The ideal format: 1000 × 1500, ratio 2:3
Pinterest ticks differently from Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn: the feed is a masonry column layout, and tall pins get more space. By far the best format is 1000 × 1500 pixels at a 2:3 ratio. It's shown in full, takes up a lot of vertical room, and stands out against square and landscape images.
| Format | Dimensions | Feed impact |
|---|---|---|
| Standard pin (ideal) | 1000 × 1500 px (2:3) | full display, best visibility |
| Square | 1000 × 1000 px (1:1) | accepted, less space |
| Long pin | 1000 × 2100 px | cropped in the feed |
| Profile picture | ≥ 165 × 165 px (round) | — |
Why not longer than 2:3?
"Long pins" used to be popular — today Pinterest crops them in the feed and only shows them in full on click. So for the crucial first impression, only the upper 2:3 window counts. If you still build a long graphic recipe or step-by-step as a pin, you have to fit the core message and title in the visible upper area — the rest only rewards the click.
Text on the pin — here explicitly welcome
Unlike pure photo platforms, a text overlay is standard on Pinterest, because users save pins as ideas and how-tos. A good pin text is:
- large and in the upper third — where the feed preview shows it;
- high-contrast — light text on a darkened area or vice versa;
- short — one clear statement, no body text.
File format and size
- JPG for photo-heavy pins (quality 85), PNG for lots of sharp text or graphics.
- Pinterest allows up to 20 MB, but 1–2 MB is plenty for perfect sharpness — larger files only load slower.
- Bring it to 1000 × 1500 and compress before uploading — with the crop and compression tool, both browser-local.
Quickly build several pin variants
A proven Pinterest trick: create several pins from one subject with different text/layout and pin them spread out over time. To quickly set up the right canvas dimensions, the social media sizes tool provides templates for common platform formats.
The dimensions of all other platforms are collected in Social media image sizes 2026.
In short
- 1000 × 1500 (2:3) is the winning portrait format.
- Don't go longer than 2:3 — long pins get cropped in the feed.
- Text overlay is expected — large, high-contrast, upper third.
- 1–2 MB, JPG Q85 for sharp, fast-loading pins.