Pinterest is unusual among social platforms: it rewards a specific, tall image shape more than almost any other network, and getting that shape right has an outsized effect on how often your pins actually get seen. Here’s the complete, current size guide.
Table of Contents
Standard Pinterest Pin Size
- Recommended dimensions: 1000 x 1500px
- Aspect ratio: 2:3
- Minimum width: 600px (Pinterest will accept narrower, but quality and visibility suffer)
- File size: under 20MB (Pinterest’s technical cap), though there’s no real reason to approach that limit — a well-compressed pin is typically well under 1MB
- Format: JPEG, PNG, WEBP, BMP, or TIFF; PNG is common when a pin includes overlaid text, since it preserves sharp edges better than JPG’s compression
The 2:3 ratio is the sweet spot Pinterest’s own algorithm tends to favor in the feed — taller pins take up more visual space while scrolling, which means more time in front of a potential viewer before they scroll past.
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Idea Pins (Pinterest’s Story-Style Format)
- Recommended dimensions: 1080 x 1920px
- Aspect ratio: 9:16 (full vertical, matching Stories-style formats on other platforms)
- Format: supports multiple pages/slides within a single Idea Pin, each following the same dimensions
Square Pins
- Dimensions: 1000 x 1000px
- Aspect ratio: 1:1
- When to use: square pins display fine but generally get less feed real estate than the taller 2:3 format — reasonable for repurposing existing square social content, but not the format to design for from scratch if Pinterest is a priority channel
Long and Tall Pins
Pinterest also accepts taller pins beyond the standard 2:3 ratio — up to 1000 x 2100px. Past roughly a 1:2.1 ratio, though, Pinterest may crop the pin in the main feed, only showing the full length when someone clicks through to the pin itself.
This makes long pins a reasonable choice for content that benefits from extra vertical space (a step-by-step infographic, a long before/after comparison) but not the default choice for an ordinary pin — the standard 2:3 ratio remains safer for guaranteed full visibility in the feed.
Video Pins
Separate from multi-page Idea Pins, Pinterest also supports standalone video pins:
- Dimensions: 1080 x 1920px (9:16), matching Idea Pins
- File size: up to 2GB
- Formats: MP4, MOV, or M4V
If you’re publishing a single video rather than a multi-slide Idea Pin, this is the format to use — same aspect ratio, but a simpler single-video format rather than a multi-page story.
Pin Size in Inches, and Setting Up in Canva
At the common design default of 72 PPI, 1000 x 1500px works out to roughly 13.9 x 20.8 inches. At 96 PPI, it’s closer to 10.4 x 15.6 inches — the exact inches depend on your document’s resolution setting, not the pixel count alone.
If you’re designing in Canva, search their template library for “Pinterest Pin” — Canva has a built-in preset already sized to 1000 x 1500px, which avoids the inches/PPI conversion question entirely by working directly in pixels.
Why Taller Pins Perform Better
Pinterest’s feed is a scrolling grid, and each pin’s height directly determines how much visual space it occupies while someone scrolls past. A taller 2:3 pin simply stays on-screen longer during a scroll than a square or landscape image would — more time visible generally means more chances to catch attention before the visitor moves on.
This is different from most other platforms (Instagram feed, Facebook, Twitter/X), where landscape or square formats are typically favored instead — worth remembering if you’re repurposing an image originally designed for a different platform rather than assuming one size fits everywhere.
Designing Pins That Actually Get Clicked
Beyond hitting the right dimensions, a few patterns show up consistently in pins that perform well:
- Bold, readable text overlay. Many successful pins include a short headline directly on the image — this needs to be legible even at the small size Pinterest displays in the main feed grid, not just at full resolution.
- High contrast and bright, warm-toned images tend to stand out against Pinterest’s white/light interface better than dark or muted images.
- Vertical composition, not a cropped landscape photo. Simply cropping a landscape image into a tall frame often results in an awkward composition — better to design or shoot with the tall format in mind from the start when possible.
- Branding kept small and consistent, usually in a corner rather than dominating the image — Pinterest users respond better to content that feels useful or inspiring first, branded second.
File Size and Compression Tips
Even though Pinterest’s technical limit is generous (20MB), keeping pins well-compressed still matters:
- Faster load times in the Pinterest app and on your own website, if the pin also serves as a blog featured image
- Faster upload when scheduling a batch of pins at once
- No visible quality trade-off — a properly compressed 1000x1500px pin at 80-85% JPG quality typically lands well under 500KB with no noticeable difference from the uncompressed original
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Compress Images Now →Frequently Asked Questions
What size should a Pinterest pin be?
1000 x 1500 pixels, at a 2:3 aspect ratio — this is Pinterest’s own recommended standard, and the safest choice for full, uncropped visibility in the feed.
Is Pinterest 9:16?
Not for standard pins — those are 2:3. 9:16 applies specifically to Idea Pins and Video Pins, Pinterest’s Stories-style vertical formats, which are a different pin type from an ordinary image pin.
What are the standard Pinterest pin dimensions in 2026?
1000 x 1500px remains the current standard, unchanged going into 2026 — this has been stable for several years.
What is a good size for a pin?
Beyond just hitting the right dimensions, a “good” pin also means keeping the file well-compressed (well under 1MB is achievable with no visible quality loss) and designing specifically for the tall 2:3 frame rather than cropping a landscape image into it after the fact.
What happens if I upload a pin that isn’t 2:3?
Pinterest will still accept and display it, but very tall, very wide, or square pins may get cropped or scaled differently in the feed compared to a properly-formatted 2:3 pin, and may not receive the same visual real estate advantage.
Can I reuse the same image across Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook?
Technically yes, but it’s rarely optimal — each platform’s ideal aspect ratio is different enough (Pinterest’s tall 2:3 vs. Instagram’s square or 4:5, Facebook’s landscape) that a single image usually looks noticeably better-suited on one platform than the others. Designing separately for each, even quickly, tends to outperform a one-size-fits-all approach.
Does adding text to a Pinterest image hurt its performance?
No — unlike some platforms that historically penalized text-heavy images, Pinterest doesn’t discourage text overlays, and many high-performing pins use them deliberately as a headline to draw attention in the feed.
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