How-to
How to set a Pinterest board cover, and what it changes
Published · Lucas Viegas · 5 min read
Open the board, click the ellipsis icon next to the board name, select Edit board, click the plus icon to update your cover, then click Done. Pinterest calls the cover the largest image when viewing a board from your profile.
Two things surprise people. The cover cannot be changed on Android, by Pinterest’s own note, and Pinterest publishes no size for it anywhere. Every label below is quoted from the help centre, fetched on 7 September 2026.
The short version
- Cover and header image are two different pictures, defined on one page, with different controls and different device support.
- Cover: desktop and iOS, via the plus icon. Header image: Android and iOS, via the pencil icon.
- A cover is a presentation choice on your profile. It changes nothing about the Pins or their order.
How do you change a Pinterest board cover?
Six steps on desktop, from Pinterest’s Edit a board page. iOS reaches the same control by a different route, below.
- 1
Log in to your Pinterest account
This is the desktop flow. iOS is noted after the list, and Android cannot do it at all.
- 2
Click your profile photo at the top-right of your screen, then click Boards
Pinterest routes you through your profile to the Boards tab, not the home feed.
- 3
Click your board to open it, then click the ellipsis icon next to the board name
Pinterest calls the three-dot control the ellipsis icon. On desktop it sits beside the board name, not in a corner.
- 4
Select Edit board
The same panel holds the board name and description. Watch the wording: other help pages call this panel Edit info and settings, and the app calls it Edit board and header image.
- 5
Click the plus icon to update your board cover
Pinterest defines the board cover as the largest image when viewing the board from your profile, so you are choosing what your profile grid shows.
- 6
Click Done
Pinterest adds a note on the same page: you can only update your board header image on Android or iOS, which is a different image.
Which devices can change the cover?
Desktop and iOS. Pinterest states the limit twice on one page, from both directions. The desktop section notes that you can only update your board header image on Android or iOS, and the Android section carries the note that you can only update your board cover on iOS or desktop. Read together: Android does headers, desktop does covers, and iOS is the only place that does both.
On iOS: open the app, tap your profile picture at the bottom-right, tap Boards, tap your board, tap the ellipsis icon at the top-right, tap Edit board and header image, then the plus icon and Done. The menu item is named for the header image even though the cover control is inside it, which is much of why people cannot find this.
What is the difference between a cover and a header image?
Pinterest’s Edit a board page lists four things you can change: board name, description, board cover and header image. The last two get mixed up.
| Board cover | Header image | |
|---|---|---|
| Pinterest’s definition | The largest image when viewing the board from your profile | A featured image at the top of the board |
| Where you set it | Edit board on desktop, Edit board and header image on iOS | Edit board and header image, on Android and iOS |
| The control | the plus icon | the pencil icon |
| Not available on | Android | Desktop |
| Needs a Pin first | Not stated | Yes, at least one Pin saved to the board |
| Published size | None. Pinterest documents no dimension | None. Pinterest documents no dimension |
| Changes the Pins | No | No |
What size should a Pinterest board cover be?
Pinterest does not document a board cover size
This is worth being exact about, because a specific number would be more satisfying than the truth. Pinterest does publish a specification page. Review Pin specs gives file types for image Pins, a 20 MB maximum on the web, safe zones in pixels, aspect ratios for video, character counts. It is thorough, and it covers Pins only.
Board covers are not in it, and no board article we fetched on 7 September 2026 carries a dimension either. The only description Pinterest gives is relative, not numeric: the largest image when viewing the board from your profile. Numbers circulating elsewhere measure a layout Pinterest can change without telling anyone, so this post will not repeat one. Practically: pick a Pin that reads clearly small, then check your profile.
What does a cover actually change?
Less than the effort suggests. By Pinterest’s own definition the cover is what your profile shows for that board, so it changes how someone reads your profile grid at a glance. It does not reorder the Pins. It does not change who can see the board, which is the public or private setting. It does not group anything, which is what sections are for. And it does not change what an outside tool reads, because tools read the Pins.
Which puts the cover in its place: it is the label on the box. If you are setting covers across a profile, the work that pays off is upstream, in how the boards were split in the first place and in keeping one clear theme per board. A good cover on an incoherent board just labels the incoherence.
One image on a profile, or all of them.
VisionWall is a macOS menu-bar app that turns any public Pinterest board into a live, rotating desktop wallpaper. You give it the board’s URL, it composes the pins into a masonry layout and reshuffles that layout on every refresh, every 30 minutes by default and anywhere from 2 minutes to 2 hours, and new pins appear automatically. A board worth picking a cover for can be the desktop instead. Public boards only, macOS 13.3 Ventura or later, $9.99 once.
Get VisionWallFAQ
Where is Edit board on desktop?
Open the board, then click the ellipsis icon next to the board name and select Edit board. Pinterest routes you there from your profile photo at the top-right, then Boards. The cover control inside that panel is the plus icon.
Why can I not change the board cover on Android?
Because Pinterest says you cannot. Its Edit a board page carries a note in the Android section: you can only update your board cover on iOS or desktop. Android gets the header image instead, via the pencil icon.
What size should a Pinterest board cover be?
Pinterest does not document a size. Its Review Pin specs page publishes file types, aspect ratios and safe zones for Pins and says nothing about board covers, and no board help page we fetched on 7 September 2026 gives a dimension. Numbers elsewhere are other people’s measurements.
What is the difference between a board cover and a header image?
Pinterest defines them separately on one page. The cover is the largest image when viewing the board from your profile. The header image is a featured image at the top of the board, and needs at least one Pin saved first. Different control, different devices.
Does changing the cover change anything inside the board?
No. Nothing in Pinterest’s documentation ties the cover to the Pins, their order or their visibility. Reordering is a separate flow and privacy is a board setting. Anything reading your board reads the Pins, not the cover.
Can you set a cover for a board section?
Pinterest does not document one. Sections do show a cover image, since the merge instructions mention clicking the edit icon on the bottom-right of the cover image, but no page describes choosing it.
Keep reading
Create a board
The square-plus icon, the name, the secret toggle, and what comes later.
Board sections
Folders inside a board, and the three things Pinterest never documents.
Make a board public
What has to be true before anything outside Pinterest can read a board.
Sources
All seven pages fetched on 7 September 2026. Two plausible URLs checked the same day returned not-found pages, which is part of why this post says Pinterest publishes no cover specification: /en/article/board-covers and /en/article/change-board-cover.