NearVid

2026-10-04

Pinterest caps video Pins at 5 minutes — its own spec page lists a file-size limit, just not for video

Search "Pinterest video Pin length limit" and the roundup guides don't agree with each other, or with Pinterest. A length figure of 10 to 15 minutes shows up across several of them, often sitting next to a flat "2GB" file-size ceiling that none of them trace back to a Pinterest page. Pinterest's own Review Pin specs support page states a tighter number for length, and for file size says something more specific than a guess in either direction: it names a ceiling, and that ceiling is for a different Pin type entirely.

What Pinterest's own spec page actually says

The Review Pin specs page states video length as "Minimum 4 seconds, maximum 5 minutes" — not the 10-to-15-minute range several unrelated guides repeat without citing where the number came from. Encoding is listed as "H.264 or H.265." For shape, the page recommends "a 9:16 ratio or 1080x1920 pixel size" for "full-bleed videos (or videos that take up the entire screen)," with 1:2, 2:3, 3:4, 4:5, and 1:1 given as the other supported ratios. It also draws a format line between platforms worth noticing before you export anything: "Web: .MP4, .M4V" versus "Android and iOS: .MP4, .MOV, .M4V" — .MOV is on the mobile list, not the web one.

On file size, the page does state a number — just not for video. Its Image Pin specs list "Web: 20 MB maximum," and "1 GB recommended" for Android and iOS. The Video Pin specs section carries no equivalent line, for either platform. Pinterest's separate bulk-upload-video-pins page doesn't fill the gap either: its only numeric limit is "up to 200 videos per day" for a CSV/.txt batch upload, and its thumbnail field takes "a timestamp format (mm:ss), the number of seconds (ss) into the video file, or a publicly available URL to an image file" — not a required separate upload.

Pinterest video Pins: guide claims vs. Pinterest's own pages Right column quotes Pinterest's own review-pin-specs and bulk-upload-video-pins pages Common guide claim Pinterest's own pages Max length ⚠ 10–15 minutes repeated across guides, uncited ✓ 4 sec – 5 min "minimum 4 seconds, maximum 5 minutes" File size (video) ⚠ "2GB" repeated across guides, untraced ✓ no limit stated images get 20MB web / 1GB mobile; video gets none Web upload format ⚠ MP4, MOV, M4V treated as one list across platforms ✓ MP4, M4V only MOV is Android/iOS-only, not on the web list "Guide claim" figures are repeated across several unrelated roundup pages without a cited source — no specific site is named here. The right column quotes Pinterest's own support pages.
Pinterest's own support pages state a shorter length ceiling, a file-size number for images only, and a narrower web-upload format list than several unrelated roundup guides repeat.

Trimming down to land inside 4 seconds to 5 minutes

NearVid's Trim operation is a lossless stream copy — it cuts at the exact start and end points you type, down to a decimal second (73.2, not just 73), without re-encoding a single frame. For a Pin with a hard 5-minute ceiling and a 4-second floor, that precision matters at both ends: trim a longer event recording down under 5:00 without guessing at a re-encode's output length, or confirm a short clip clears the 4-second minimum before uploading rather than after a rejection. The whole operation runs in the browser tab — nothing uploads anywhere to do it.

Converting to MP4 before a desktop upload, specifically

If your source file is a .mov — the default export from an iPhone's Photos app, among other tools — and you're uploading through Pinterest's website rather than its Android or iOS app, the web uploader's own listed formats don't include it: "Web: .MP4, .M4V" is the whole list. NearVid's "Convert to MP4" operation re-encodes video to H.264 and audio to AAC, entirely on-device via your browser's own WebCodecs encoder (through Mediabunny, not a codec NearVid bundles) — satisfying both Pinterest's "H.264 or H.265" encoding line and the web uploader's narrower format list in the same step. It's gated on browser support, so the option only appears once NearVid has confirmed your specific browser and file both qualify; on a browser where it doesn't, Trim still works on the original file. Uploading through the mobile app sidesteps this entirely, since .MOV is already on that platform's accepted list — this conversion step is a desktop-upload fix, not something every Pinterest video Pin needs.

What NearVid doesn't touch: shape, framing, and safe zones

NearVid's Trim and Convert operations change timing and, for Convert, the codec/container — never the frame itself. There's no crop or resize step anywhere in its toolset (confirmed directly against src/workspace.js and the two engine modules it calls). Pinterest's own safe-zone guidance for video Pins is specific down to the pixel: "Put text and other elements within the dimensions below so users can easily see on any device when viewing. Top: 270 px, Left: 65 px, Right: 195 px, Bottom: 790 px." Getting your footage into a 9:16 (or one of the other five listed) ratio, and keeping any on-screen text inside those margins, has to happen before the file reaches NearVid — in the camera framing or in whatever editor produced the source clip.

What this doesn't do

NearVid doesn't upload to Pinterest, doesn't generate a CSV for the bulk-upload flow, doesn't pick or crop a thumbnail frame, and can't crop or resize a frame to a different aspect ratio. What it does do is the two lines of Pinterest's own spec that are purely mechanical: landing the clip's length precisely between 4 seconds and 5 minutes without re-encoding, and fixing the container and codec if the source file isn't already an accepted one — both without the clip leaving the device it's being edited on.

The honest summary

Pinterest's own Review Pin specs page states video length at 4 seconds to 5 minutes — tighter than the 10-to-15-minute figures some unrelated guides repeat — and lists a file-size ceiling only for Image Pins, with no equivalent number for video anywhere in Pinterest's own documentation, bulk-upload page included. It also splits accepted video formats by platform, with .MOV missing from the web uploader's list. NearVid's lossless Trim handles the length line precisely, and its on-device Convert to MP4 handles the container/codec line for a desktop upload — the shape and safe-zone requirements are still the footage's to meet before either tool sees it.