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At least 12 hours, but 18-24 is more standard - the longer it sits, the more intense the flavor gets. Some people even let it steep for two days, but after that it doesn't really get any better. Cold water just needs time to extract the coffee, there's no way around it. Try it yourself and see what tastes best to you.
Cold brew needs at least 12 hours, realistically more like 16-24 hours of steeping to get the full flavor out. A lot of beginners steep it way too short and then wonder why it tastes weak. The exact time depends on how coarse you grind your beans and how cold your fridge is - the colder it is, the longer you should let it steep.
The basic principle is actually pretty simple: mix coffee grounds and cold water in a ratio of 1:4 or 1:5 (depending on how strong you like it), throw everything in a glass or bottle, stick it in the fridge and wait. After 24 hours strain it or filter it through a coffee filter. If you steep it shorter - say 8-10 hours - it'll be noticeably weaker, but it works too. Just try it out and see what works for you; some people like it stronger so they steep it longer, others find 16 hours just right.
The thing is: cold brew can sit in the fridge for days without going bad. So you can totally brew it a few days ahead and always have a concentrate ready that you dilute with water or milk. That saves you a ton of time in the mornings.
Don't just pour cold water over coffee and think it's done after an hour - that won't work. Cold brew needs time, and there's no shortcuts around it.
For me, it works best when I just let it sit overnight and then filter it the next morning. Around 12-16 hours is enough for me to get a good, balanced flavor - not too weak, but not too bitter either. Some people swear that 24 hours is better, and yeah, you can taste the difference, but personally I find that after that long it starts to get a bit musty if the temperature's too warm. Of course, it keeps longer in the fridge.
One detail that often gets overlooked: the grind size of the coffee matters too. Coffee that's ground too fine won't let the water flow through properly, and you'll end up with too much sediment. I always use medium-coarse ground coffee and it works great - the extraction is just more even. And the ratio between coffee and water matters too, so don't be stingy with the coffee, otherwise even the long steeping time won't help much.
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