How to Download Pinterest Images on Desktop and Phone

Maki blog · 2026-10-28

Downloading Pinterest images is straightforward once you know where to look, but the default methods give you a compressed copy, not the original file. This guide covers every method that works in 2026, on desktop and phone, plus the parts most tutorials skip: saving whole boards, getting full-resolution files, and keeping your downloads organized enough to actually use.

How to download a Pinterest image on desktop

Using the Download image menu

This is the official method and the one Pinterest supports directly.

1. Open Pinterest in your browser and find the pin you want.
2. Click the pin so it opens in its own view, with the image on one side and the description on the other.
3. Find the three-dot menu (usually near the share and save buttons below or beside the image).
4. Click it and choose the download option from the list.
5. The file saves to your browser's default download folder, usually as a JPG.

That's the whole process. It takes about ten seconds per image.

The catch: Pinterest serves you the version it stores, which is often resized and recompressed. Fine for a quick look. Not fine if you're pulling reference for detail work like fabric texture or skin rendering, where compression artifacts show up the moment you zoom in.

Takeaway: the three-dot menu is your default move for one-off saves. If the image looks soft when you zoom, jump to the full-size section below.

Right-click and Save image as

The browser-native route, useful when the download menu is missing or buried.

1. Open the pin in its own view.
2. Right-click directly on the image.
3. Choose Save image as from the browser menu.
4. Pick a folder and confirm. Name the file something you'll recognize later.

Two things worth knowing. First, if you right-click while the pin is still in the grid view, you'll save the small thumbnail, not the full image. Always open the pin first. Second, some browsers save the file as WebP, Pinterest's delivery format. That's covered in the troubleshooting section.

Takeaway: right-click works everywhere the menu doesn't, but always open the pin first, or you'll save a thumbnail.

Getting the full-size version

Here's what most tutorials don't mention: the file Pinterest hands you is rarely the largest version that exists. Pinterest stores multiple sizes of each pin, and the download option doesn't always give you the biggest one.

The fix is to read the image URL. Pinterest image addresses contain a size marker like /236x/, /474x/, /736x/ or /originals/ in the path. The number is the width in pixels. When you right-click and copy the image address, you can paste it into the address bar, edit the size segment up to /originals/, and load the largest stored copy. Then save that.

Step by step:

1. Open the pin in its own view.
2. Right-click the image and choose Copy image address (the exact wording varies by browser).
3. Paste the URL into a new tab. Look at the path for a segment like /736x/.
4. Replace that segment with /originals/ and press Enter.
5. If the image loads, right-click and save it. If you get an error, step back down through the sizes: try /1200x/ or /736x/.

It takes about twenty extra seconds per image. When the original upload was large, the /originals/ copy can be several times wider than the 736-pixel version, and that difference matters when you need to see how an artist handled an edge.

Takeaway: before accepting a download, check the URL for /originals/. It's the difference between a reference you can zoom into and one you can't.

How to download Pinterest images on iPhone and Android

In the Pinterest app

The mobile app has the same three-dot menu as the desktop site.

1. Tap the pin to open it.
2. Tap the three-dot icon in the corner of the pin view.
3. Choose the download option from the menu.
4. On Android, the image saves to your gallery or Downloads folder. On iPhone, it saves to Photos, and iOS may ask for permission to save to your library the first time.

On iPhone, if the menu shows a share option instead, you can use the system share sheet and choose Save Image from there. Same result.

The app serves images sized for a phone screen, so a mobile download is often smaller than the desktop one. Usable for mood boards and color reference on the go. Check the dimensions before you rely on it for detail study.

Takeaway: the app works for quick saves, but if the image matters, save it from desktop later and get the full-size version.

When the download option is missing

This happens for a few reasons, and most have a workaround.

• The pin is a video or a multi-page pin. These don't get the standard image download option. Videos need the tools in the video section below.
• The pin type doesn't offer it. Some pins, such as ads and certain shopping pins, show a shorter menu. Open the source with the Visit button instead.
• App version or glitch. Sometimes the menu just doesn't load. Close the app fully and reopen it, or update to the current version.
• iOS permission issue. If tapping download does nothing on iPhone, check Settings > Pinterest > Photos and make sure the app can write to your library.

The screenshot fallback always works, but it captures the screen, not the file. You get the resolution of your display and whatever UI was on screen. Crop it if you need to.

Takeaway: a missing download option usually means the pin is a video or a pin type without it. Screenshots work in a pinch, nothing more.

How to save a whole Pinterest board

Why Pinterest has no board download

Pinterest has never offered a way to download an entire board as a set of files. There's a good reason from their side: boards are the product. If you could export everything, you'd have less reason to come back. There's also a rights issue, since most pins are other people's work.

You can request your account data through Pinterest's settings, which includes some of your content, but it's an archive for account purposes, not a clean folder of board images. It arrives as a download you then have to unpack and sort. For a working artist who just wants 200 reference images in a folder, it's the wrong tool.

So the real options are extensions and apps that read the board page by page. Both work around the same limit: Pinterest loads pins in batches as you scroll, so any tool can only grab what has loaded.

Takeaway: no native board export exists. Plan on a third-party tool, and expect it to work in batches rather than all at once.

Browser extensions

Several Chrome extensions can grab every image on the currently loaded page. The general-purpose image downloaders work on Pinterest too: you scroll a board until everything has loaded, run the extension, and filter the results to the pin images, then download them as a batch.

The workflow:

1. Install a reputable image-downloader extension from the Chrome Web Store. Check the review count and recent reviews before installing anything.
2. Open your board and scroll. Keep scrolling until you reach the bottom. For a 300-pin board, this can take a minute or two of continuous scrolling.
3. Run the extension. It lists every image it found on the page.
4. Filter to the large pin images. You'll see lots of small thumbnails and profile avatars; exclude anything under about 500 pixels wide.
5. Select all and download. The files land in one folder, usually with machine-generated names.

Be picky about which extension you install. Some image downloader extensions are ad-supported in annoying ways, and a few have questionable permissions. Read what access it asks for. If an extension wants to read your browsing history to download images, pick another one.

Takeaway: extensions work well for one-time grabs of 50 to 500 images. Budget 10 to 15 minutes for a medium board, including the scrolling.

Importing a board into a reference app

If you save Pinterest reference regularly, a dedicated reference app is the better long-term setup. Instead of downloading files into a downloads folder and dragging them into place, you send the board to the app and it lays the pins out as a board of their own.

Maki, the app we make, does this through its Save to Maki browser extension: open a Pinterest board, click once, and up to 1,000 pins arrive as their own Maki board, laid out in columns. The images are stored on your disk, so the board keeps working offline. If you're comparing options, the same category includes apps like PureRef and Eagle; we've written comparisons of PureRef alternatives and Eagle alternatives that cover where each one is strong.

The reason to go this route is durability. Downloads folders rot. Six months from now you won't remember which of the 47 files named img_2026.jpg was the lighting study you wanted. An imported board keeps the images, the source links, and your own notes in one searchable place.

Takeaway: for ongoing reference work, import the board once and let the app keep it organized. For a single project, an extension grab is fine.

How to download Pinterest videos

What works

Pinterest has no download option for video pins. Not in the app, not on desktop. Any video you want to keep needs a third-party tool.

The reliable category is browser extensions built for saving web video. A video downloader extension sits in your toolbar and detects playable video on the page; when you're on a video pin, you click it, pick the video from the list, and save it as an MP4. This works because the video has to stream to your browser anyway, and the extension captures that stream.

1. Install a video downloader extension with a solid reputation and recent updates.
2. Open the video pin in its own view.
3. Click the extension icon. It lists the video files it detected.
4. Pick the largest one (the list usually shows resolution or file size).
5. Save it as an MP4.

Pinterest often streams several sizes of the same video, so the list may show more than one file. The largest one is the closest to what was uploaded.

Takeaway: a video downloader extension is the dependable route. Pick the largest file in the list.

What to avoid

Search results for Pinterest video downloaders are full of ad-heavy websites that ask you to paste a link. Some work. Many are loaded with pop-ups, fake download buttons, and redirects. A few are worse than that.

Rules that keep you out of trouble:

• Avoid any site that asks you to install something to download a video. The download is the product; extra installs are the risk.
• Avoid sites that require an account or payment for a basic MP4 save.
• If a site immediately redirects you elsewhere, close the tab.
• Prefer extensions from the official Chrome Web Store with substantial review histories over standalone websites.

You're trying to save a reference clip, not hand your browser history to a stranger.

Takeaway: stick to established extensions. If a downloader site feels sketchy, it probably is, and you have alternatives.

Finding the original source and a higher resolution

The Visit button

Most pins link back to the site they came from. Look for the Visit button or the source domain shown on the pin, usually near the title and description. Clicking it takes you to the original page: an artist's portfolio, an ArtStation project, a blog post, a store listing.

This matters for two reasons. First, the original page usually hosts the image at full resolution, uncompressed. A pin that downloads at 736 pixels wide might be a 4000-pixel painting on the artist's own site. Second, you learn who made it, which matters for the copyright section below.

Not every pin has a live source. Dead links are common on older pins, and some pins are uploaded directly to Pinterest with no external link at all. When the source is gone, the pin itself may be the only surviving copy, which is one of the quieter arguments for saving what you care about.

Takeaway: before settling for the Pinterest copy, click through to the source. You'll often find a bigger file and always find the artist's name.

Reverse image search

When a pin has no source link, or the link is dead, reverse image search finds the original. You give a search engine the image, and it looks for visually similar pages across the web.

1. Save the pin image locally, or copy its image address.
2. Open a reverse image search: Google Images and Bing Visual Search both work by dragging the file into the search box or pasting the URL.
3. Look at the results for the artist's own site, an ArtStation or Behance page, or a higher-resolution copy on another site.
4. Open the best match and save the image from there.

This is also how you find out a pin is a repost. A large share of Pinterest content is re-uploaded without credit. Reverse search is the fastest way to find the actual creator, and finding the actual creator is how you avoid building your reference library on top of someone else's uncredited work.

Takeaway: reverse image search takes 30 seconds and routinely finds both the artist and a better copy. Make it a habit for anything you plan to study closely.

Copyright: what you can do with downloaded pins

Personal reference and study

Nearly every image on Pinterest belongs to someone. Saving it to your disk for personal reference, study, and mood boards is the kind of use that's widely accepted and that artists have practiced with magazine clippings and saved images for decades. You're looking at the work privately to learn from it.

The line that matters: personal reference is not the same as reposting or selling. Keeping a folder of lighting studies by artists you admire is one thing. Re-uploading those images to your own Pinterest, posting them to social media, or putting them in anything you sell is different, and that's where you need permission.

A practical habit: when you save an image you expect to study seriously, save the artist's name with it. Even a filename like lighting-study-artistname.jpg is enough. If the image ever matters beyond your private reference, you'll know who to ask.

Takeaway: save freely for your own study, keep names attached, and treat anything beyond private reference as needing permission.

Posting or selling work

• Reference boards shown in a portfolio or tutorial: if you show your reference board publicly, you're displaying other people's work. Either get permission or crop and blur the board in your screenshots.
• Client work: using reference to understand how light behaves is normal and fine. Copying a specific image's composition into a deliverable you're paid for is risky. If a client piece leans on one artist's image closely, that's a conversation to have before delivery, not after.
• Teaching and tutorials: the same rule applies. Analyze the work, describe what you learned, but don't republish the image itself without permission.
• AI training or asset packs: bundling downloaded pins into anything you distribute is clearly beyond personal reference. Don't.

When in doubt, the test is simple: would the artist be fine with this specific use if they saw it? If you're unsure, ask. Most artists answer permission emails, and many say yes with a credit condition.

Takeaway: private study is safe territory. Everything public or paid needs the artist's permission, and asking is easier than you think.

Organizing what you download

Folders by project

The default outcome of Pinterest downloading is a downloads folder with 200 files named like 1678234567890.jpg. Every artist has one. The fix is boring and effective: a folder per project, with a naming convention you actually follow.

A structure that works:

• One top-level folder per project: reference/witch-house/
• Subfolders by category inside it: architecture/, characters/, lighting/, props/
• Filenames that say what the image is: architecture-timber-frame-cottage.jpg beats img_0042.jpg every time

Renaming as you save costs about five seconds per image. Doing it later, for 200 images, costs an afternoon. Pick your poison.

If you use a reference app, the folder structure matters less, because the app's search does the finding. But a clean folder tree still helps when you're browsing rather than searching, and it keeps your library sane if you ever switch tools, since everything on your disk moves with you.

Takeaway: a project folder with descriptive filenames costs seconds now and saves hours later. Set it up before your next download session, not after.

Keeping the source link

The image is half the value. The other half is knowing where it came from.

Six months after downloading, you will want one of these things: the artist's name, because your project evolved and now you want to commission or credit them; the original page, because you need the higher-resolution version; or the context, because the image was part of a tutorial or a series and the rest of it is useful too.

None of that is recoverable from a file named img_0042.jpg sitting in a folder. The fix is to store the link alongside the image. Options, from lightest to heaviest:

• Filename: append the artist's site to the name. Crude but searchable.
• A links file: a plain text file per project folder listing each image and its source URL. Ten minutes to maintain, works forever, no software needed.
• A reference app: apps like Maki keep the page an image came from when you save it with the browser extension, so the connection survives without manual work.

Pinterest itself keeps the source on the pin page, but pins get deleted, boards get reorganized, and search inside Pinterest is unreliable for finding something you saved a year ago. Your own copy of the link is the only durable one.

Takeaway: store the source URL with the image, in whatever form you'll actually maintain. Future you needs it.

Finding images again later

The test of a reference system isn't how it looks the day you build it. It's whether you can find one specific image out of 3,000, two years later, in under a minute.

Search is the bottleneck. Your operating system's file search reads filenames, and that's it. If you named your files well, you'll find maybe half of what you're looking for. If you didn't, you're scrolling through folders and squinting at thumbnails.

What actually works for retrieval:

• Descriptive filenames: the baseline. lighting-sunset-rim-light-portrait.jpg is findable; DSC_4471.jpg is not.
• Notes attached to images: a note saying "good cloth folds, see left sleeve" makes an image findable by what you actually cared about, not just what it depicts.
• Search that reads inside images: some reference apps can search the text visible in an image, so a screenshot of a tutorial step is findable by the words on it. Maki does this offline, reading file names, notes and the words inside images, with filters for type, date and color.
• Color filtering: being able to say "show me the muted teal images from my witch-house board" is a genuinely useful retrieval method that filenames can't replicate.

Build for retrieval from the start. Every image you save without a findable name or note is an image you effectively don't have.

Takeaway: name files descriptively and add notes as you save. If your library has passed a few hundred images, move to a tool with real search, like a reference manager for artists.

Troubleshooting Pinterest downloads

The download option is missing

When the three-dot menu has no download option, one of three things is happening:

1. It's a video or multi-page pin. These never get the image download option. Use the video methods above.
2. It's an ad or shopping pin. These often show a shorter menu. Use the Visit button to reach the original page.
3. A glitch. Reload the page, or close and reopen the app. This fixes it more often than it should.

If you still need the image for personal study, a screenshot works. Just know you're capturing your screen's resolution, not the file.

Takeaway: check the pin type first. Reload before concluding anything is broken.

The image saves as WebP

Pinterest serves many images as WebP, a modern format that's smaller than JPG. Browsers save what they're given, so your download arrives as .webp. Photoshop opens WebP fine in current versions, but plenty of older tools, some plugins, and certain game engines don't.

Fixes, in order of preference:

1. Convert the file. Open it in any modern image editor and export as JPG or PNG. Free options handle this in seconds.
2. Convert in bulk. If you've downloaded 100 WebP files, a batch converter (many free ones exist) processes the whole folder at once.

WebP is not a lower-quality format. It's just a compatibility annoyance. The pixels are fine.

Takeaway: convert WebP to JPG or PNG with a batch tool and move on. Don't fight the format.

The image is low resolution

You downloaded a pin, opened it, and it's 600 pixels wide. Three possible causes, each with a fix:

1. You saved the thumbnail. If you right-clicked from the grid view instead of opening the pin, you got the small version. Open the pin and try again.
2. Pinterest gave you a compressed copy. Use the URL method from the full-size section: copy the image address, swap the size segment to /originals/, and save the bigger version.
3. The original was small. Sometimes 600 pixels is all that exists. The creator uploaded a small image, or the pin is a screenshot of something else. Check the source page via the Visit button; if the original is bigger there, save it from there.

A quick way to check what you actually have: open the file and look at its dimensions. Under 800 pixels wide means it's reference for composition and color only. Over 1200 means you can zoom in for detail study.

Takeaway: low resolution usually means you saved a thumbnail or a compressed copy. The URL trick and the source page fix most cases.

Key takeaways

• The three-dot download menu and right-click Save image as cover single saves on desktop; the same menu exists in the mobile app.
• The default download is a compressed copy. Editing the image URL to /originals/ often gets you a much larger file.
• Pinterest has no board download. Browser extensions grab what's loaded on screen; reference apps like Maki can import a whole board (up to 1,000 pins) with one click.
• Video pins need a video downloader extension. Avoid ad-heavy downloader websites that ask for installs or accounts.
• Click the Visit button or reverse image search to find the artist and usually a higher-resolution original.
• Personal reference is fine; reposting or selling someone's image needs permission. Keep artist names attached to files you care about.

FAQ

Can I download a Pinterest image without the app?

Yes. Open Pinterest in any desktop browser, open the pin, and use the three-dot download option or right-click Save image as. The browser route also gives you access to the full-size URL trick, which the app doesn't.

Why is my Pinterest download blurry or small?

Usually because you saved the grid thumbnail instead of the opened pin, or Pinterest served a compressed copy. Open the pin first, then check the image URL for a larger size segment like /originals/. If the original upload was small, the source page may have a better version.

Is there a way to download an entire Pinterest board at once?

Not through Pinterest itself. Browser extensions can batch-download the pins loaded on a board page after you scroll to the bottom, and reference apps like Maki can import a board with one click from its browser extension, up to 1,000 pins, as a board of their own.

Is it legal to save Pinterest images?

Saving images for personal reference and study is widely accepted practice. Reposting, selling, or bundling them into distributed work is different and generally requires the artist's permission. When in doubt, ask the creator.

How do I download a Pinterest video?

Pinterest doesn't offer video downloads. Use a reputable browser extension that detects web video, open the video pin, and save the largest file the extension lists, usually an MP4.

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