Pinterest affiliate marketing rules, Pinterest affiliate programs, affiliate links for Pinterest and the Pinterest Amazon affiliate connection
Pinterest is the one major platform that lets a creator put a raw affiliate link straight on a piece of content, with no bio page in between and no follower minimum. That single fact makes it the most underrated affiliate channel a US creator has, and it is also why the advice written about it is so unreliable: most of it was written during or shortly after the 2015 ban and never revisited. What follows is read from Pinterest own policy, merchant and help pages, with everything Pinterest does not state marked as reported.
The short answer
Pinterest allows affiliate links. It banned them on 12 February 2015 and lifted that ban on 12 May 2016, and they have been permitted ever since, in the destination link of a Pin, with disclosure. What Pinterest publishes but almost nobody quotes is the rule that actually gets accounts throttled: its community guidelines prohibit "redirecting existing Pins to new destinations", which makes the single most common affiliate tactic on the platform, going back through old Pins and swapping in fresh affiliate URLs, a guideline violation rather than a growth hack. Two other lines matter as much. Link shorteners and cloakers are risky by policy, not by folklore: Pinterest states that links showing "excessive or deceptive redirection, as well as shortener services that are abused for spam, may be blocked". And Pinterest own Merchant Guidelines require that a product Pin "must display a specific item, excluding services, that is available for purchase", which is why software, SaaS and AI subscriptions cannot be tagged in Pinterest shopping at all. Ordinary affiliate links to those products still work fine. Only the native shopping layer excludes them.
Every rule below read directly from Pinterest own policy and help pages on 22 August 2026 · No commission fee · Last updated August 2026
Curated by · affiliate links clearly labeled
Estimated monthly
from monetized favorites
$
Estimated and illustrative, not a guarantee. Real earnings depend on your audience and what fans buy.
■ at a glance
Pinterest affiliate marketing rules at a glance: what Pinterest actually publishes
Official means Pinterest states it on its own policy, help or merchant pages. Reported means it comes from creators, tooling vendors or press coverage that Pinterest has not confirmed in writing. Everything here was read on 22 August 2026. On this platform the split is unusually wide, because a policy that changed a decade ago is still being described in the present tense.
| What you are checking | The short answer | The detail, and whether Pinterest publishes it |
|---|---|---|
| Are affiliate links allowed | Yes, since May 2016 | OFFICIAL. Pinterest announced on 12 February 2015 that it would automatically remove all affiliate links, redirects and trackers on Pins, and reversed that on 12 May 2016 after improving spam detection, restoring both direct affiliate links and affiliate networks. A decade later, guides and forum answers still describe the ban as current. If you read anywhere that Pinterest strips affiliate links, that page is describing 2015. |
| Do you need a blog or website | No | Pinterest does not require a website to place an affiliate link in a Pin destination. This is the platform genuine structural advantage: on Instagram and TikTok an outside affiliate link has to sit behind a bio destination, on Pinterest it sits on the content itself. Claiming a website unlocks Rich Pins and analytics attribution, so it helps, but it is not a gate on affiliate links. |
| Follower minimum | None | Pinterest publishes no follower threshold for using affiliate links, and there is no application to Pinterest to approve. Compare that with the LTK and ShopMy screening process, the 1,000 followers TikTok requires of affiliate creators, or YouTube Shopping requiring Partner Program membership. On this one point Pinterest is the most open major platform there is. |
| Editing old Pins to add affiliate links | Against the guidelines | OFFICIAL, and the most consequential rule on this page because virtually no guide mentions it. Pinterest community guidelines list "redirecting existing Pins to new destinations" among the unscrupulous tactics used to manipulate the platform, alongside buying engagement and keyword stuffing. Retrofitting affiliate URLs onto Pins that already have distribution is exactly this behaviour. Create new Pins instead. |
| Link shorteners and cloakers | Risky by policy | OFFICIAL. Pinterest states that links which exhibit excessive or deceptive redirection, as well as shortener services that are abused for spam, may be blocked, and it asks creators to follow a no surprises principle where a user can reasonably anticipate where a link goes. Post the full affiliate URL. A pretty link plugin that adds a hop is a genuine risk here, not a stylistic preference. |
| Disclosure | Required, US law and platform | US FTC guidance requires a material connection to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, and it applies to a Pin exactly as it applies to a video. Put the disclosure at the front of the Pin description where it is visible before the description truncates, not after a wall of keywords. Pinterest applies this automatically only inside its own Amazon integration, so on every other link the disclosure is yours to write. |
| The Amazon connection | Automatic links and disclosure | OFFICIAL and widely missed. Pinterest help states that connecting Amazon and Pinterest is available to eligible creators, that affiliate links will be applied automatically to tagged Amazon products, and that Pins with affiliate links will automatically feature an affiliate link disclosure. Linking an Amazon storefront requires Amazon Influencer Program participation. Pinterest notes creators based in Brazil cannot link a personal Amazon account. |
| Promoting a Pin that carries an affiliate link | Not eligible | Pins containing mentions or affiliate links are reported as ineligible for promotion, so you cannot put ad spend behind your best converting affiliate Pin. Pinterest publishes a related restriction explicitly for paid partnerships: creators cannot promote Pins themselves that include a paid partnership, only the brand partner can. Plan on organic distribution for affiliate content. |
| Idea Pins | Retired, links restored | Pinterest began combining Idea Pins and standard Pins into a single format in 2023, with the rollout continuing through 2024 and 2025, and the unified Pin supports links, multiple pages, video, text overlays and post-publish editing. A great deal of ranking advice still tells creators that Idea Pins cannot carry links and to use standard Pins for affiliate work. That distinction no longer exists. |
| Creator Rewards | Ended November 2022 | Pinterest shut down its Creator Rewards program on 30 November 2022, paying a one-time bonus to creators who had hit a reward goal in the preceding months, and said it was refocusing on other creator programs. It still appears in current-year listicles about making money on Pinterest. There is no Pinterest first-party payout for organic content; affiliate commission and brand partnerships are the routes. |
| Software, SaaS and subscriptions in shopping | Excluded by definition | OFFICIAL and structural. Pinterest Merchant Guidelines state that the Pin must display a specific item, excluding services, that is available for purchase. A software subscription is a service, so it cannot enter a Pinterest catalog or be tagged as a product Pin whatever your account status. An ordinary affiliate link to that software in a Pin destination is unaffected and works normally. |
| How long a Pin keeps working | Months to years | REPORTED, and it is the honest reason to bother with this platform. Pinterest is a search and planning surface rather than a feed, so a Pin indexed against a query keeps returning traffic long after publication, unlike a TikTok or Reel that is effectively dead within a week. Nobody publishes a reliable median, so treat any specific number you read as marketing, but the shape of the decay curve is genuinely different. |
■ before you start
What to settle before you build a Pinterest affiliate strategy
Stop reading anything written about the affiliate ban
Pinterest removed affiliate links on 12 February 2015 and restored them on 12 May 2016, and the volume of content produced during those fifteen months still shapes what ranks today. You will find pages telling you Pinterest strips affiliate links, pages telling you to cloak links to get around the strip, and pages hedging that the policy could flip back at any moment. All three are describing a policy that ended a decade ago, and the middle one is now actively dangerous advice because cloaking is the thing that will get a link blocked in 2026. When you evaluate a Pinterest affiliate guide, look for whether it acknowledges the unified Pin format and the Amazon integration. If it still separates Idea Pins from standard Pins, it predates 2023 and its rules are not current.
Build new Pins rather than retrofitting old ones
The instinct once you have a Pin performing is to point it at something that earns. Pinterest community guidelines name redirecting existing Pins to new destinations as one of the tactics it treats as manipulation, in the same sentence as buying engagement and keyword stuffing. That puts the most commonly recommended Pinterest affiliate shortcut on the wrong side of policy. The workable version is to create a fresh Pin for the affiliate destination and let it earn its own distribution, which is slower and is also what the platform is designed to reward. If you have already done the swap across a large board, the risk is account-level rather than Pin-level, so it is worth undoing before you scale anything.
Post the full affiliate URL and accept that it looks ugly
Pinterest states that links showing excessive or deceptive redirection and shortener services abused for spam may be blocked, and asks for a no surprises principle where a user can anticipate the destination. Affiliate link prettifiers, self-hosted redirect plugins and short domains all add exactly the hop that description covers. Nobody can tell you where Pinterest draws the line internally, which is the point: a raw network URL is unambiguously fine and a redirect chain is a judgement call made by a spam system you cannot appeal to quickly. The trade is that a raw URL is unattractive in the destination field, and no user sees that field before clicking anyway.
Decide up front whether Pinterest suits what you recommend
Pinterest is a visual planning surface, and its commercial gravity is in home, food, fashion, beauty, weddings, crafts and travel. If what you recommend photographs well and gets planned in advance, this platform will outperform its reputation. If your audience asks you which AI writing tool or analytics platform to pay for, Pinterest can still carry the affiliate link, but it cannot carry it as a shoppable product, because Merchant Guidelines exclude services, and the browsing intent that makes Pinterest convert does not really exist for software. Being clear about which of those you are avoids months spent trying to make a channel fit a category it was not built for.
Treat the Amazon integration as a separate decision from Amazon Associates
Pinterest native Amazon connection applies affiliate links automatically to tagged Amazon products and attaches the disclosure for you, which removes two failure points. It is limited to eligible creators, and linking a storefront requires you to be in the Amazon Influencer Program rather than plain Associates. Because Amazon pays roughly 1% to 20% by category with a 24 hour cookie that only extends when an item is carted, the automatic route is convenient rather than lucrative. Run it if you qualify, and do not let the convenience decide your whole program mix, because a single direct brand program in your category will usually pay several times the Amazon rate on the same click.
■ how to do it
How to do affiliate marketing on Pinterest, step by step
Set up a business account and claim your destinations
Convert to a Pinterest business account, which is free, and claim any website you control. Claiming is what attributes saves and clicks back to you in analytics and what enables Rich Pins, which pull live title, description and price data from the destination page. Neither is required to place an affiliate link, but without them you are running blind: you will see impressions on Pins and have no idea which destinations earned the clicks. If you have no site at all, you can still run entirely on affiliate destinations, you just lose the attribution layer.
Pick programs by cookie length before you pick them by rate
Pinterest traffic behaves like search traffic. Someone plans a kitchen renovation in March and buys in June. That makes cookie window the variable that decides whether you get paid, and it is the one most creators ignore in favour of the headline percentage. A 4% program with a 90 day cookie will out-earn a 10% program with a 24 hour cookie on this platform specifically, because the planning gap is the whole point of Pinterest. Check the window on every program before you build boards around it.
Create a dedicated Pin per product rather than per post
The affiliate link lives in the destination field of a single Pin, so each product you want to earn on needs its own Pin with its own image and its own keyword-led description. This is more work than pointing five Pins at one round-up page and it converts better, because the person clicking has already decided what they want to look at. Write the description for the query someone would actually type, put the disclosure at the front, and do not stuff keywords, which Pinterest names explicitly as manipulation.
Disclose in the first line, every time
FTC guidance requires the disclosure to be clear and conspicuous, and Pinterest descriptions truncate. A disclosure after two hundred characters of keywords is not conspicuous by any reasonable reading. Open with it. Pinterest attaches an automatic affiliate disclosure only inside its own Amazon integration, so on every other link this is entirely your responsibility, and it is the cheapest compliance win available: it costs you a few words and it removes the one enforcement risk that can affect your whole account.
Let Pins age before you judge them
A Pin that does nothing in its first fortnight is normal. Pinterest distribution builds as the platform works out which queries a Pin answers, which is why the reporting rhythm that works on short-form video is actively misleading here. Give a Pin a quarter before you decide it failed, and judge a board rather than a Pin. This is also why the retrofit temptation appears in month three, and why it is worth deciding now that you will make new Pins instead.
Give the recommendations Pinterest cannot merchandise a permanent home
Pinterest Merchant Guidelines exclude services, so the software, AI tools and subscriptions people ask you about cannot become product Pins. They can still be affiliate links in a Pin destination, and they need somewhere better than that: one page you keep current, that carries the tools with their real commission terms, that a reader can find without hunting for the specific Pin that mentioned it. That page is also what you point at from every other platform, which is the actual argument for having one, because the same catalog limit exists on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok too.
■ if it is not a fit
What most Pinterest affiliate marketing guides get wrong
Three errors dominate this topic and each one has a cost. The first is the ban. A large share of what ranks for Pinterest affiliate marketing was written between February 2015 and May 2016, when Pinterest really was stripping affiliate links, redirects and trackers from Pins. That policy was reversed on 12 May 2016 and both direct links and networks have been allowed ever since, yet the ban still surfaces in forum answers, in cautious hedging inside otherwise current guides, and worst of all in advice to cloak links so Pinterest cannot detect them. That last one has inverted from a workaround into the actual risk, because Pinterest now states that excessive or deceptive redirection and abused shortener services may be blocked. Following 2015 advice in 2026 is the most likely way to get an affiliate link killed. The second is the Idea Pin split. Pinterest began merging Idea Pins into a single unified Pin format in 2023, with rollout through 2024 and 2025, and the unified Pin supports links. Guides that still tell you to use standard Pins for affiliate work and Idea Pins for reach are describing a distinction the product no longer has, and they usually carry other stale details alongside it, like the Creator Rewards program that Pinterest closed on 30 November 2022 and that still appears on current-year lists of ways to make money on Pinterest. The third is the omission that matters most. Almost nobody quotes the line in Pinterest community guidelines naming redirecting existing Pins to new destinations as manipulation, which means the tactic most often recommended in Pinterest affiliate content, going back through Pins that already rank and swapping in affiliate URLs, is a guideline violation that creators are being actively coached into. On our own position, we will be narrow about it. Pinterest is a genuinely good affiliate channel for home, food, fashion, beauty, weddings and travel, and for those categories nothing here should push you elsewhere. Favly exists for the shelf that Pinterest Merchant Guidelines exclude by definition: the services, software and AI subscriptions that cannot be a product Pin because they are not a specific item available for purchase. The same exclusion holds on YouTube Shopping, Instagram native tagging and TikTok Shop. Four platforms, four different policies, one identical gap.
What Favly does differently
- ✓ No follower gate and no application queue. Claim favly.com/@you and start today.
- ✓ Built for the AI tools, SaaS and tech gear you already recommend.
- ✓ Recurring commissions: subscription tools can pay every month a fan stays subscribed.
- ✓ Affiliate income and brand deals in one storefront, with #ad disclosure by default.
■ side by side
Pinterest Affiliate Marketing and Favly, honestly compared.
This is not Favly against Pinterest, which would be an odd argument: Pinterest is a discovery engine and most creators reading this should use it. It is what Pinterest native shopping layer structurally cannot merchandise, set against a storefront built for exactly those recommendations.
| Capability | Favly | Pinterest Affiliate Marketing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carries AI tools, SaaS and software as products | × | Pinterest Merchant Guidelines require that a product Pin display a specific item, excluding services, that is available for purchase. A subscription is a service and cannot enter a catalog | |
| Pays recurring commission on subscriptions | × | Pinterest does not pay commission at all. Whatever recurring terms you get come from the program behind your link, and Amazon, the one program Pinterest integrates natively, pays once per order | |
| One page that stays current as your recommendations change | Partial | A board is close, but Pinterest guidelines prohibit redirecting existing Pins to new destinations, so keeping a board current as programs change means creating new Pins rather than updating old ones | |
| You can put ad spend behind your best converting content | × | Pins containing affiliate links or mentions are reported as ineligible for promotion, so the Pin that converts best is the one Pin you cannot amplify | |
| No follower minimum and no application | Genuinely equal, and Pinterest deserves credit here. There is no threshold and no approval queue for using affiliate links, which is more open than LTK, ShopMy, TikTok Shop or YouTube Shopping | ||
| Affiliate link sits directly on the content, no bio page needed | × | This is Pinterest single biggest advantage over every short-form platform and nothing external replaces it. The link is on the Pin, not behind a profile tap | |
| Content keeps earning months after publication | × | Pinterest is a search surface, so a Pin indexed against a query keeps working long after a Reel or TikTok on the same topic has stopped. This is the real reason to invest in the channel | |
| Built-in shopping audience with purchase intent | × | People arrive on Pinterest planning purchases rather than being interrupted by them. No external storefront brings its own browsing audience the way a discovery platform does |
■ faq
Questions creators ask about Pinterest Affiliate Marketing.
Can you put affiliate links on Pinterest?
Yes. Pinterest allows affiliate links in the destination field of a Pin, and has done since it lifted its ban on 12 May 2016. There is no follower minimum and no approval process. The conditions are that you disclose the material connection, that you post the full affiliate URL rather than a shortener or cloaked redirect, and that you create new Pins rather than swapping affiliate destinations onto Pins that already exist.
Does Pinterest still ban affiliate links?
No. Pinterest announced on 12 February 2015 that it would automatically remove affiliate links, redirects and trackers from Pins, and reversed that decision on 12 May 2016 after improving its spam detection, restoring both direct affiliate links and affiliate networks. Content still describing the ban as current is describing a policy that ended a decade ago. The relevant modern rules are about redirection, disclosure and not repurposing old Pins.
Do you need a blog for Pinterest affiliate marketing?
No. You can place an affiliate link directly in a Pin destination without owning a website, which is the main structural advantage Pinterest has over Instagram and TikTok, where an outside affiliate link has to sit behind a bio page. A claimed website unlocks Rich Pins and proper click attribution in analytics, so it materially improves your ability to measure what works, but it is not a requirement.
Can you use Amazon affiliate links on Pinterest?
Yes, and Pinterest has a native route. Pinterest help states that connecting Amazon and Pinterest is available to eligible creators, that affiliate links are applied automatically to tagged Amazon products, and that Pins with affiliate links automatically feature an affiliate link disclosure. Linking an Amazon storefront requires Amazon Influencer Program membership. You can also simply paste an ordinary Associates link into a Pin destination without any integration.
What are the Pinterest affiliate marketing rules?
Four rules cover most of it. Disclose the material connection clearly and early in the description. Use the full affiliate URL, because Pinterest states that excessive or deceptive redirection and abused shortener services may be blocked. Do not redirect existing Pins to new destinations, which Pinterest community guidelines name as manipulation. And do not create repetitive or irrelevant content in an attempt to make money, which is the spam rule affiliate accounts most often trip.
How do I post affiliate links on Pinterest?
Create a new Pin, upload the image, and paste the full affiliate URL into the destination link field. Write a description that opens with your disclosure and then describes the product in the language someone would search, without keyword stuffing. Save it to a board that matches the topic. Do not edit an existing Pin to point at the affiliate link, because that is the redirection behaviour Pinterest guidelines prohibit.
Can you sell software or subscriptions on Pinterest?
You can link to them, but you cannot merchandise them. Pinterest Merchant Guidelines state that the Pin must display a specific item, excluding services, that is available for purchase, so a software subscription cannot enter a Pinterest catalog or become a shoppable product Pin. An ordinary affiliate link to a SaaS product in a Pin destination works normally, it just does not get the native shopping treatment that physical goods get.
Can you promote a Pin that has an affiliate link?
Reportedly not. Pins containing mentions or affiliate links are described as ineligible for promotion, which means the Pin converting best for you is the one Pin you cannot put ad spend behind. Pinterest publishes an explicit parallel rule for paid partnerships, stating that creators cannot promote Pins themselves that include a paid partnership and only the brand partner can. Plan on organic distribution for affiliate content.
What are the best affiliate programs for Pinterest?
The programs that suit Pinterest are the ones with long cookie windows in visual planning categories: home, food, fashion, beauty, weddings, crafts and travel. Because Pinterest traffic plans in advance and buys later, cookie length usually matters more than headline rate, and a 4% program with a 90 day window can out-earn a 10% program with a 24 hour window. Amazon Associates is the easiest to start with and among the least generous.
How long does Pinterest affiliate marketing take to work?
Longer than short-form video and for a better reason. Pinterest distributes a Pin as it works out which searches the Pin answers, so a quarter is a fairer evaluation window than a fortnight. The trade is that a Pin which does establish itself keeps returning clicks for months or years rather than dying within a week. Judge boards rather than individual Pins, and resist repurposing old Pins while you wait.
▲ go deeper
If you are comparing platforms rather than committing to this one, the TikTok Shop affiliate program, affiliate marketing on Instagram and affiliate marketing for YouTubers cover the three short-form shelves, and every one of them hits the identical exclusion on software that Pinterest Merchant Guidelines describe. ShopMy vs LTK covers the curated retail networks if your category is fashion, beauty or home.
For the recommendations no native shopping layer will carry, SaaS affiliate programs that pay recurring commission, AI affiliate programs and tech affiliate programs are the shelves that matter, recurring affiliate programs covers the commission model, and creator storefront options covers where to put them. Favly for tech creators is the short version.
▲ Keep researching before you commit a channel
No application. No follower gate.
Claim your favly.com/@you storefront and turn the AI tools, software and gear you already recommend into affiliate commissions and brand deals.