How to download Pinterest videos on Windows
Pinterest is secretly one of the best video platforms on the internet: recipes, DIY builds, workout demos, design references, all neatly organized on boards. But Pinterest really wants you to stay inside Pinterest, so there is no download button. Here is how to save any Pinterest video or Idea Pin to your Windows PC in full quality.
The short answer: To download a Pinterest video on Windows, copy the pin link, paste it into GrabMonkey, and click Download. Standard video pins and Idea Pins save as MP4 files with no watermark. If a pin links out to YouTube or a blog instead of hosting the video, download from the original source.
Why Pinterest videos are worth downloading
Most downloader guides treat Pinterest as an afterthought. That is a mistake, because for certain people Pinterest video is the whole use case. If you are a designer building a reference library, a woodworker collecting joinery demos, a home cook saving technique videos, or a fitness coach archiving form checks, your Pinterest boards are a working library. And working libraries should live on your own disk, not inside someone else's app where the algorithm can bury them, the creator can delete them, or the platform can change the rules.
There is also the offline angle. Workshop, kitchen, gym: three places where you want a video on a screen and where wifi is often terrible. Downloaded files do not buffer.
Pinterest video types: pins vs Idea Pins
Regular video pins are single video files attached to a pin. Straightforward. Idea Pins are Pinterest's multi page format: a single pin that can contain several video or image pages you swipe through, almost like a mini slideshow with video segments. When you download an Idea Pin, you get the video segments as files. They save as normal MP4s you can play in order.
One quirk to know about: a lot of Pinterest "video pins" are not actually hosted on Pinterest. They are embeds or links pointing at YouTube, Vimeo, or some blog. If a pin is just a thumbnail linking out, copy the link to the original source instead. GrabMonkey handles those too, since it supports 1,000+ sites, but you need the real source URL, not the Pinterest wrapper.
Download a Pinterest video step by step
- Open the pin and copy its link. Click the pin to open it, then click the share icon (or the three dots) and choose "Copy link". Make sure you are on the pin page itself, with a URL like
pinterest.com/pin/123456.... - Open GrabMonkey. Download the app if you have not yet, install it, launch it. Nothing to configure.
- Paste and download. Drop the pin link in, pick the best quality offered, and hit Download. Idea Pin video segments come down as separate MP4 files, one per video page.
- Organize your files. The video saves named after the pin. Move it into whatever folder system you use for reference material. Future you will be grateful for good folder names.
What about downloading a whole board?
This comes up a lot, so let us be straight about it. A Pinterest board is a collection of links, not a folder of files. There is no "download board" button because there is nothing to download in one shot. The practical workflow is: open the board, open each video pin you actually want, copy the links, and batch paste them into GrabMonkey.
Is that tedious for a 500 pin board? Yes, if you want literally everything. But be honest with yourself: you do not need all 500. Open the board, skim it, grab the 20 pins you would actually rewatch, and batch those. It takes ten minutes and your disk stays clean.
Methods compared
Online Pinterest downloaders. They exist and mostly work for simple video pins. Same old story though: ads, popups, and they tend to choke on Idea Pins. Fine in a pinch.
Browser extensions. A few extensions add download buttons to Pinterest. Pinterest's page structure changes often enough that these break regularly, and you are granting page reading permissions to do it.
Phone screen recording. Works, but you get a vertical phone recording of a video, with notification risk and quality loss. Only if you are desperate.
Desktop app. GrabMonkey handles pins and Idea Pins the same way it handles everything else: paste, quality pick, download. No ads in the middle and no per site workarounds to remember.
Quality notes
Pinterest videos are usually served in decent quality, often 720p or 1080p for newer uploads. Older pins can be lower. As always, you get the best version Pinterest actually hosts for that pin. GrabMonkey shows the available options and defaults to the top one. No re encoding, no watermark added. The file is the file Pinterest serves.
Troubleshooting
The pin has no downloadable video. Check whether the pin actually hosts a video or just links to YouTube. Open the pin and look: if clicking it takes you off Pinterest, copy that destination URL instead.
Only some Idea Pin pages download. Idea Pins mix video pages and static image pages. Only the video pages produce video files. The image pages are just pictures, save those separately if you want them.
Link not recognized. Make sure you copied the pin URL, not a board URL, not a search URL, and not the Pinterest homepage. The URL should contain /pin/.
Login required errors. Pinterest sometimes gates content behind login for logged out visitors. If a pin will not resolve, open it in your browser while logged into Pinterest and copy the link from there.
The legal bit, briefly
Pinterest content is a minefield of reposts already, which makes this worth saying clearly. Saving videos for personal reference, mood boards, and learning is generally fine. Reuploading someone else's DIY video to your own channel or using their work commercially without permission is not. Creators on Pinterest deal with enough theft as it is. Keep it personal or get permission. Our disclaimer covers the details.
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⬇ Download GrabMonkey for WindowsWhat Pinterest's own help pages say about video pins
Pinterest runs an unusually thorough Help Center at help.pinterest.com, and it is worth a visit before you build any workflow around downloading pins. It documents the difference between standard video pins and Idea Pins, which are Pinterest's multi-page format, and it is honest about a quirk that trips up every downloader sooner or later: a large share of "video pins" are not videos hosted on Pinterest at all. They are bookmarks pointing at YouTube, a blog, or a shop. When a download fails on Pinterest, that is the cause more often than not. There is no Pinterest-hosted file to fetch, so no tool can fix it. Copy the original source link and download that instead.
The Help Center also covers Pinterest's rules for creators, which matter if you plan to do anything with the files beyond watching them yourself. Pinterest's copyright and community guidelines are strict about re-uploading other people's work, and the platform is full of creators who earn a living from DIY, craft, and cooking videos. Saving a recipe video to follow along in your own kitchen is personal use. Re-uploading someone's woodworking build to your own channel is theft, and Pinterest does act on reports. Creators on this platform deal with enough content theft as it is. Do not add to it.
For a second opinion on the manual side, The Knowledge Academy published a step-by-step guide to downloading Pinterest videos that is genuinely useful for understanding what a pin page looks like under the hood. Their guide confirms the external-link quirk described above, and it is a fair walkthrough if you only need the occasional clip. Where it shows its limits is scale. The manual approach is fine for saving three videos for a mood board, and miserable for building a real reference library. That is the honest dividing line between "follow a tutorial" and "install a tool."
Pinterest's business documentation adds useful context if you download a lot. Pinterest Business publishes the platform's recommended specs for video pins, and knowing the native specs explains something downloaders notice all the time: why some pins save at crisp 1080p while others top out soft and blocky. The uploader's source file sets the ceiling, and Pinterest's compression does the rest. You cannot download quality that was never uploaded, no matter what the tool promises. When a pin only exists as a low-resolution upload, the honest downloader hands you that file instead of pretending it found a better one.
One more practical note from the official docs. Idea Pins behave differently from standard pins because of their multi-page structure: each page can carry its own video segment. Pinterest's Help Center documents this format in detail, which is why downloaders built for Pinterest save the video pages as individual files rather than one long clip. If you were expecting a single merged video and got several files instead, nothing went wrong. That is the format working as designed, and you can stitch the pages together in any free editor in about two minutes if you need one continuous file.
If you are building a serious reference library, one more habit is worth adopting: save the pin's link alongside the video file. Pinterest lets creators edit or delete pins, and boards get reorganized, so a folder of mystery MP4s becomes useless within months. A simple text file with the pin URL next to each filename takes ten seconds per video and saves you from the "where did I find this" problem later. Future you will be grateful.
And a final tip for Idea Pin collectors: because each page saves as its own file, name your downloads as you go, something like "sourdough-guide-p1.mp4," instead of leaving the default filenames. Ten generically named files from five different Idea Pins become an unsolvable puzzle within a week. Good filenames are free, and they are the difference between a reference library and a junk drawer.
Watch: downloading Pinterest videos, the manual way
The video below from App Tutor walks through downloading Pinterest videos to your gallery, showing the general flow on screen so you can see exactly what the manual process looks like. It is a good companion to this guide: watch it once to understand the moving parts, then decide whether you want to repeat those steps by hand every time or let GrabMonkey handle the pasting and queuing for you. The video is by an independent creator not affiliated with GrabMonkey.
Video by App Tutor on YouTube, an independent creator not affiliated with GrabMonkey.
Quick questions
Can I download Idea Pins from Pinterest?
Yes. Idea Pins are multi page video posts, and GrabMonkey saves the video pages as downloadable MP4 files.
Do Pinterest videos download with a watermark?
No. GrabMonkey saves the original file Pinterest serves, with nothing added.
Can I download a whole Pinterest board at once?
Not in one click, because boards are link collections, not file folders. Open the video pins you want, copy the links, and batch paste them into GrabMonkey to queue them all.
Why do some Pinterest videos fail to download?
Usually the pin links to an external site like YouTube instead of hosting the video on Pinterest. Copy the original source link and download that instead.
Can I download Pinterest videos on my phone instead?
GrabMonkey is Windows only. On phones, your options are online downloader sites or screen recording, both worse. For a reference library, doing it on PC is the sane choice anyway.