How to Delete a Pin From Pinterest: A Complete Guide
Deleting a pin from Pinterest is straightforward once you know where to look — but the exact steps vary depending on whether you're using the mobile app, a desktop browser, or trying to remove pins in bulk. Here's everything you need to know.
What Happens When You Delete a Pin?
Before diving into the steps, it's worth understanding what deletion actually does. When you delete a pin, it's permanently removed from your profile and any board it was saved to. Pinterest does not offer an undo option or a recycle bin — once it's gone, it's gone.
If the pin was originally created by someone else and you simply saved it to your board, deleting it only removes it from your collection. The original pin continues to exist on Pinterest. If you created the pin yourself (meaning you uploaded the image or added the URL), deleting it removes it from the platform entirely, including any repins others may have made from your version.
This distinction matters depending on why you're cleaning up your boards.
How to Delete a Pin on Mobile (iOS and Android)
The Pinterest mobile app works similarly on both iOS and Android, though minor UI differences can appear depending on your app version.
- Open the Pinterest app and go to your profile by tapping your photo in the bottom right corner.
- Select the board that contains the pin you want to delete.
- Tap the pin to open it.
- Tap the three-dot menu (⋯) in the top right corner of the pin.
- Select Delete Pin.
- Confirm when prompted.
The pin will be removed immediately. If you don't see the delete option, you may be viewing someone else's pin that you've saved — in that case, you'll see Remove from board instead, which removes it from your board without deleting the original.
How to Delete a Pin on Desktop
If you're working from a computer, the process is slightly different:
- Go to pinterest.com and sign in.
- Click your profile icon in the top right corner.
- Navigate to the board containing the pin.
- Hover over the pin — a set of icons will appear.
- Click the pencil icon (Edit) or the three-dot icon depending on your view.
- Select Delete Pin from the options.
- Confirm the deletion.
On desktop, you can also enter board editing mode by clicking "Organize" within a board, which lets you select multiple pins at once — useful for bulk deletions.
How to Delete Multiple Pins at Once 🗂️
Pinterest doesn't offer a true "select all and delete" feature, but you can speed up bulk deletion using the Organize feature:
- Open a board on desktop.
- Click Organize (top right of the board).
- Click individual pins to select them — each selected pin shows a checkmark.
- Once you've selected the pins you want to remove, click Delete Pins at the bottom of the screen.
This method is significantly faster than deleting pins one by one, especially if you're pruning a large board. On mobile, bulk deletion isn't currently available in the same way, making desktop the better option for major cleanups.
Deleting a Pin vs. Removing It From a Board
These two actions are easy to confuse:
| Action | What It Does | Reversible? |
|---|---|---|
| Delete Pin | Permanently removes the pin you created | ❌ No |
| Remove from Board | Removes a saved pin from your board only | ❌ No (but the pin still exists on Pinterest) |
| Move to Another Board | Relocates the pin without deleting it | ✅ Yes |
| Archive a Board | Hides the board and its pins from your profile | ✅ Yes |
If you're not ready to permanently delete, archiving a board can be a useful middle ground — it hides the board without losing the content.
Why You Might Not See the Delete Option
A few situations can make the delete option unavailable or hard to find:
- You didn't create the pin. If you saved someone else's pin, you can only remove it from your board, not delete it from Pinterest.
- You're not logged in to the account that owns the pin.
- App version differences. Older versions of the Pinterest app sometimes display menus differently. Updating the app typically resolves this.
- Viewing in a shared board. If you're a contributor to someone else's board, your ability to delete pins depends on the permissions the board owner has set.
A Note on Deleted Pins and Search Indexing 🔍
If your pin has been indexed by search engines like Google, deleting it from Pinterest won't immediately remove it from search results. It can take days or weeks for search engines to re-crawl and update their indexes. This is worth keeping in mind if the reason you're deleting a pin is related to privacy or image removal.
The Variables That Shape Your Experience
How straightforward this process feels depends on a few factors: whether you're primarily a mobile or desktop user, how many pins you're managing, whether you're working with your own created content or saved pins from others, and whether you're a solo pinner or collaborating on shared boards.
Someone managing a personal lifestyle board with a handful of pins will find this a quick two-tap task. Someone maintaining multiple collaborative boards with hundreds of pins across a brand account will need to think more carefully about which tool — mobile, desktop, or bulk organize — fits their workflow, and whether deletion is the right action versus archiving or reorganizing.
Your boards, your use case, and how you've structured your Pinterest presence are the pieces that determine which approach actually works best for you.