Pinterest Pin Size: Crop to 1000 x 1500 Without Stretching
Crop Pinterest Pins to 1000 x 1500 without stretching. Use native Photos first, then resize and compress cleanly for upload.
Contents
Pinterest wants a vertical Pin, not a stretched one. The practical target is 1000 x 1500 pixels, a 2:3 canvas that keeps the feed crop predictable. Start by cropping the image to 2:3, then resize to 1000 x 1500, then export as JPG or PNG under Pinterest’s upload limit.
Everyone’s been here: the Etsy product shot is square, the blog hero is 16:9, and the Pin template wants a tall rectangle by lunch. If you force the pixels, the product gets skinny. Bad look. If you need a browser pass after the native crop, RoundCut’s crop image tool lets you set the 2:3 frame before you touch file size.
What size should a Pinterest Pin be?
Use 1000 x 1500 pixels for a standard Pinterest Pin. Pinterest’s own creative specs recommend a 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1000 x 1500 pixels, and warn that larger aspect ratios can be cut off in people’s feeds.
The same Pinterest spec says standard image ads use PNG or JPEG, with a maximum of 20 MB for desktop tools and 32 MB for in-app tools. That’s the ceiling, not the goal. A Pin that is 14 MB may upload, but it’s still heavy for a mobile-heavy feed where the thumbnail has to sell the click before anyone reads the title.
The ratio matters more than the raw number. A 2000 x 3000 source is still 2:3. So is 1200 x 1800. I use 1000 x 1500 because it is large enough for crisp text, small enough to move around, and easy to audit against social specs when one asset becomes two platform exports.
Keep the hero shot in the upper half if the Pin has text. Pinterest’s grid shows a lot, but not every preview gives you the same breathing room, especially when someone sees the Pin inside recommendations instead of on your profile. White space is not wasted space here.
How do you crop a Pin in Photos first?
Start with Apple Photos, iPhone Photos, or Google Photos if you’re already holding the original there. Crop to a vertical 2:3 shape when the app allows it, duplicate the file first, and keep the original untouched.
On Mac, Photos supports custom aspect ratios, so the native route is good enough for a quick crop. On iPhone, Photos has standard presets like 9:16 and 5:7, plus a freeform crop; that works for eyeballing the layout, but it is not a pixel-exact Pinterest export. Google Photos has crop handles and aspect-ratio controls. Same story.
Almost. The catch is that native editors are better at composition than final delivery. They help you decide what stays in the frame, but they don’t always give you a clean 1000 x 1500 output with predictable compression. That’s where a browser image resizer earns its keep after the native edit.
I usually do the first pass on the phone because the subject decision is obvious there (the product either sits on the grid or it does not). Then I finish on desktop when the Pin has text, a logo, or a tight product crop that needs real pixel numbers.
How do you make a square image 2:3 without stretching?
Don’t stretch a square into a Pinterest rectangle. Put the square image on a 2:3 canvas, add background above or below it, or crop in from the sides only when the subject has enough room.
For product photos, the cleanest move is often a square product image centered on a vertical canvas. Add a brand-color block, a soft neutral background, or extra whitespace around the product. The product keeps its shape, the Pin gets its height, and the visual hierarchy still points to the object instead of to the template.
If the source is a portrait photo, crop height instead of squeezing width. If the source is a landscape blog image, build the Pin like a mini poster: image on top, headline block below, logo small enough that it does not fight the subject. This is the same lesson behind this guide: the platform crop is rarely the villain; the rushed source file is.
I tested a 3024 x 4032 JPG locally, center-cropped it to 2:3, resized it to 1000 x 1500, and exported at quality 82. The source was 2.58 MB. The final JPG was 183 KB. The WebP version was 61 KB. Tiny. More important, the subject didn’t get warped because the crop happened before the resize.
What export format should you use for Pinterest?
Use JPG for most photo Pins, PNG for text-heavy graphics that need sharp edges, and keep WebP for your site version unless your workflow has already tested WebP uploads without trouble.
Pinterest creative specs name PNG and JPEG for standard image ads, so I treat JPG as the safe default for photography and PNG as the safe default for flat graphics. WebP is excellent on websites, but I would not make it the only master file for a Pinterest workflow unless the account’s upload path has already accepted it.
For a product image that also lives on Shopify or a blog, export two versions: a Pinterest JPG at 1000 x 1500 and a web version in WebP or AVIF. If you’re cleaning up a heavy design export, PNG to WebP can shrink the site copy while the Pinterest upload stays conservative.
Compression comes last. Crop first, resize second, compress third. When people reverse that order, they crush detail in a file that still has the wrong dimensions. RoundCut Compress gives you a quick weight check without turning the workflow into a Photoshop session.
How do you check the Pin before upload?
Check the Pin at 100 percent, then zoom out until it looks thumbnail-sized. If the product, headline, and brand mark still read without squinting, the Pin is probably ready.
Here’s my quick pass. Open the final 1000 x 1500 file, confirm the file size is comfortably below Pinterest’s cap, look for stretched circles or warped packaging, and make sure the top third carries the hook. Simple.
For e-commerce Pins, I also compare the Pinterest export with the product-page image. The Pin can be more editorial, but the product should not change color or shape between the feed and the page. That mismatch hurts trust (especially when shoppers are already scanning fast), and it gets uglier around Black Friday or Prime Day.
If the same product image is feeding a store, keep an eye on weight across the site too. The Pinterest Pin is one file, but the product gallery may carry ten. This is where product images and a separate guide on photo compression save more than a few kilobytes.
One last format note: if your design has a cutout product on transparency, save a PNG master before you flatten anything. Then export the Pinterest JPG from that master. The logic is the same as choosing transparent formats: keep the editable version clean, ship the version the platform handles best.
Next Pin, don’t stretch it. Crop to 2:3, resize to 1000 x 1500, compress only after the frame is right. If the product still looks like itself at thumbnail size, you are in good shape.
