Explainer
Pinterest board sections, explained: when they help and when they hide things
Published · Lucas Viegas · 6 min read
A section is a folder inside one board. Open the board, click the plus icon at the bottom, select Section, name it, click Add. They tidy a crowded board, and they split it, which matters more than it sounds.
Below: the flow in Pinterest’s own words, fetched on 7 September 2026; what a section is and is not next to a board; and the three questions the help centre does not answer.
The short version
- Pinterest’s definition: board sections are used to organize Pins within your board.
- Two moves: name the section, then use Organize to move Pins into it. A new section starts empty.
- No documented way to delete a section on its own, no documented section privacy, no documented section address.
What is a Pinterest board section?
The definition fits in one line, and it is Pinterest’s: Create a board section opens by saying board sections are used to organize Pins within your board. A section has no place on your profile, and every setting that matters, privacy, collaborators, archiving, belongs to the board.
Sections do get a face. Pinterest’s merge instructions tell you to hover the section and click the edit icon when it appears on the bottom-right of the cover image, so sections show a cover of their own inside the board. What Pinterest never documents is a way to choose that image.
How do you make a section on Pinterest?
Seven steps on the web. The catch is step six: naming a section does not put anything in it, and plenty of people stop at five and assume the feature is broken.
- 1
Log into your Pinterest account
The flow below is the web one; the app differs only where noted.
- 2
Click your profile picture at the top-right of your screen to open your profile
Pinterest routes you through your profile rather than the home feed.
- 3
Click your board to open it
Sections are made from inside a board, and the board needs Pins already saved to it.
- 4
Click the plus icon at the bottom of your screen, then select Section
Pinterest calls it the plus icon and puts it at the bottom of the board.
- 5
Enter a name for your section, then click Add
In the app the same button reads Next, and suggested names may be offered.
- 6
Click Organize at the top of your board, then select the Pins you want to move to your section
A new section starts empty. Organize is the multi-select mode.
- 7
Click Move at the top of the page, then click Save next to the section you want to move your Pins to
In the app you select the Pins straight after naming the section.
Sections versus boards: which should you reach for?
A section is the weaker of the two, and the right choice whenever the split is presentational rather than real. Where a row says Pinterest does not document something, we looked, and the page does not exist.
| Board | Section | |
|---|---|---|
| What Pinterest calls it | A collection for your Pins | Used to organize Pins within your board |
| Where it shows up | On your profile, and in search when public | Inside the board only |
| Privacy control | Keep this board secret, or Make this board private | None documented: it follows the board |
| Documented address | Yes, every share flow points at the board | Not documented by Pinterest |
| How you remove it | Archive or delete, seven days to restore | No delete article: merge it away instead |
| Reordering | A to Z, Custom, Last saved to, or by hand | Drag and drop, saved automatically |
A rule falls out of that table. If the two piles need different privacy, collaborators or links, they need to be two boards, and making the second one takes about a minute. If they only need to sit apart while you scroll, a section is enough.
How do you delete a Pinterest section?
Pinterest does not document a way to delete a section on its own
There is an article for archiving and deleting boards. There is none for sections: help.pinterest.com/en/article/delete-a-board-section returned a not-found page when we checked on 7 September 2026, and so did help.pinterest.com/en/article/board-sections.
What is documented is a merge, and the button says what it does. Merge boards and sections has you hover the section, click the edit icon on the bottom-right of the cover image, select Merge, pick a destination, and click Move Pins and delete section. Dragging one section into another reaches the same confirmation.
Read Pinterest’s warning first: to undo a merge, you will need to create a new board or section and move the Pins there, one by one. The same page adds that merging a secret board into a public one applies the destination board’s privacy, so a merge can quietly publish things.
When do sections start hiding things?
A section is a lid: Pins inside it stop appearing in the flat scroll of the board, which is the point at four hundred Pins and a nuisance at forty. Sections also invite a split that should have been two boards. And anything outside Pinterest that reads your board reads the board.
Pinterest documents share and link flows for boards, and nothing about a section having its own address. If a tool asks for a board, give it a board. Our note on organizing boards so they hold together visually argues the same from the other end: one clear theme per board beats one big board carved into six sections.
The board is the unit, so use it.
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. It takes a board, one more reason to split a crowded board in two rather than into sections. Public boards only, macOS 13.3 Ventura or later, $9.99 once.
Get VisionWallFAQ
What is the difference between a Pinterest board and a section?
A board lives on your profile, and Pinterest describes public boards as visible on your profile and in search. A section is a folder inside one board: Pinterest says board sections are used to organize Pins within your board. Sections do not appear on your profile.
How do you delete a Pinterest section?
Pinterest publishes no delete-a-section article; that URL returned a not-found page on 7 September 2026. The only documented route that removes one is a merge: hover the section, click the edit icon on the cover image, select Merge, pick a destination, then click Move Pins and delete section.
Can a section be private while the rest of the board is public?
Pinterest does not document a privacy setting for sections. Every privacy control it describes belongs to the board: Keep this board secret at creation, Make this board private afterwards.
Do Pinterest sections have their own address?
Pinterest does not document one. No article we fetched mentions a link, a share flow or a URL for a section. If something outside Pinterest needs your Pins, give it the board.
Can you reorder sections, or only Pins?
Both. Pinterest says to open one of your boards and drag and drop your Pins or sections to reorder them, and that changes save automatically. In the app you press and hold, then select the directional arrows vertical icon.
What happens to the Pins when you merge two sections?
They move into the destination and the merged section goes away. Pinterest warns that to undo a merge you will need to create a new board or section and move the Pins there, one by one.
Keep reading
Create a board
The square-plus icon, the name, the secret toggle, and what you cannot set yet.
Board covers
What a cover changes, what a header image is, and the size nobody publishes.
Make a board public
The one setting that decides whether anything outside Pinterest can read it.
Sources
All eight pages fetched on 7 September 2026. Two URLs checked the same day returned not-found pages, which is why this post says Pinterest does not document section deletion: /en/article/delete-a-board-section and /en/article/board-sections.