Pinterest size guide: how to create beautiful Pinterest images and covers

If you've ever browsed Pinterest, you’ll know it’s an incredibly inspiring platform!

The visual content is captivating and easily takes you on a journey of discovery that gets you inspired for life, business, travel, art, and more!

What are the best Pinterest image sizes?

On Pinterest, users can discover a wide range of images using search terms or just browsing the front-page feed. If they like a Pinterest image, they can “pin” it to one of their personal folders, called a “board.” Users can also connect with each other and share pins and boards collaboratively.

Pinterest is a great tool for artists or designers looking for visual inspiration, but it’s also perfect for certain types of evergreen content, such as recipes or DIY guides.

In addition to finding inspiration, Pinterest is a fantastic platform for bloggers and artists to implement a marketing strategy to drive traffic to their website. With approx. 478 million monthly active users (and counting) you can drive some serious traffic to your blog post or online store with just one pin.

But to do so, you’ve got to stand out amongst the millions and millions of images on the platform. Your pin image must look superb to stand out. This means paying attention to getting the right dimensions, implementing design best practices, and using text well.

Whether you’re just joining Pinterest to browse and collect pins, or you’re looking to create your own content, you’ll need to upload some assets to complete your profile. It’s important to know each image size, and each pin size to create a beautiful Pinterest profile and to make your own contribution to the social network.

In the following guide, we’ll take you through the dimensions for each Pinterest asset. We’ll detail exactly how many pixels tall and how many pixels wide you should create each asset from your personal profile to standard pin sizes, video pin sizes, and story pins.

We’ll add in a few pro-tips so you can really optimize each pin and enhance your Pinterest experience.

Before starting, it's helpful to note that the file type for a Pinterest image is a PNG file or JPEG file; and the video file type is .mp4,.mov or**.m4v.**

Pinterest profile picture size and profile cover photo size

Your Pinterest profile picture is the primary way people will be able to recognize you on the platform. This small, single image at the top center of your profile must communicate what you’re about.

It should tell the user more about your vibe and what you have to offer in an instant. Especially if you're using a business account to promote yourself, the profile photo should be professional and clear about who you are.

The best size for a Pinterest profile photo is 165 × 165 pixels.

The best size for a Pinterest profile banner is 800 x 450 pixels.

Pinterest will crop the square image to a circle, so the most important thing is to make sure your face is in the center.

Pinterest also allows you to create a header image for your profile. The best size for your Pinterest profile header image is 1000 × 1000 pixels. The minimum size is 600 × 600 pixels.

If you’re using Pinterest to promote your blog or business and drive traffic to a website or other social media platforms, having a beautiful profile is essential. Taking the time to make sure your profile header image and profile image are captivating and professional looking will get you really far.

Pro tips for Pinterest profile photo

There are quite a few similarities between the Pinterest profile picture and the Instagram profile picture.

You can read more about it here, but we'll give you some additional tips for Pinterest too:

1. A front-facing headshot taken in great lighting is always ideal for your profile picture. You can never go wrong with some professional headshots that simply show your head and shoulders. The ideal amount of space for your head and shoulders to occupy in the profile picture is 50-70%. It’s a small size so you’ve got to make sure people can see your face.
2. If you’re a business or blog run by one person, it’s a clever idea to make your profile picture a headshot rather than a logo. While logos work as profile pictures for well-known companies, users are more likely to connect with and follow human beings.‍
3. If you’re an artist or illustrator, your profile picture is a wonderful opportunity to highlight your skills and upload a self-portrait or an example of your work as a profile picture.

Pinterest image (pin) size

Once you’ve been browsing for a while, saving pins to your boards, and getting inspired, you might want to start uploading your own pins. Creating your own pins is a fantastic way to contribute to the platform and become a collaborator in this visually rich platform.

A pin isn't just any old social media image; a pin exists to communicate something specific on a social media network dedicated to sharing valuable information through visual content.

Pinterest has a vertically aligned interface, so you’ll need to create a vertical image at a 2:3 aspect ratio.

There are a few options you can choose from in terms of size to fit in with the 2:3 aspect ratio. Choosing a larger image size is always good for the quality. The higher the resolution, the better it’s going to look and stand out. So, what is the ideal Pinterest pin size?

The best Pinterest pin size, recommended by Pinterest, is 1000 × 1500 pixels. You can, however, also opt for 600 × 900 pixels, 1200 x 1800 pixels, or 2000 x 3000 pixels. These all fall within the ideal Pinterest image size of a 2:3 aspect ratio.

It’s important to note that in the feed Pinterest scales images down to 238 pixels wide. Once the image is clicked on, it expands to its full size. You’ll notice that the length varies on the main Pinterest feed. Images of varying lengths are accommodated on the feed, which is good news for fitting more visual content into your pins.

If an image exceeds a length of 2100 pixels long, it will eventually be cut off in the feed.

A tall image, sometimes referred to as a "long pin" or a "tall pin," is great for information-based visual communication like an infographic and should be an aspect ratio of 1:2.6. According to Pinterest, the best size for a long pin on Pinterest in terms of dimensions is 1000 × 2100 pixels.

While the standard 2:3 pin is the optimal size for the vertically aligned platform, you can upload square images, too.

The ideal size for a square pin on Pinterest is 1000 × 1000 pixels. This is an aspect ratio of 1:1. Pinterest will keep your square intact, and these square images can stand out more sometimes in the sea of vertical pins on the feed. Square pins mean you can repurpose your Instagram images for Pinterest, too.

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Recommended Pinterest image sizes

Standard pin size on Pinterest: 2:3 aspect ratio; 1000 pixels wide x 1500 pixels tall

Square pin size on Pinterest: 1:1 aspect ratio; 1000 pixels wide × 1000 pixels tall

Long pin Size on Pinterest: 1: 2.6 aspect ratio; 1000 pixels wide x 2100 pixels tall

Pro tips for Pinterest pins

1. Upload pins that make use of traditional design principles. If you’re creating a pin from scratch, you want to focus heavily on aesthetics. This may sound obvious but there is a lot of competition, so you’ve got to be real about going the extra mile to make it beautiful. Try implementing proven design principles such as The Rule of Thirds or even The Golden Ratio.
2. Optimize your pin copy. This is one of Pinterest Business’ ultimate recommendations. While the platform is image-centric, you also can include text-based image descriptions that help your pins get discovered. So be sure to use keywords and clear descriptions. Pinterest recommends 100-500 characters.
3. If you’re an artist or blogger sharing your work to Pinterest, make sure your original pins are collected nicely into themed boards, so they are easy to find and make sure these boards are easy to find when someone lands on your profile.

Pinterest board cover size

On your profile, you’ll see your personal collection of Pinterest boards. These can be set to public or private and can be just your personal boards or ones that you share collaboratively with other users.

Each Pinterest board needs a cover photo. You can choose an image from the pins inside that board or upload your own. The best size for a Pinterest board cover photo is 600 × 600 pixels. You could opt for 1000 × 1000 pixels or any 1:1 aspect ratio if the image size is large enough to be high quality. ****

The board cover is a square image that will be cropped, so if you’re designing specifically for the cover, you must design a square. The Pinterest board cover photo is particularly important because it often determines whether people follow the board, so it's worth going the extra mile to make it beautiful.

Recommended dimensions

Pinterest Board Cover Photo Size: 1:1 aspect ratio; 600 pixels wide x 600 pixels tall

Pro tips for pin board cover photos

1. Pinterest board covers are a terrific opportunity to create consistency in your aesthetic. Especially if you’re using Pinterest for marketing, you’ve got to have brand consistency throughout your board covers.

And even if you’re not marketing- having similar tones and styles for your board covers can improve the look of your profile and get you more followers. Create a similar look and feel for all your covers.

1. If you’re using text on your cover board, make sure people can read it, even when it’s smaller in the feed.
2. Name the image file before uploading! If your image file has an SEO-friendly, discoverable title that is related to the content of the cover image and the content of the board, it is more likely to be found.

Pinterest story pins

Another beautiful way to share ideas, and the opportunity to truly tell a visual story on Pinterest is through story pins.

A Pinterest story is different from a Facebook Story or an Instagram Story in that it lasts forever (rather than 24 hours), and its content is intended to be aligned with what Pinterest is about. The story pin is a full-screen image, so also a good opportunity for maximum screen real estate.

The Pinterest algorithm pushes stories so you can really boost impressions with this feature.

The best size for a Pinterest story is 1080 × 1920 pixels. A Pinterest story is the standard vertical full screen 9:16 aspect ratio. A Pinterest story can be a static image or a video. If you’re going for a video, it should be 1-60 seconds in length with a maximum file size of 100 MB.

The maximum file size for an image in a Pinterest story is 20 MB. The file types supported for story pins are BMP, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and WEBP for images, and MP4, MOV, and M4V for videos.

Recommended dimensions:

Pinterest story pin image size: 9:16 aspect ratio; 1080 pixels wide x 1920 pixels tall.

Pinterest story video size: 9:16 aspect ratio; 1080 pixels wide x 1920 pixels tall; 100 MB file size

Pro tips for story pins

1. Add text to videos, as most people will be watching with the sound off
2. Try to create a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Remember, Pinterest is all about ideas, so a story is a wonderful opportunity to bring an idea to LIFE.
3. Use a video for the first section of the story to make it more engaging.

Pinterest video pin size

You’ll probably know, just from being a user of any social media platform yourself, that video is the most engaging. People love video, and video pins are no exception- they do really well. Video pins are a great opportunity to highlight recipes, travel, a creative process, and more.

The best dimensions for a Pinterest video are 1200 × 1800 pixels or anything within the standard 2:3 aspect ratio. You can also create square video pins which will fall into the 1:1 aspect ratio.

For organic content, Pinterest recommends between 15 seconds and 1 minute, and between 6-15 seconds for paid content. 15-30 second video pins are the sweet spot, though, and you can even create up to 15 minutes of video content.

In terms of file size, you can upload up to 2 GB of video content for your video pin.

Recommended dimensions:

Pinterest video size in dimensions: 2:3 aspect ratio; 1000 × 1500

Pinterest video size in dimensions (square): 1:1 aspect ratio; 1000 × 1000

Pinterest video length: four seconds minimum; 15 minutes maximum

Pro tips for video pins

1. Don’t use sound. Most people watch with it off and stats have proven that video pins without sound perform better.
2. Create a cover image that tells people what the video is about
3. Use software design tools to create video pins that look good.

Carousel pins

Carousel Pins exist as one pin, made up of multiple images that can be scrolled through. You need a minimum of 2 images per carousel, and a maximum of 5 images per carousel. This 2-5 image range works well for displaying products, using paid advertising, and telling a brand story.

Carousel pins can be created at an aspect ratio of 1:1 or 2:3. The ideal size for a carousel pin in the standard pin size will be 1000 × 1500 pixels and the best size for a carousel pin in square format is 1000 × 1000 pixels.

Carousel pins can be uploaded in PNG or JPEG file format, with a maximum file size of 32 MB per image.

Recommended dimensions:

Pinterest carousel pin image size: 2:3 aspect ratio; 1000 pixels wide x 1500 pixels tall

Pinterest carousel pin image size (square): 1:1 aspect ratio; 1000 pixels wide x 10000 pixels tall

Pro tips for carousel pins

1. Create consistency! Make sure each image in the carousel has the same look and feel so that there is visual consistency throughout the pin.
2. Use the carousel pin to tell a visual story- whether that’s a brand story or simply an enchanting visual journey you wish to take users on; each carousel image can act as a chapter in your story.
3. Use them as adverts to get the most out of your money. If you promote a carousel pin, you are paying the same amount of money to showcase multiple images and convey more information than if you spent the same amount promoting a single image pin.

There is a lot to get delightfully lost in when it comes to both design and browsing in the enchanting land of Pinterest.

With an exceedingly high standard of quality, millions upon millions of images to compete with, and quite a few varieties of features to play with (which will no doubt only be added to), creating your own pins and profile can feel overwhelming.

That’s why using graphic design software with ready-made templates and easily customizable canvases that make it a breeze to create specific dimensions is a necessity!

Check out Linearity’s graphic design software if you’re looking for a place to start your exciting Pinterest journey. Create your template with Linearity Curve. Use Linearity's in-app preset template to quickly create your next design directly from the Home screen.