Is It Legal to Download Pinterest Videos? Copyright & Fair Use Explained
A plain-English look at the copyright rules around saving Pinterest videos and images — how to stay on the right side of creators and Pinterest itself.
"Is it legal?" is the first question many people ask. The honest answer: it depends on what you download and what you do with it. This guide walks through Pinterest's own rules, the copyright basics that actually matter, and the four usage patterns that almost everyone gets wrong.
Pinterest's own rules
Pinterest's terms ask users not to download content for redistribution. Saving a Pin for personal, offline viewing is generally tolerated; re-uploading it as your own, selling it, or scraping it at scale is not. Pinterest can — and occasionally does — restrict accounts that bulk-download or scrape.
Copyright basics
A few principles that hold up almost everywhere:
- The creator usually owns the photo or video. Ownership doesn't change just because the file reached Pinterest.
- Personal use (watching later, referencing an outfit, archiving your own pins) is low-risk.
- Redistribution, resale, or claiming ownership is where you get into trouble.
- The mere act of downloading a public Pin is rarely a lawsuit on its own — the risk grows with what you do next.
Fair use in short
In the US, "fair use" can cover commentary, criticism, parody, news reporting, and education. It's a defence, not a free pass — courts weigh four factors: purpose of use, the nature of the work, how much you used, and the effect on the market. Outside the US, rules differ. The EU has broader personal-use exceptions; many Asian jurisdictions are stricter about any reproduction.
Four real-life scenarios
| Scenario | Generally OK? | Why | | --- | --- | --- | | Saving a recipe video to watch offline on a flight | Yes | Personal use, no redistribution. | | Using a photo in a paid blog post without crediting the photographer | No | Commercial use + no attribution. | | Remixing a tutorial into your own 60-second commentary video | Maybe | Could qualify as fair use if you add commentary and credit. | | Bulk-downloading a brand's product photos to repost on your store | No | Re-hosting + commercial impact + removes traffic from the source. |
When in doubt, the safer move is to link back to the original Pin or ask the creator directly.
How creators feel about it (quietly)
Most creators are flattered when you save their work — that's literally why they pinned it. What they push back on, hard, is when their image is reposted somewhere else without credit and the new post outranks theirs in search. If you're going to use someone's Pin publicly, attribution solves 80% of the friction.
PinSave's stance
PinSave is a download tool, not a license. We don't host files and we don't grant rights. We build the tool so you can keep content you already have the right to. We block access to private boards and log bulk-usage patterns to keep the service fast for everyone — not to police your downloads after the fact.
Three rules that keep you out of trouble
- Default to personal use. Watching, archiving, referencing — fine.
- Credit publicly. Reposting? Add a clear credit and a link back to the original Pin.
- Don't claim authorship. Don't strip watermarks, don't pass the work off as your own, don't sell it.
Frequently asked questions
Can Pinterest sue me for downloading? Almost never for a single personal save. Platform-level enforcement (warnings, account restrictions) is more common than lawsuits.
What about private boards? PinSave only fetches public Pins. We can't, and won't, fetch content from a board the owner set to private.
Is screenshotting different? Legally, no — screenshots are still copies. But for personal use it's almost never a real-world issue.
Can I download a Pin and post it on Instagram? Not without the creator's permission. Reposting without credit is what triggers takedown notices.
Do I own the files I download? No. You own a copy; the underlying copyright stays with the creator.
Does PinSave keep my download history? No. We don't store the files you download and we don't log a per-user history.
Bottom line
Save responsibly, credit creators, and don't resell what isn't yours. Read our full Terms of Service for the legalese version.