Does Pinterest Pay You? What Creators Actually Earn From

Does Pinterest pay you? No. Pinterest does not pay creators for views, saves, followers or pins, and it has no ad revenue sharing program like YouTube's. People who earn money from Pinterest are paid by someone else: an affiliate program, a brand, or their own customers.

Pinterest says this plainly on its creator site: "Pinterest does not facilitate payment for monetization programs like product tagging, affiliate links or brand partnerships." (Pinterest Create: grow your audience and make money)

The rest of this article covers which Pinterest programs used to pay, what is left, and what realistically earns money.

Does Pinterest pay you directly? Program status at a glance

Search results for "do Pinterest pay you" are full of old articles about programs that have closed. Here is the current status of each one.

Program	What it was	Status
Creator Rewards	Payments for meeting monthly goals with Idea Pins	Ended November 30, 2022
Creator Fund (2021)	Training, content budget and ad credits for underrepresented US creators	Became the Pinterest Inclusion Fund
Pinterest Inclusion Fund	Selective incubator with grants and coaching	Still runs, by application, in limited countries
Paid partnership label	A disclosure tool for brand deals	Active, but the brand pays you, not Pinterest
Affiliate links and product tags	Links that can earn commission	Active, paid by the affiliate program
Ad revenue share	Payment per view or impression	Has never existed on Pinterest

Creator Rewards: discontinued

Creator Rewards was the closest Pinterest came to paying creators directly. It ended on November 30, 2022. A Pinterest community post from December 1, 2022 confirms it: "Creator Rewards has ended as of November 30th." (Pinterest Business Community) The shutdown was also reported by Social Media Today at the time.

If a guide tells you to "join Creator Rewards", it is out of date.

Pinterest Creator Fund: now the Pinterest Inclusion Fund

Pinterest announced its first Creator Fund in April 2021. It was aimed at creators from underrepresented communities in the United States and offered training, creative strategy consulting, a budget for content and ad credits (2021 press release).

It was never a fund that paid every creator per view. Over time it was renamed the Creator Inclusion Fund, and in May 2024 it became the Pinterest Inclusion Fund (TechCrunch).

The fund still runs. Pinterest described the 2026 edition, its sixth year, as an incubator for emerging creators in beauty, fashion and lifestyle, open to applicants in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the UK, Germany, France, India, Australia and New Zealand. Selected creators receive grants for content production plus training and coaching. Applications for 2026 closed on August 4, 2026 (Pinterest Create blog).

So "Pinterest creator fund" searches lead to a real program, but it is a short, selective cohort with an application window. Pinterest does not publish grant amounts. Treat it as a possible bonus if you fit the criteria, and do not build an income plan around it.

Paid partnerships: the brand pays

Pinterest has a paid partnership label that you add to a pin when you work with a brand. It is a disclosure tool. Pinterest's help page says these partnerships "are already established by the creator and brand outside of Pinterest" (Paid partnerships for creators).

In practice that means you find the brand, agree the fee, and get paid by the brand. Pinterest does not match you with sponsors or process the payment. The label is added in the Pinterest app before you publish, and it cannot be added after a pin is published.

How to get paid from Pinterest in practice

Since Pinterest sends no payments, getting paid means sending Pinterest traffic somewhere that does. These are the routes Pinterest itself lists, plus the one most bloggers use.

Method	Who pays you	What you need first
Affiliate links	The affiliate program or network	Approval from the program and pins people click
Brand partnerships	The brand	An audience or content a brand wants, and outreach
Your own digital products	Your customers	A product, a sales page and steady traffic
Blog traffic	Ad networks, affiliates or your own offers	A site with useful articles for pins to link to

Affiliate links. You join an affiliate program, add your link to a pin or to the article the pin leads to, and earn a commission when someone buys. The program pays you on its own schedule and terms. The full method is in the Pinterest affiliate marketing guide.

Brand partnerships. Pinterest describes five kinds, from paid deals to product-only arrangements and giveaways. Smaller creators usually start with free product rather than cash.

Your own products. Printables, templates, prompt packs and ebooks suit Pinterest because people search there with a project in mind. See these digital product ideas for options a beginner can build.

Blog traffic. Pins link to articles, and the articles earn through ads, affiliate links or your own offers. This is slower to set up and tends to last longer, because both the pin and the article can be found in search. The Pinterest SEO strategy guide explains how to set that up.

For a side-by-side look at all of these, read how to make money on Pinterest.

How much do Pinterest creators make?

There is no trustworthy average. Pinterest does not publish creator earnings, and it has no payout dashboard, because it does not pay creators. Figures you see quoted online are individual claims that cannot be checked.

What can be said honestly:

• Income depends on clicks that leave Pinterest and on what happens after the click. Followers and impressions do not pay anything on their own.
• A new account usually earns nothing for a while. Pins need time to be found in search, and you need enough of them to learn what works.
• Affiliate commissions on low-priced items are small per sale, so that route needs volume.
• Your own product keeps the full sale price minus platform fees, but you must build the product and the page first.

If a course or video promises a specific monthly income from Pinterest, ask where the number comes from.

Rules to follow when you earn from pins

Earning through links and partnerships comes with disclosure duties.

• Pinterest's rules. The Commercial and Branded Content Guidelines tell you to "be transparent about the commercial nature of your content and about your links and their behavior." They also prohibit using fake accounts to create or save affiliate links and asking others to save your affiliate pins in exchange for something.
• US law. The Federal Trade Commission expects a clear disclosure when you have a financial relationship with a brand or earn a commission from a link. Its guidance for influencers explains what counts as clear. Other countries have their own rules.
• The affiliate program's rules. Some programs restrict how or where their links can be shared. Check the terms before you pin a link directly.

A short "affiliate link" or "#ad" note in the pin description, plus a disclosure on the linked page, covers the common cases. When a brand pays you, use the paid partnership label as well.

What usually goes wrong

• Waiting for a payout that will never arrive. Building followers in the hope that Pinterest will start paying wastes months.
• Following 2022 advice. Idea Pin reward goals no longer exist.
• Pinning with nowhere to send people. A pin that links to nothing, or to a homepage, cannot earn.
• Hiding affiliate links. Undisclosed links break Pinterest's guidelines and, in the US, FTC expectations.
• Expecting quick results. Search traffic builds slowly, and many people stop before their pins have had time to be found.

Next step

Pick one way to be paid before you design another pin: one affiliate program, one product of your own, or one article that carries an offer. Then find the phrases your buyers type with the Pinterest keywords guide and create five pins that link to that one page.

If you want a step-by-step plan for choosing a first offer and making a first sale, the ebook Your First $100 Online System With AI covers it from the start.