🔎 Reverse Image Search
Image search techniques made simple: upload a photo or paste a URL and search 6 engines at once. 100% free, nothing stored.
🔒 Your image is never stored on our servers longer than 24 hours and is never shared.
Quick answer: To reverse image search a Pinterest pin, open the pin, copy the image address (or download the image, or take a cropped screenshot), then paste or upload it into a reverse image search tool such as our free multi-engine tool, Google Lens or Yandex. Pinterest’s own visual search only finds similar pins inside Pinterest, so it will not show you where the picture came from on the wider web.
(Keep your search tool widget directly below this quick answer on the page.)
Pinterest is great for ideas, but a pin often leaves you with questions: who made this, where can I buy it, and is the photo even real? Many pins link to a blog, a shop, an aggregator site or nowhere at all. A reverse image search lets you start from the picture itself and trace it back. Below are the methods that work on desktop, iPhone and Android.
Does Pinterest Have Reverse Image Search?
Pinterest has its own visual search (called Pinterest Lens in the mobile app). It answers the question “what else looks like this?” by showing similar pins from Pinterest’s own library. It does not answer “where did this image originally come from?”, because it does not search the open web.
A true reverse image search compares your image against pages across the internet and returns matching copies and their source pages. For that, you need an external tool.
| Pinterest visual search | Reverse image search tool | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Pinterest pins only | The wider web |
| Best for | Finding similar styles and products to save | Finding the original source, copies and larger versions |
| Shows the original publisher? | Not reliably | Often, if the image is indexed |
| Works with a screenshot? | Yes, for similar pins | Yes, if you crop it tightly |
How to Reverse Image Search a Pinterest Pin: 3 Methods
Method 1: Copy the image address (fastest on desktop)
- Open the pin so the image is shown at full size.
- Right-click the image and choose Copy image address. On Pinterest this is usually a link on the i.pinimg.com domain.
- Open our reverse image search tool, choose Paste URL, paste the link and click Load.
- Select the engines you want (Google, Google Lens, Bing, Yandex, TinEye, Pinterest) and run the search.
- Open the results and look for the oldest, largest or most official-looking source page.
Prefer to use Google directly? Go to Google Lens, paste the same image address, and compare the results with other engines.
Method 2: Download the image and upload it
- Open the pin and click or tap the three-dot menu.
- Choose Download image.
- Upload the saved file to the tool and search.
This gives the sharpest version Pinterest allows, which usually matches better than a screenshot.
Method 3: Take a cropped screenshot
If you can’t download the image, screenshot the pin and crop out Pinterest buttons, captions and neighbouring pins so only the picture remains. Overlays and clutter confuse the matching, and a tight crop often turns a weak result into a strong one. Our full guide on how to reverse image search a screenshot shows the steps for every device.
[Add your own screenshot here: the “Copy image address” menu on a pin. Alt text: “Copy image address option on a Pinterest pin”.]
How to Reverse Image Search on Pinterest on iPhone and Android
On a phone the only real difference is how you get the image out of Pinterest.
iPhone:
- Open the pin in the Pinterest app and tap the three-dot menu.
- Tap Download image (it saves to Photos), or take a screenshot and crop it.
- Open Safari, go to our tool and upload the saved image.
More detail is in our iPhone reverse image search guide.
Android:
- Open the pin, tap the three-dot menu and choose Download image, or take a screenshot and crop it.
- Open Chrome, go to our tool and upload the image from your gallery.
More detail is in our Android image search guide.
If you browse Pinterest in your phone’s browser instead of the app, you can also press and hold the image and look for a Google Lens or search-image option in the menu.
How to Use Pinterest’s Built-In Visual Search
Use this when you want similar pins, not the original source.
On the mobile app: open a pin, tap the magnifying-glass (visual search) icon on the image, drag the box over the single object you care about, such as a lamp or a jacket, and browse the similar pins. You can also use the camera icon in the search bar (Pinterest Lens) to search from a photo.
On desktop: open a pin, click the visual search icon on the image, adjust the selection and review the results.
If you mainly want lookalike products or styles, our guide to finding similar images and our article on live camera search cover more options.
How to Find the Original Source of a Pinterest Pin
- Check the pin’s own link first. Look for the website name under the image or the visit/source button. Many pins link to a blog or aggregator rather than the original creator, and some links are dead, so treat this as a starting point only.
- Reverse search the image with Method 1 or 2 above.
- Compare several results. The original is usually the oldest page, the one with the highest resolution, or the creator’s own site or portfolio.
- Try a second engine. Different engines index different sites. Yandex reverse image search often finds visual matches that other engines miss, and our guide to reverse image search without Google lists the best alternatives.
- Check the file details if you have the original file. Our guide to image metadata (EXIF data) explains what it can and can’t tell you. Images shared on social platforms often have metadata removed.
For the full process, read how to find the original source of a photo.
How to Check if a Picture Is From Pinterest
You may want to know whether an image already exists on Pinterest, for example to see if your own photo has been pinned.
- Upload the image or paste its link into our tool.
- Include Pinterest in the engines you select.
- Scan the results for links on pinterest.com, such as pin or board pages.
No match doesn’t prove the image isn’t on Pinterest. It can simply mean the search engines haven’t indexed that pin yet.
Why Your Pinterest Image Search Gives Poor Results
- Interface clutter. Crop out buttons, text and neighbouring pins.
- Compressed or resized pins. Download the image instead of using a screenshot when you can.
- Collage pins. Search one object or one photo at a time.
- Text overlays and filters. Edited pins match less well, so crop the overlay away or try a different section of the image.
- Only one engine. Run the same image through at least two or three engines before deciding there is no match.
Common Reasons to Reverse Search a Pinterest Image
- Shopping: find where to buy a product you spotted in a pin.
- Crediting the creator: find the original photographer, artist or website.
- Checking a viral image: see whether a photo is older or from a different context. Our guide to reverse image search on social media photos goes deeper.
- Spotting stolen photos: the same method helps you spot a fake dating profile.
- Cleaning up your saved images: find repeated downloads with our guide to finding and deleting duplicate photos.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Pinterest have reverse image search?
Pinterest has visual search (Pinterest Lens), which finds similar pins inside Pinterest. It is not a full reverse image search of the web, so it can’t reliably show where an image originally came from. For that, copy or download the image and use a tool that searches several engines.
Can I reverse image search on Pinterest on my phone?
Yes. Download the pin’s image or take a cropped screenshot, then upload it to a reverse image search tool in your phone’s browser. No app install is needed. See our iPhone and Android guides.
How do I find the original source of a Pinterest pin?
Check the pin’s link first, then reverse search the image and look for the oldest or highest-quality page, ideally the creator’s own site. Because pin links often point to aggregators, comparing results from more than one engine gives the most reliable answer.
How do I check if a picture is from Pinterest?
Run the picture through a reverse image search and look for results on pinterest.com. If there are none, the image may still be on Pinterest but not yet indexed by search engines.
Can I use Google to reverse image search a Pinterest image?
Yes. Copy the image address or download the image, then upload it or paste the link in Google Lens. Results differ between engines, so it’s worth checking at least one more, such as Yandex.
Does reverse image search work with Pinterest screenshots?
Yes, as long as you crop the screenshot so only the picture remains. A cropped screenshot works much better than one with Pinterest’s interface around it.
Why doesn’t the pin’s link lead to the original creator?
Pins are often saved from repost sites, aggregators or search results rather than from the original publisher. That is why a reverse image search is usually needed to trace the true source.
Is reverse image searching a Pinterest image free?
Yes. Our tool is free to use on desktop, iPhone and Android, and so are Google Lens and Yandex Images.
Your Next Step
The routine is simple: copy the image address or download the pin’s image, crop out anything that isn’t the picture, and search across more than one engine. Try it now with our free tool, and if you want to improve your results further, read our complete image search techniques guide or browse all guides.
For Pinterest’s own feature details, see the Pinterest Help Center.
