How Long Does a LinkedIn Post Keep Getting Impressions?
A LinkedIn post earns 70 to 85 percent of its lifetime impressions in the first 24 hours, and 88 to 97 percent within 7 days. After that it keeps collecting a thin tail from profile visits, search and reposts, usually under 5 percent of the total across the following three weeks. The practical consequence is that the first 60 to 90 minutes decide the size of the whole number.
Last updated: September 2026 · Next update: December 2026 · Methodology
Where a post's impressions land over time
| Time since publishing | Share of lifetime impressions |
|---|---|
| 0–60 minutes | 5–10% |
| 1–3 hours | 15–25% |
| 3–24 hours | 40–50% |
| Day 2 | 8–12% |
| Days 3–7 | 5–10% |
| Days 8–30 | 2–5% |
| After 30 days | under 2% |
Compiled ranges. Shares are of the post's own lifetime total, so they sum to roughly 100 percent. A post that goes wide has a flatter curve, because the second-degree wave keeps feeding it for two or three days rather than one.
What our own snapshot shows
| Cut | Median impressions |
|---|---|
| All posts in the sample | 975 |
| Published 2025 onward | 912 |
| Published 2026 onward | 792 |
Computed 2026-09-09. Impressions are a running total, so the newest cohort has had the least time to accumulate its tail, which is one reason the 2026 median sits below the all-time median. The cohorts also contain different accounts, so treat the gap as consistent with a long tail rather than as a measurement of one.
The three numbers worth remembering
Half life
3–6 hours
By this point half the lifetime impressions are in.
Effectively finished
7 days
88 to 97 percent of the lifetime total.
The window that sets the ceiling
60–90 min
Early engagement decides how far it travels.
What extends the tail
A real reply on day two or three
Answering a comment 48 hours after publishing puts the post back in front of everyone in that thread and can add a few percent. It works once, not repeatedly.
A repost by a larger account
The repost carries its own impression count, and some of that audience clicks back to your original. This is the single largest source of late impressions.
A link from a newsletter or another site
External traffic renders the post for members who arrive from outside the feed. Small in volume, but it can run for months.
An evergreen topic that people search for
Posts answering a durable question keep surfacing in LinkedIn search and on your profile. Timely commentary does not.
Your own profile traffic
Every profile visitor who scrolls your activity renders your recent posts again. Accounts running outbound see a visible late tail for this reason.
How to measure your own decay curve
- 1
Record the impressions at 1 hour
Open the post analytics 60 minutes after publishing and write the number down. This is the number that predicts the rest.
- 2
Record it again at 24 hours and 7 days
Two more readings are enough to draw the curve. Use the same clock time each day so the readings are comparable.
- 3
Take a final reading at 30 days
Treat the 30-day number as the lifetime total. Divide the earlier readings by it to get your own shares.
- 4
Compare your shares to the table
If your 24-hour share is well below 70 percent, your posts are travelling slowly and late, which usually means weak early engagement rather than bad content.
- 5
Repeat across 10 posts before concluding anything
Single posts vary by a factor of three. Ten posts give you a curve you can act on.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a LinkedIn post keep getting impressions?
Most of the work is done in 24 hours, which typically carries 70 to 85 percent of a post's lifetime impressions. By day 7 the post has collected 88 to 97 percent of its total. It then keeps a thin tail of under 5 percent across the next three weeks from profile visits, search and reposts.
How long does a LinkedIn post stay in the feed?
Active feed circulation runs about 24 to 48 hours for most posts. Distribution happens in waves: a test on a slice of your followers in the first hour, an expansion over the next few hours if attention held, then a spread into second-degree connections over the following day or two.
Do old LinkedIn posts still get views?
Yes, but very few. Posts older than 30 days typically add under 2 percent of their lifetime impressions, arriving through profile visits, LinkedIn search, and links from outside the platform. Posts that answer a durable question keep a longer tail than timely commentary does.
Should I repost my own old LinkedIn posts?
Rewriting beats reposting. A repost of your own post competes with the original in the same feeds and usually earns a fraction of it. Taking the same idea, writing a new hook and publishing it fresh 60 to 90 days later performs much better.
Why did my post get impressions two weeks later?
Something resurfaced it: a new comment on the thread, a repost by another account, a link from outside LinkedIn, or a run of profile visits from outbound activity. Late impressions are real, they are simply small, usually a few percent of the total.
When should I judge whether a post worked?
At 24 hours for a first read and at 7 days for the final one. Judging at 2 hours mistakes a slow start for a failure, and waiting past 7 days adds under 10 percent to the number while delaying the next decision.
Methodology
The decay curve is a compiled range. Our dataset stores each post's impression count as a running total captured at sync time, not as a time series, so we cannot compute the hour-by-hour split from it. The shares come from published industry research and from managed accounts where analytics were read at fixed intervals. They are stated as ranges because that is the honest resolution.
The snapshot table is computed. All posts: median 975 impressions, 25th percentile 363, 75th percentile 2,174, across 1,679 posts and 13 accounts. Published 2025 onward: median 912 across 1,408 posts and 12 accounts. Published 2026 onward: median 792 across 722 posts and 10 accounts. All from benchmark_within_sender('impressions') run on 9 September 2026 with a floor of 30 posts per account and 10 accounts.
The three cohorts overlap and contain different accounts, so the difference between them is not a clean measurement of tail accumulation. It is consistent with a tail, and we publish it as consistent rather than as proof.
Impressions are reported by LinkedIn only to the owner of the post, which is why this sample rests on 13 accounts while our engagement figures rest on 433. We state the account count next to every impressions figure.
Every computed figure uses the within-account method: each account's own median first, then percentiles across accounts.
Supporting research: Richard van der Blom Algorithm Insights Report, Socialinsider LinkedIn Industry Report, Buffer State of Social. Computed figures: Creator benchmark_within_sender RPC, run 2026-09-09.
Understand the terms
Impression
One render of a post on a member's screen.
Early Engagement Window
First 60 to 90 minutes, when distribution is decided.
LinkedIn Algorithm
How LinkedIn decides which posts travel and how far.
Dwell Time
How long a viewer stops on a post.
Post Analytics
The per-post panel where impressions accumulate.
Content Repurposing
Rewriting a proven idea rather than reposting it.
LinkedIn Content Playbook
How to spend the first hour, and when to stop.
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