schedules in UTC. Use America/Chicago (this device) instead?”

Select Use America/Chicago to switch the brand to your device’s zone. Or select Keep UTC to leave it as it is. Either answer is saved for the brand, and nobody is asked again. The times in the open dialog switch to the zone you picked. If your device is already in the brand’s zone, there’s nothing to ask, so you won’t see the question.

You can change the zone later on the Brands page.

Schedule several posts at once

This works on a computer or tablet.

On the Posts page, check the box on each row you want.
In the bar that appears, select Schedule.
Set a Date and Time in the dialog and select Schedule.

Every post you picked gets the same date and time. If some of them can’t be scheduled, a message says how many. For example: “Some posts failed to schedule (2 of 5).”

On a phone, the bar for picked posts only has Approve and Reject. So schedule one post at a time there.

Schedule or reschedule from the post’s page

Open the post from the Posts page.
In the row of buttons at the top, select Schedule. If the post already has a time, the button says Reschedule.
Set a Date and Time in the dialog and select Schedule.

Schedule from the calendar

Open Calendar.
On an open day, select Schedule a post for this day →. In a narrow week cell it reads + Schedule.
Check the posts you want on that day. Only posts with no time yet are listed.
Set the Time, then select Schedule. The button counts the posts, for example Schedule 2 posts.

Want a brand-new post for that day? Select Create a new post instead. When you finish making it, its Schedule dialog opens on that day.

The calendar puts each post on its day in the brand’s time zone. It marks the brand’s today, and it says which zone its times use. A day past your plan’s limit shows a lock.

Repeat a post

When you schedule one post, the dialog also has a Repeat row: None, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. Pick one and set the Time on the brand’s clock. Then fill in the field for your choice:

Daily asks for Every N days.
Weekly asks which days, under On days.
Monthly asks for the Day of month. If you pick 31, it posts on the last day of shorter months.

You can add an End date if the repeats should stop. The dialog shows the first run, for example “First run: Jul 20, 10:00 AM PDT”. The end date has to be on or after that day. Select Start repeating to save.

Repeat isn’t offered when you schedule several posts at once. If your plan has no repeating schedules left, the dialog tells you: “Recurring schedules are not available on your current plan.”

What happens after you schedule

The post keeps the status it had, Needs approval or Approved. Scheduling only adds a time.
An Approved post with a time shows a Scheduled badge and the time on the Posts page. It publishes on its own when that time comes. You don’t need to do anything else.
A post in Needs approval with a time shows “Awaiting approval — won’t publish” next to an Approve now button. Approve it before its time. See Review and approve your posts.
If a post is still in Needs approval when its time passes, it doesn’t publish. It moves to Expired. An expired post isn’t gone. You can reactivate it and give it a new time.
Sometimes a social network has a short outage. Then PostSignOff keeps trying for about 2 hours after the scheduled time. The post stays Approved while it tries. If it still hasn’t gone out by then, it moves to Failed and stops trying. See Fix a post that didn’t publish.

If something goes wrong

“You’ve hit your plan limit” / “You’ve used {X} of {Y} scheduled posts.” Your plan limits how many posts can have a future time at once. Every post with a future time counts, approved or not. A spot frees up when a post’s time comes. Deleting a post you don’t need frees its spot too. Or upgrade your plan.

“Pick a time at least 5 minutes from now.” The time you picked has passed, or it’s less than 5 minutes away. Pick a later time, or use Post Now to publish right away.

“Pick today or a future date.” The date is in the past on the brand’s clock. Pick today or a later day.

“Your {plan} plan schedules up to {N} days ahead. Upgrade to schedule further out.” The day you picked is past your plan’s limit, and a bigger plan would allow it. Pick an earlier day. Or select the locked Schedule button, then Upgrade your plan. On the calendar, these days are locked.

“You can schedule up to {N} days ahead (through {date}).” The day you picked is past what any plan allows. Pick a day on or before the date in the message.

“Your plan doesn’t include scheduling.” Your plan has no scheduling. This can happen after your trial or subscription ends. Pick a plan on the Billing page. Your posts are saved.

“The end date is before the first run on {date}. Pick a later end date.” A repeating schedule would end before it ever ran. Pick an end date on or after the day in the message, or clear the end date.

“Couldn’t save the time zone. Try again.” Your answer to the time zone question didn’t save. Select the button again. The brand keeps its old zone until it saves.

Nothing happens after you select Schedule. This happens with a post that’s part of a campaign. The dialog closes, but the post gets no time, and no message tells you why. The campaign sets the times for its posts. Change them from the campaign instead.

A scheduled time looks hours off. The times you see are on the brand’s clock, not your device’s. Check the “Times are in …” line in the dialog, or the brand’s Timezone on the Brands page.

If your plan changes to one that schedules fewer days ahead, posts set after its last day don’t keep their time. See Understand your plan and usage for what happens to them and how to reschedule.