The goal of this paper is to state the optimal decay rate for solutions of the nonlinear fast diffusion equation and, in self-similar variables, the optimal convergence rates to Barenblatt self-similar profiles and their generalizations. It relies on the identification of the optimal constants in some related Hardy-Poincaré inequalities and concludes a long series of papers devoted to generalized entropies, functional inequalities, and rates for nonlinear diffusion equations.