What a Pinterest Carousel Is and Holds

What is a Pinterest carousel?

A Pinterest carousel is a single Pin that holds 2 to 5 static images, each square 1:1 or vertical 2:3, which people swipe through without leaving the feed. Pinterest's help article Create a carousel opens with the definition: "A carousel is a Pin with multiple cards."

The same article explains how people use it. They "can swipe through the different images (or cards) directly from the feed," or open the carousel and swipe "through each card and its corresponding site, essentially swiping through the different landing pages." Saving works on the whole unit: "When someone saves a carousel, they save the entire Pin including all the cards within it."

That last point shapes how you plan one. A carousel is one Pin with one save count, one board and one set of stats, not five Pins posted together. If each image needs its own board or its own search reach, publish separate image Pins instead.

One carousel or separate image Pins?

One carousel

One Pin with one save count
One board
One set of stats
People swipe through every image in the feed

Separate image Pins

Each image can go to its own board
Each image has its own search reach
Each image has its own stats

Publish separate Pins when each image needs its own board or its own search reach.

How many images can a Pinterest carousel have?

A Pinterest carousel can have 2 to 5 images, and Pinterest repeats that range in its help article, its ad specs and its API. The Create a carousel steps say to "upload 2-5 images for your carousel in the order you want them to appear." The Review ad specs page lists "2 to 5 images per carousel," and the API v5 schema sets minItems: 2 and maxItems: 5 on the carousel items array.

There is one larger figure on the specs page, and it belongs to a different product. Dynamic carousel ads pull "2 to 10 images and video per carousel" from a product catalog, and Pinterest notes "This only applies to the sales objective." A carousel you build yourself stops at 5.

What are the image specs for a Pinterest carousel?

Each image in a Pinterest carousel has to be a PNG or JPEG of 20 MB or less, at a 1:1 or 2:3 aspect ratio. The carousel row of Pinterest's Review ad specs page lists the full set, and the format "Can be used in paid ad campaigns or to generate organic impressions," so the same rules cover organic carousels:

Spec	Pinterest's stated value
Images per carousel	2 to 5
File type	.PNG or .JPEG
Max file size	20 MB per image
Aspect ratio	1:1 or 2:3
Media type	Static images only
Title	Up to 100 characters
Description	Up to 800 characters

The help article adds the media rule: "At this time only static images can be used in a carousel, and the aspect ratio must be either 1:1 (square) or 2:3 (vertical)." A video, a GIF or a 9:16 image does not belong in a carousel.

Pinterest publishes no pixel size for carousel images. Its standard image ad spec recommends "a 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1000 x 1500 pixels," so 1000 x 1500 for vertical cards and 1000 x 1000 for square cards match the rest of Pinterest's guidance. Pinterest does not say whether one carousel can mix the two ratios, so keep every card at the same ratio. For text placement on those cards, see social media safe zones.

How do you create a Pinterest carousel?

Pinterest creates carousels on desktop only, from Ads Manager or the bulk editor, on a business account in a country where Pinterest ads are available. The help article states the device rule: "Carousel Pins can only be created using a desktop device." In Ads Manager the steps are:

Open Ads Manager on desktop and click Create campaign, set to Custom create campaign.
Leave the budget fields blank if you do not want to promote the carousel.
Under Ads, click the plus-circle icon to open the Pin builder and upload the hero image.
Click + Create carousel and upload 2 to 5 images in the order they should appear.
Add a Board, Title, Description and Destination link, then click Publish.

The bulk editor route uses a spreadsheet. Download the sample sheet, set the creative type to CAROUSEL, add 2 to 5 images, and fill in "Image file name, Title, Description, Organic Pin URL, and Destination URL" before uploading. If you promote a carousel later, Pinterest charges impressions "as one entity, not per swipe," and reporting shows the Pin as one unit "and not reflect engagement with each card."

The Pin builder you use for everyday image Pins, covered in how to post pictures on Pinterest, does not build carousels. Selecting up to 10 images there creates up to 10 separate Pins.

How do you create a Pinterest carousel through the API?

The Pinterest API v5 creates a carousel through POST /v5/pins with a media_source of type multiple_image_urls or multiple_image_base64, holding 2 to 5 items. The OpenAPI description Pinterest publishes for API v5 (version 5.28.0) defines both source types:

Source type	Required per item	Optional per item	Item count
`multiple_image_urls`	`url`	`title`, `description`, `link`	2 to 5
`multiple_image_base64`	`content_type`, `data`	`title`, `description`, `link`	2 to 5

For base64 items, content_type takes image/jpeg or image/png, the same two formats as the help centre spec. Both source types also accept an optional index integer with a minimum of 0, which the schema does not describe further.

The per-item title, description and link fields are what let each card point to its own landing page, the behaviour the help article describes as "swiping through the different landing pages." When the Pin comes back from the API, its media object has a media_type of multiple_images and an items array with each image's sizes, title, description and link.

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The schema validates the count and the image type. It does not check the 1:1 or 2:3 ratio, so crop every image before the call. The call uses the same POST /v5/pins endpoint as any other Pin, so it draws on the write budget covered in the Pinterest API rate limit.

How is a Pinterest carousel different from an Idea Pin?

A Pinterest carousel is a set of 2 to 5 static images with a link per card, while an Idea Pin was Pinterest's multi-page Pin format, built in the app. Pinterest announced on May 11, 2023 that it would "unify all of the features that Pinners and content creators have come to love under one, simple format," which it calls Pins, and opened links, post-publish editing and flexible aspect ratios to all users.

Pinterest's current Create a Pin article describes what happens to multi-page content made in the app: "If you select multiple images and videos, they'll be stitched together into a single video Pin." The paid form survives in the ad specs, where Idea ads "appear as a set of multiple videos, images, lists and custom text in a single Pin." Our Idea Pins guide covers how that format was used.

	Carousel	Multi-page Pin from the app
Media	2 to 5 static images	Images and videos together
Result	A swipeable image Pin	A single video Pin
Aspect ratio	1:1 or 2:3	9:16 recommended for full-screen video
Where you build it	Desktop, Ads Manager or bulk editor	Pinterest app
Links	One per card	Pin-level link
API	`multiple_image_urls` or `multiple_image_base64`	Upload as a video through `POST /v5/media`

Use a carousel when each image is a separate product or step with its own link. Use the app's multi-page flow when the content needs motion or sound.

How does AdaptlyPost handle Pinterest carousels?

AdaptlyPost publishes Pinterest carousels of 2 to 5 images next to single image and video Pins, and it does not resize uploaded media, so each image has to be cropped to 1:1 or 2:3 before it goes into the queue. Every Pinterest post through AdaptlyPost needs a board ID, takes a Pin title of up to 100 characters and an optional destination link, and uses the alt text of the first image, cut to 500 characters. Upload JPEG or PNG files, since those are the two formats Pinterest lists for carousels. You plan carousels with the rest of your Pins in the Pinterest post scheduler, and how to schedule Pinterest posts covers timing.