What brands should know about Pinterest in 2026

Pinterest closed the second quarter of 2026 with 640 million monthly users, an 11 percent rise. According to Pinterest, Gen Z now makes up more than half of that audience and is its fastest-growing group, while around 70 percent of users are women. For brands not yet advertising, organic Pins are the way in, and Pinterest's guidance on them is now far more specific.

Organic Pins: the basics

• Work 45 to 60 days ahead. Seasonal searches start well before the season does.
• Blend evergreen, trending and seasonal Pins, and let Pinterest Trends and Pinterest Predicts guide the mix.
• Finish every Pin with a call to action and a link. Idea Pins and standard Pins became one format in 2023, so any Pin can now link out.
• Where it suits the content, add product tags or affiliate links.

Labels for AI-made images

Pinterest identifies images that were generated or edited with AI in two ways, through industry metadata and through classifiers of its own, and creators can flag their work themselves. Organic Pins carry an AI modified label that shows in the close-up view. For ads, the disclosure lives in the menu and can say that the ad features an AI-generated person. Any label can be appealed. Since October 2025 people have been able to ask for fewer AI Pins in categories such as beauty, fashion, home decor and art, and food and drink were added in December 2025.

Pinterest presents it as striking a balance between human creativity and AI, but critics have pushed back: in February 2026, 404 Media reported artists' older work being tagged as AI by mistake. The lesson: use real photography where authenticity counts, and say so wherever AI has been used.

Pinterest Predicts and the Trends tool

Released in December 2025, Pinterest's yearly trends report lists 21 trends for 2026. Among them: Cool Blue, Neo Deco, Scent Stacking, Poetcore, Khaki Coded and Darecations. Pinterest claims 88 percent accuracy across six years of predictions, says Gen Z is behind 67 percent of this year's trends, and reports a 68 percent rise in checkouts on content connected to its 2025 trends. Nothing in the report is specific to the Middle East.

The Pinterest Trends tool gives access to as much as two years of search data. Its coverage has grown by 30 countries since 2022, and in 2025 it gained 90-day predictions. There is no confirmation that it covers the UAE or Saudi Arabia.

Partnering with creators

• Creators have been able to link an Amazon Storefront since June 2026, and their affiliate details are applied automatically whenever they tag an Amazon product.
• Paid partnerships run through a tool inside the app. The brand must approve the tag, and the brand alone can then promote the Pin as an Idea ad.
• #paid, a creator marketplace, joined Pinterest's creator partnership programme as an execution partner in March 2026.

The ad rules, including November's changes

• Weight-loss advertising has been off limits since 2021, including any mention of BMI and any before-and-after imagery.
• Political advertising is not permitted.
• Three changes arrive on 12 November 2026: a new scams section prohibits using synthetic media to misrepresent a product, binary options are banned, and landing pages may use dismissible pop-ups.
• Accounts that misuse Pinterest's generative AI tools risk losing access to them.

Four claims you can ignore

• A five-dollar minimum daily budget, which is not Pinterest's figure.
• Pinning three to ten times a day.
• User numbers by country. Pinterest reports just three regions.
• A Trends tool limited to the US, the UK and Canada.

A starting plan for Gulf brands

• Build boards around what people are planning: a room, an outfit, a recipe, a wedding, a trip.
• Start on Ramadan, Eid and National Day content six to eight weeks before each one.
• Write every title and description in Arabic and in English.
• Stick to 2:3 images, and label AI whenever you use it.

If you would like a Pinterest presence that is ready before the region's big seasons rather than scrambling during them, talk to the ALXO team about where to begin.