The honest answer: there is no magic hour. The best available timing data shows LinkedIn connection requests get accepted over the course of days, not at the moment you send them, so send-time optimization is a much weaker lever than most advice implies. If you want a rule of thumb, send during weekday business hours in the recipient's timezone and spend your real effort on who you target and how relevant you are.
What the timing data actually shows
The most cited public dataset comes from Botdog, covering roughly 16,000 invitations. It does not measure the best hour to send; it measures how long acceptance takes once you have sent. The shape is the useful part.
| Time after sending | Share of eventual acceptances |
|---|---|
| Within 60 minutes | About 21% |
| Within 24 hours | About 63% |
| Within 7 days | About 88% |
| Within 30 days | About 99% |
Because acceptance spreads across a week, the specific minute you send in barely moves the outcome. It also means a request still pending after about 30 days is effectively dead, which matters more for your follow-up cadence than any send-time trick. We cover that in the pending-requests guide.
The best day and time advice, and why to take it lightly
You will see confident claims that Tuesday to Thursday mornings are best. The problem is that almost all of this data is self-published by outreach vendors, using their own customers, with no independent verification and every incentive to make outreach look like a science. There is no neutral, large-scale study of LinkedIn send-time versus acceptance. So a reasonable default (business hours, mid-week) is fine, but do not build your process around a specific hour.
What actually moves your accept rate
The levers that genuinely change outcomes are not on the clock. Relevance comes first: a request to the right person with an obvious reason to connect beats a perfectly timed one to a stranger. A complete, credible profile does more than any send-time. Staying under LinkedIn's weekly invitation limits keeps your account healthy enough to keep sending. And whether you add a note is a real, tested variable, unlike the time of day.
A practical rule of thumb
If you want a simple default: send on weekdays during the recipient's business hours, spread your requests through the week rather than in one burst, and stop there. Then measure your own accept rate over a few weeks. Your data, on your audience, beats any published timing chart, and it is the only way to know what actually works for the people you reach out to.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best time to send LinkedIn connection requests?
There is no strong evidence for a single magic hour. The most cited timing dataset (Botdog, about 16,000 invites) shows acceptances arrive over days, not minutes: 21% within an hour, 63% within 24 hours, and 88% within seven days. Because acceptance plays out across a week, the exact send time is a weak lever. If you want a default, weekday business hours in the recipient's timezone is reasonable.
What day of the week gets the most acceptances?
Vendor advice usually points at Tuesday through Thursday mornings, but rigorous, independent day-of-week data is thin and mostly self-published by outreach tools. Treat "best day" claims as folklore, not fact. Who you send to and how relevant you are matters far more than the calendar.
How long does it take people to accept a connection request?
Per Botdog's data on roughly 16,000 invites: about 21% of eventual acceptances land within 60 minutes, 63% within 24 hours, 88% within 7 days, and 99% within 30 days. A request still pending after 30 days is effectively dead and worth withdrawing.
Does sending at the wrong time hurt my accept rate?
Almost certainly not in any meaningful way. Your acceptance rate is driven by relevance, a credible profile, and a good reason to connect, not by whether you clicked at 9am or 2pm. Optimize those first, and measure your own results before believing any timing rule.