For the longest time I assumed scheduling pins meant paying for a third-party app, no way around it. Then I found the “Publish at a later date” option sitting quietly inside Pinterest’s own pin creation screen, completely free.
Here’s the bottom line: Pinterest’s own business account includes a native scheduler at no cost, and it’s genuinely enough to keep a consistent pinning habit going before you ever need to pay for a third-party tool. In this post, I’m walking through exactly how to use it, another free method worth knowing, and where the limits are once you’re ready to scale.
Can You Really Schedule Pinterest Pins for Free?
Yes, Pinterest’s native scheduler is built into every business account at no cost, letting you set a future publish date directly on the pin creation screen. You can schedule a pin up to 30 days in advance, with up to 10 pins queued at any one time.
The catch is that pins are scheduled one at a time, with no bulk upload option, which is the main trade-off compared to paid scheduling tools.
Why Scheduling Pins in Advance Matters for Blog Traffic
Scheduling pins in advance matters because Pinterest rewards consistent, evergreen pinning over sporadic bursts of activity. A steady drip of new pins, even a few a day, signals ongoing activity to the algorithm in a way that pinning everything in one binge session and then going quiet doesn’t.
This works because consistency directly increases the likelihood your pins continue surfacing in search over time, since Pinterest treats regularly active accounts as more reliable sources to keep recommending.
How to Schedule Pins for Free Using Pinterest’s Native Scheduler
Scheduling a pin through Pinterest’s native tool takes five steps, and works on both desktop and the mobile app. Before you start: you’ll need a Pinterest business account, since scheduling isn’t available on personal accounts.
- Log in to your Pinterest business account and click Create in the top-left corner
- Select Create Pin and upload your image or video
- Fill in your pin details, including title, description, board and destination link
- Select “Publish at a later date” instead of publishing immediately
- Choose your date and time, then confirm to add it to your scheduled queue
Another Free Method: Auto-Publishing From Your Blog’s RSS Feed
Connecting your blog’s RSS feed to Pinterest lets new blog posts automatically generate pins without any manual scheduling at all. Once your website is verified in your Pinterest business account, you can link your RSS feed in your account settings, and Pinterest will create pins from new posts as they’re published.
This works well as a background safety net alongside manual scheduling, ensuring nothing slips through even on weeks you don’t get to pinning manually.
Limitations of Free Scheduling (and When a Paid Tool Might Help)
The native scheduler’s biggest limitation is the 10-pin queue and one-at-a-time upload process, which becomes tedious once you’re pinning multiple posts a day across several boards. The table below compares the free native option against two paid tools worth considering once you outgrow it.
| Tool | Cost | Pins in Queue | Bulk Upload |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pinterest Native Scheduler | Free | Up to 10 | No, one at a time |
| BlogToPin | Paid | Depends on plan | Yes, generates pins from blog posts automatically |
| Tailwind | Paid | Depends on plan | Yes, with bulk scheduling and calendar view |
Ready to move beyond manually scheduling one pin at a time?
BlogToPin turns your existing blog posts into ready-to-schedule pins automatically, which saves the design step entirely once you’re pinning consistently.
Key Takeaways
- Pinterest’s native scheduler is free with any business account, letting you queue up to 10 pins up to 30 days in advance.
- Connecting your blog’s RSS feed adds a free, automatic backup that pins new posts even if you fall behind on manual scheduling.
- Once the 10-pin queue and one-at-a-time upload start feeling limiting, tools like BlogToPin or Tailwind offer bulk scheduling instead.
You don’t need to spend anything to start scheduling pins consistently, the free native tool is genuinely enough to build the habit. Upgrade to a paid tool later, once volume actually demands it, not before.
6 Responses
I schedule some pins and then post others, there is always someone who tells you that’s scheduling pins is what Pinterest wants to get you noticed, so I’m never sure whether to do it or not!
I totally get you – there are so many tips and recommendations out there. Scheduling your pins does help you to be more constant and saves you so much time. No one has time to spend pinning fresh content all day.
I really should use Pinterest, but I don’t. I’ve saved this to come back to x
It’s definitely a tool you should be leveraging to gain more traffic to your blog content.
I just need someone to do my Pinterest for me because I never have the time but I always notice a difference when I do do it xx
Pinterest is definitely a tool you don’t want to sleep on, you can gain more traction on older posts.