To learn how to automate posting on Pinterest, start with one decision: what should the automation start from? If you already have finished pins, a scheduler posts them on time. If you have a blog, an RSS feed or a spreadsheet, a workflow tool like Zapier, Make or n8n can turn each new item into a pin. And if you want pins made and posted for every page of your site without touching them, an end-to-end tool does the whole job. All six ways below post through Pinterest’s official API, which keeps your account safe.
Quick answer
- Free: Pinterest’s scheduler (30 days ahead) and RSS auto-publish for new blog posts.
- You make the pins, a tool posts them: Tailwind, Buffer or Publer.
- Pins from triggers: Zapier or Make with no code, n8n if you self-host.
- Fully hands-off: SiteToSocial, which creates and posts pins for every page, from $10 a month.
The 6 ways to automate Pinterest posting, compared
| Method | Starts from | What you still do | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Pinterest’s scheduler | Pins you upload | Design, write, upload each pin | Free |
| 2. RSS auto-publish | New blog posts | Nothing, but pins reuse the post’s image and text | Free |
| 3. A Pinterest scheduler app | Pins you upload | Design and write each pin | Free plans; paid from $4 a month |
| 4. Zapier or Make | A trigger: RSS, WordPress, Sheets, Drive | Build the workflow; the image must already exist | Free tiers, then by usage |
| 5. n8n | Any trigger, through Pinterest’s API | Build, host and maintain it | Free self-hosted |
| 6. End-to-end tool | Your whole website | Set it up once | From $10 a month |
Before you automate anything
Three things take ten minutes and decide whether automation works. Switch to a free business account, claim your website so pins show your name and RSS auto-publish opens up, and create a handful of boards named after real searches. Our business account guide walks through it, and the setup checklist covers the rest.
1. Schedule pins with Pinterest’s own scheduler
The simplest automation is built into Pinterest. Create a pin as usual, and instead of publishing, choose to publish at a later date. Pinterest holds it and posts it at the time you picked, up to 30 days ahead.
- Open the pin builder from the Create menu in your business account.
- Add the image, title, description, link and board. Put the searched phrase at the start of the title.
- Pick “publish at a later date” and set the day and time.
- Batch it. For many pins at once, Pinterest’s bulk upload creates up to 200 from a CSV file.
It’s free and as safe as it gets. The limit is your time: every pin is still designed and written by you.
2. Auto-publish new blog posts from your RSS feed
Once your website is claimed, Pinterest can watch your blog’s RSS feed and turn each new post into a pin on the board you choose. You connect the feed once in your business account settings and it runs from then on. You can connect several feeds to different boards.
The catch is quality. RSS pins use whatever image and text the feed carries: usually a wide blog photo and a title written for Google. Older posts never get a pin, either. Fine as a free baseline, weak as a strategy. If your blog runs on WordPress, auto-posting from WordPress covers plugins that do better.
3. Queue pins in a Pinterest scheduler app
Schedulers keep a queue and post from it at good times, which beats booking each pin by hand. Tailwind is built for Pinterest and picks times for your audience; Buffer and Publer are cheaper and also post to other networks. The workflow is the same in each:
- Connect Pinterest on Pinterest’s own approval screen.
- Upload a batch of finished pins with their titles, descriptions, links and boards.
- Let the queue post them at set times or the tool’s suggested times.
You save the posting step and nothing else. Prices and limits for each are in our best Pinterest scheduler comparison.
4. Build a no-code workflow with Zapier or Make
Workflow tools connect a trigger in one app to an action in another. Both Zapier and Make have a Pinterest “create pin” action, so anything that produces an image and a link can become a pin. These are the recipes people use most:
| When this happens | Create a pin with | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| A new item appears in an RSS feed | The item’s image, title and link | Wide images look small in the feed |
| You publish a WordPress post | The featured image and post title | Same image as RSS; write a Pinterest title |
| A row is added to Google Sheets | The row’s image URL, title, description, link, board | The most control: you fill the sheet |
| A file lands in a Google Drive or Dropbox folder | The file as the pin image | Title and link need a source too |
| You upload a YouTube video | The video thumbnail and link | Thumbnails are wide, not 2:3 |
The spreadsheet recipe is the one worth building. Design pins in Canva, drop the image links and text into a sheet with a “post on” date, and let the workflow publish one row at a time. Map the fields carefully: the image has to be a public URL, the board is chosen by ID or name, and the link should go to the exact page the pin promises.
5. Self-host the workflow with n8n
n8n does the same job for free if you host it yourself, which is why it shows up in so many Reddit and Medium builds. There’s no ready-made Pinterest node, so the posting step is an HTTP Request node that calls Pinterest’s API to create a pin. A typical build looks like this:
- Create a Pinterest developer app and get an access token for your account. New apps start with limited access until Pinterest approves them for standard use.
- Pick a trigger: a schedule, a new row in a sheet, or a new post in your feed.
- Write the text, by hand in the sheet or with an AI step that drafts the title and description. Keep a “pending” status so you approve before anything posts.
- Post the pin with a request that sends the board, title, description, link, alt text and image URL.
- Mark the row as posted so nothing goes out twice.
Two warnings from those builds. Use your own content: pins built from other people’s videos or photos can be removed for copyright, and repeated removals put the account at risk. And pace it: a loop that fires fifty pins at once is how a new account gets flagged. A working setup is in our guide to Make and n8n for Pinterest.
6. Let an end-to-end tool create and post the pins
Every method above still leaves the hard part to you: deciding what each pin targets, writing it and designing it. End-to-end tools take that on too. They read your site, so the archive gets pins as well, not only new posts.
| Level | What the tool does for you | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Full automation | Finds your pages, writes the text, designs the pin and posts it every day, with no work per pin once it is set up. | SiteToSocial, Pin Generator |
| Partial automation | Creates pins from your site, but you review and schedule them, or need a top plan before it runs on its own. | Tailwind, BlogToPin |
| Auto-posts new items | Posts each new blog post or feed item by itself, with the image and text as they are. Older pages never get pins, and nothing is designed. | Pinterest (built-in), Publer, SocialPilot, dlvr.it |
| Scheduling only | Publishes the pins you designed and wrote, at the times you choose. | Canva, Buffer, Planoly, Later, Hootsuite, Sprout Social |
| Build it yourself | Connects a trigger to Pinterest. You build every step, including where the image and the text come from. | Make / n8n / Zapier |
Among the full-automation tools, SiteToSocial is the one we rank first, at 4.7 out of 5 in our comparison of 15 tools. Setting it up takes four steps:
- Add your site. It reads your sitemap, or a list of links for Etsy and Medium, and lists your pages.
- Connect Pinterest on Pinterest’s approval screen; it never asks for your password.
- Choose boards and a daily number, up to 15 pins a day per website.
- Leave it running. Each pin is built on a phrase checked against Pinterest’s search data, designed from the page’s own photos and posted through the day, with a 12-day warm-up for new accounts.
It costs $10 per website a month, with a 14-day free trial and no card. It won’t make video pins or let you place every element by hand. For those, Pin Generator is the stronger pick, and it charges credits for each action. Every option is scored in our ranking of the best Pinterest automation tools.
Which way should you automate?
| Your situation | Best way |
|---|---|
| Brand new, no budget | Pinterest’s scheduler plus RSS auto-publish |
| You love designing pins | Canva for design, a scheduler app for posting |
| You already live in Google Sheets | Zapier or Make with the spreadsheet recipe |
| You’re technical and want it free | n8n, self-hosted |
| A blog or shop that wants pins for every page without the work | An end-to-end tool such as SiteToSocial |
Mistakes that break automated posting
- Bursts. Twenty pins in a minute look like a bot. Spread posts through the day; see how many pins per day.
- One pin, many boards. A fresh pin for the same page does more than the same pin saved ten times.
- Wide images. Pinterest favors tall 2:3 pins, 1000 x 1500 px. RSS and YouTube recipes need fixing here.
- No keyword. Automation that posts titles nobody searches just posts more invisible pins.
- Full speed on a new account. Start with a few pins a day and build up over one to two weeks.
Frequently asked questions
How do I automate posting on Pinterest for free?
Use Pinterest's own tools. The pin builder schedules pins up to 30 days ahead, bulk upload creates up to 200 pins from a CSV file, and RSS auto-publish turns every new blog post into a pin once your website is claimed. Zapier, Make and a self-hosted n8n also have free tiers for simple workflows.
Can Zapier post to Pinterest automatically?
Yes. Zapier's Pinterest integration has a Create Pin action, so a new RSS item, WordPress post, Google Sheets row or Google Drive file can become a pin. You map the image URL, title, description, link and board. Zapier doesn't design the pin or pick keywords; it posts what the trigger gives it.
Can n8n post to Pinterest?
Yes, through Pinterest's API. n8n has no built-in Pinterest node, so you send a request to Pinterest's create-pin endpoint from an HTTP Request node, with a token from your own Pinterest developer app. Self-hosted n8n is free; you build and maintain every step yourself.
Does Pinterest allow automated posting?
Yes, when the posting goes through Pinterest's official API, which is how its own scheduler, approved tools, Zapier, Make and n8n all post. What Pinterest's rules target is spam: bursts of near-identical pins, the same pin saved to many boards, and tools that log in with your password.
What is the easiest way to automate Pinterest posting?
An end-to-end tool that reads your website and does the rest. SiteToSocial, our top-rated tool, finds a searched keyword for each page, writes the pin, designs it from the page's photos and posts it daily, from $10 per website a month. Setup takes a sitemap and one Pinterest approval.
How far ahead can you schedule pins on Pinterest?
Pinterest's own scheduler books pins up to 30 days ahead. Third-party schedulers such as Tailwind, Buffer or Publer let you plan further and keep a queue, and end-to-end tools keep posting with no end date.
