Pinterest Download Glossary
The words that turn up when you try to save a pin — explained in plain language.
Works with public pins only. Only download content you own or have permission to use.
Why a glossary
Pinterest renames things, and the old names do not go away. “Story Pin” became “Idea Pin”, a “GIF” saves as an MP4, and a pin’s “original” size is not always what the creator uploaded. Half of the confusion around saving pins is vocabulary, so here is the vocabulary in one place.
The terms, one by one
Every term below is one you meet inside the downloader: in the FAQ, in an error message, or in the name of a file you just saved.
- Pin
- A single saved idea on Pinterest: one image, one video, or one multi-page Idea Pin.
- Idea Pin
- Pinterest's multi-page format, formerly called a Story Pin: several image or video slides published as one pin.
- Story Pin
- The old name for an Idea Pin. Pinterest renamed it in 2021, so both words still turn up in searches and in older links.
- pin.it link
- Pinterest’s own short link. It redirects to the full pinterest.com/pin/... address, and the downloader follows that redirect before fetching the file.
- Board and secret board
- The collection a pin is saved to. A secret board is visible only to its owner, and a pin saved nowhere else cannot be downloaded.
- Rich Pin
- A pin that carries extra structured data — recipe, article, product — pulled from the site the pin links to.
- Available resolution
- The largest file Pinterest actually serves for a pin. It is not always the size the creator uploaded, so we fetch the biggest rendition Pinterest exposes instead of promising the “original”.
- Cover image
- The still frame Pinterest shows for a video pin or an Idea Pin. Also called a thumbnail.
- MP4
- The container Pinterest uses for video pins and animations. A “GIF” pin downloads as MP4 because that is the file Pinterest stores.
- Watermark
- A logo or text burned into a file to mark where it came from. PinSave never adds one — the file you receive is what Pinterest served, byte for byte.
Ready to try it
Paste a public Pinterest link and the tool fetches the best file Pinterest serves for that pin.
Related reading
More on this topic from our blog.
PinSave is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Pinterest. You are responsible for downloading only content you own or have permission to use, and for complying with applicable terms and law.