Pinterest rewards the right pin shape more than any other social platform. Get the aspect ratio wrong and the pin literally takes up less screen space in the feed, which directly translates to fewer impressions, fewer saves and fewer clicks. The numbers are clear in 2026 and the format that wins is not the one most people use by default.
Quick reference
- Standard pin (recommended): 1000 by 1500 pixels (2:3)
- Long pin: 1000 by 2100 pixels (1:2.1). Use sparingly.
- Square pin: 1000 by 1000 pixels (1:1). Lower reach in 2026, avoid.
- Profile photo: 165 by 165 pixels minimum, square, displayed as a circle
- Board cover: 600 by 600 pixels, square
- Video pin: 1080 by 1920 (9:16) or 1080 by 1080 (1:1)
Pin shape: the single most important variable
Pinterest's feed is a vertical staggered grid. Tall pins take more vertical space, get more thumb time, get more impressions, get more saves. This compounds. A 2:3 standard pin gets significantly more reach than a 1:1 square pin showing the same content.
Default to 1000 by 1500. This is the format Pinterest itself recommends and the one its algorithm visibly favours. Going wider is a mistake. Going taller (long pins at 1:2.1) sometimes helps but Pinterest may crop very long pins in the feed, and the cropped preview is what users see first, so a poorly designed long pin underperforms a well-designed standard pin.
Square pins exist because Pinterest used to allow them more visibly. They still work, but they get crowded out in the feed by taller pins. If you have control over the design, do not ship square pins in 2026 unless you have a specific reason.
Designing a pin that gets saves
Dimensions get you the impression. Design gets you the save.
- Strong title overlay. Pinterest is primarily a search engine, not a social feed. Users save pins they think might be useful later. A clear, benefit-led title overlay (e.g. "7 budget kitchen storage hacks") gets saves. An abstract photo without context does not.
- Brand colour consistency. Pick 2 or 3 colours and use them across every pin. Builds visual recognition over time.
- Readable at small size. Pinterest displays pins at around 230 pixels wide on mobile. If text is unreadable at that size, it does not work.
- Logo or domain in the corner. Helps brand recognition as your pins spread. Keep it small, around 8 per cent of the pin width.
File size and format
Pinterest accepts JPG, PNG and WebP. Max file size is 32MB but you should never get anywhere near that. A typical pin at 1000 by 1500 in JPG quality 85 is 100 to 250KB. Larger files take longer to upload, do not display any sharper, and may slow your bulk-pinning workflow.
Pinterest re-encodes uploads but the quality drop is less severe than on Instagram or TikTok. Pre-compressing at quality 85 sRGB JPG is the safe default.
Video pins and idea pins
Video pins use 9:16 (1080 by 1920) for vertical or 1:1 (1080 by 1080) for square. Vertical performs better in 2026, consistent with the rest of social. Maximum length is 5 minutes.
Idea pins (Pinterest's multi-slide native format) use 9:16. They have been deprioritised by the algorithm in 2025 to 2026 and now drive less reach than standard pins for most niches. Most creators are moving away from them.
Profile and board photos
Profile photo at 165 by 165 minimum. Displayed as a circle. Same rules as every other platform: no hard corners, face or logo centred.
Board covers at 600 by 600. These show on your profile and matter for brand consistency, but they have no direct impact on individual pin reach. Worth doing once you have the rest dialled in, not before.
The Pinterest SEO angle
Pin titles, descriptions and alt text are searchable. Pinterest is a search engine. Treat each pin like a piece of evergreen SEO content:
- Pin title: 40 to 100 characters, keyword-led
- Pin description: 100 to 500 characters, conversational, with natural keyword inclusion
- Alt text on the image overlay matters less than the on-image text itself
Pinterest sends traffic for years per pin. Get the basics right once and the compounding is real.
Common mistakes
- Posting square pins by default. They underperform 2:3 standard pins.
- Pinning the source photo with no title overlay. Pinterest is a search engine, not a feed; users need to know what they are saving.
- Going too tall. Pins above 2.1:1 ratio get cropped in the feed and the cropped preview often loses the title.
- Forgetting Pinterest is a long-game platform. A pin posted today might drive traffic for the next three years. Worth designing for.
Tools
Use our social media cropper with the Pinterest Standard Pin preset to resize an existing image to 1000 by 1500 in one click. For batch pin production (which is the right Pinterest workflow), the resize tool handles the dimensions and the compressor keeps file sizes lean for fast uploads.