How the Facebook algorithm works
Facebook prioritizes reels and native video over images and link posts. Keep posts short (40-80 chars), put links in the first comment, and write for shares.
By Tayyab, Founder
Where these numbers come from. This profile was built from the sources listed on this page, which include statements the platform made publicly.
- Stated by the platformMeta Newsroom 2024 post on feed ranking
We never present an estimate as something a platform announced. Where we are the source, this page says so.
How the feed is assembled
The signals Facebook weighs when it decides who sees a post, strongest first. Weights are shown against a like, which is the unit everybody has an intuition for.
- Shares and reposts5x a like
- Comments3x a like
- Saves1.5x a like
- Likes1x a like
The first-hour cliff
The single most actionable fact on most networks, and the one almost nobody explains concretely.
90 min
When the outcome is effectively decided
50%
Of your median engagement. Below this, the post has stalled
comments, shares
Signals that matter most in that window
If a Facebook post has not reached 50% of your own median engagement by minute 90, it rarely recovers. That is why the window matters more than the day: a post published into a dead hour has already lost before anybody decides whether it was any good.
Best posting windows
Every hour of the week, as a multiple of a median Facebook hour. On Pro and above we rank your posting slots against this curve and your own posting history; on Free and Starter the queue uses our regional best-time table without the personalised ranking.
FridayStrongest
12:00 to 14:00 UTC
2.26x
vs a median hour
Monday
13:00 UTC
2.11x
vs a median hour
Wednesday
13:00 UTC
2.11x
vs a median hour
Thursday
15:00 UTC
2.11x
vs a median hour
Times are UTC. Content Drifter schedules these in your own timezone.
Link policy
What Facebook does to a post carrying an outbound link, and where we put yours instead.
Allowed
Links in the post body
-50%
Reach cost of a link in the body
in the first comment
Where we place your link
Content Drifter publishes the post without the link and posts the link as the first comment, rewriting the body so it still reads as a whole. Most schedulers attach a first comment and leave the URL in the body, which keeps the full penalty. How the first comment works.
Posting cadence and cooldowns
Posting more is not posting better. These are the ceilings the queue applies when it assigns slots, counted against your own calendar rather than UTC.
4h
Minimum gap between posts
3
Maximum posts per day
14
Maximum posts per week
Format mechanics
What Facebook accepts, and which formats carry a reach advantage over a plain post.
Reach by format
- Reel+60%
- Native video+50%
- Single image+20%
- Standard post0%
- Text-only post-10%
- Link post-50%
Hard limits
- Ideal length
- 40 to 80 characters
- Platform limit (enforced)
- 63206 characters
- Hashtags for reach
- 1 ideal, 3 before it costs you, end of post
- Hashtags allowed
- 10 by the platform
- Images per post
- 10
- Video
- up to 1200s, 1024MB
- Image formats
- jpeg, png, gif
Hashtags barely matter on Facebook. 1-3 specific ones is fine; 5+ looks spammy and is ignored.
How Content Drifter applies this to your Facebook posts
Each row pairs a number from this page with the thing the product does about it. This is the same record, not a marketing restatement of it.
A link in the body costs about 50% of Facebook reach.
We publish the post without the link and post the link as the first comment, rewriting the body so it still reads as a whole.
Link in the first commentFacebook engagement peaks around 12:00 to 14:00 UTC on Friday, roughly 2.26x a median hour.
Add a post to the queue without picking a time and it takes the next open peak slot in your timezone, skipping slots already full. On Pro and above those slots are ranked against this curve and your own posting history.
Gold Slot schedulingReel outperforms a plain post by about 60% on Facebook.
Generation targets the formats that carry a lift on the network you are posting to, rather than producing one body and cross-posting it everywhere.
Per-platform publishingFacebook rewards engagement in the first 90 minutes, and a post that starts flat rarely recovers.
On Agency plans with the boost engine switched on, we check the post at the 90 minute mark against your own median, so a stall is something you find out about while it can still be acted on.
The algorithm-aware enginePosting more than 3 times a day, or inside 4 hours of your last post, works against you on Facebook.
The queue honours that spacing when it assigns slots, counting posts you already published as well as ones you have queued, so a bulk import or a busy week cannot bunch your posts together.
The queueFacebook posts land best between 40 and 80 characters, against a platform limit of 63206.
The pre-publish check reads the post against these rules and tells you which one it breaks, rather than handing you a score.
Pre-publish performance read
Recent Facebook algorithm changes
Changes we have recorded and reviewed. Nothing appears here automatically.
We have not published a recorded change for Facebook since our last check. Our canary compares engagement across our whole user base against a 28-day baseline every day, and a shift is reviewed by a person before it appears here, because saying in public that Facebook changed something is a claim about somebody else’s product.
Facebook algorithm questions
What is the best time to post on Facebook?
Our strongest window is 12:00 to 14:00 UTC on Friday, which runs about 2.26x a median hour, followed by 13:00 UTC on Monday. Those are UTC. Content Drifter converts them to your timezone and schedules into them for you, so the number you are reading is the one it acts on.
What does the Facebook algorithm reward most?
shares and reposts carry the most weight, about 5x a like in our model, then comments at 3x. Facebook prioritizes reels and native video over images and link posts. Keep posts short (40-80 chars), put links in the first comment, and write for shares.
Do links hurt reach on Facebook?
Yes. We model a body link as costing about 50% of reach, and we place links in the first comment instead. Content Drifter does that automatically and rewrites the body so the post still reads properly without the URL in it.
How often should I post on Facebook?
We cap at 3 posts a day and 14 a week, with at least 4 hours between posts. The queue applies these when it assigns slots, using your own calendar day rather than UTC, and counts what you have already published as well as what is queued.
Which post format performs best on Facebook?
Reel carries the largest lift in our model, roughly 60% above a plain post. Generation targets the format that wins on the network you are publishing to.
How long should a Facebook post be?
Between 40 and 80 characters. Facebook allows up to 63206, which is what we stop you at. Hashtags work best at 1 and start costing you reach above 3, well below the 10 the platform permits.
Every network we publish to
The same page, rendered from the same kind of record, for each of the 9 networks.