Pinterest Ads Library: How to See Any Brand's Pins

Pinterest's ads library is officially called the Ads Repository, and it lives at ads.pinterest.com/ads-repository. It is free, needs no account, and lets you search a brand's Promoted Pins by advertiser name, country and date, but only for ads shown in the EU and a handful of other markets, not the US.

So if your competitor advertises to European Pinners, you can see their ads, dates and targeting in a few clicks. If they only advertise in the US, the repository will come back empty, and you need the other methods below. I will walk through both, plus where Pinterest's tool sits next to the Meta Ad Library.

What is the Pinterest Ads Repository?

The Ads Repository is Pinterest's ad transparency archive. Like TikTok's and LinkedIn's equivalents, it exists because the EU's Digital Services Act requires very large online platforms to publish a searchable record of the ads they show to people in the EU, kept for the time an ad runs and a year after.

That legal origin explains everything about it. It was built for regulators, researchers and curious users, not for marketers. It is accurate and official, but it is not designed to help you plan campaigns.

At the time of writing, the country picker covers the EU member states and, according to several independent guides, a few extra markets such as Norway, Turkey and Brazil. Check the live country list when you visit, because Pinterest can change it. What it does not include is the United States. Pinterest staff confirmed on the Pinterest Business Community forum that the repository was introduced for the EU under the Digital Services Act, with no announced timeline for a US version.

What does the Pinterest Ads Repository show?

For each ad, you can typically see:

• The ad creative: image, video or carousel
• The advertiser name, and the paying party if it differs
• The Pin's title and description, plus a link to the Pin
• The dates the ad ran
• The main targeting parameters, such as age range, gender and location, and for some ads interests or keywords

The targeting field is the reason to use it. On most platforms you only see the ad. Here you can see who the brand chose to reach, which tells you a lot about how they think about their customer.

What you will not find is performance data. There is no spend, no clicks, no saves and no conversion data for normal commercial ads.

How do you search the Pinterest ads library?

The search takes about a minute once you know the filters.

1. 1
   Open ads.pinterest.com/ads-repositoryNo login needed. It works from any country.
2. 2
   Pick a countryChoose an EU market where your competitor sells. Each search is per country.
3. 3
   Search the advertiserStart typing the brand name and pick from the autocomplete list.
4. 4
   Set dates and filtersNarrow by date range, ad category, and age or gender targeting.
5. 5
   Open each adRead the creative, the Pin copy, the dates and the targeting.

Some practical notes from using it:

The advertiser can be a local entity. Brands often advertise in Europe through a regional company, so the name in autocomplete may differ from the one on their website. If nothing comes up, try the parent company or a country-specific spelling.

Search more than one country. A brand might run a fuller test in Germany than in Italy. Checking two or three of their biggest European markets gives you a better picture than one.

Expect a lot of shopping ads. For retailers, much of what you see will be catalogue-driven product Pins rather than custom creative. Filter by date or category to find the designed campaigns, which are usually the more interesting ones for creative research.

Use the category filter for inspiration. Pick a category like Home decor or Beauty with no advertiser and you get a wide sample of Pinterest ad examples in that vertical. That is often more useful than one brand's ads when you are planning your first Pinterest campaign.

How can you see competitors' Pinterest ads outside Europe?

If your competitor only advertises in the US, the repository will not help. These routes still work, though each has gaps.

Watch your own feed. Promoted Pins appear in the home feed and in search results with a label showing they are ads (at the time of writing, "Promoted by" or "Sponsored" plus the brand name). Search the product categories your competitor sells in, and you will often see their Promoted Pins among the results. Save the ones you want to study to a secret board so they stay in one place.

Engage with their content. Platforms retarget and target by interest. If you browse your competitor's category and visit their profile, you are more likely to be shown their ads. It is not a reliable method, but it costs nothing.

Check the brand's profile. On Pinterest, ads are usually Pins first. Many brands publish a Pin organically and then promote it, so their profile, especially their most recent Pins and boards, often contains the creative they are paying behind. You cannot tell which ones are promoted from the profile alone, but it gives you the pool to look at.

Check their ads on Meta and Google. Brands rarely make visual creative for one platform only. The same lifestyle images and product shots they promote on Pinterest frequently run on Facebook and Instagram, and the Meta Ad Library shows every active ad from any advertiser worldwide, including the US. Google's Ads Transparency Center adds their Shopping and display ads; our guide to checking competitors' Google ads covers that.

What are the limits of the Pinterest Ads Repository?

Before you rely on it, know where it stops:

• No US data. If your competitor only sells in the US, you will find nothing.
• One country at a time. You search per market, so a multi-country brand takes several searches.
• No performance data. No spend, clicks, saves or engagement for commercial ads.
• About a year of history. Ads drop off after the retention period required by the DSA, so older campaigns vanish.
• Limited filtering. At the time of writing, you cannot filter by ad format the way some other libraries allow.
• No download button. You can view ads, but there is no built-in way to save them.

How does the Pinterest ads library compare to the Meta Ad Library?

Meta's library is the far more complete tool for competitor research. Pinterest's adds targeting detail for European ads but misses most of the world.

The difference that matters most is coverage. With Meta, I can look up any brand in any country and see everything they are running right now. With Pinterest, I can only do that for Europe. Meta also gives EU users extra detail like inactive ads and limited targeting, which we explain in Facebook Ad Library EU vs US.

TikTok has the same split: an EU-scope Commercial Content Library plus a separate inspiration tool. If you research both platforms, our TikTok ad library guide covers it the same way.

What is a good workflow for Pinterest competitor research?

Here is the routine I use for clients who sell on Pinterest:

1. Start on Meta. Look the competitor up in the Meta Ad Library to see the full set of creative they are funding today. Our walkthrough on seeing competitors' Facebook ads covers the search.
2. Check the Pinterest Ads Repository in their two or three biggest European markets for Pinterest-specific creative and targeting.
3. Search their category on Pinterest and save any Promoted Pins you see to a secret board.
4. Note the patterns. Pinterest ads lean on aspirational, search-led visuals and text overlays that answer a query ("small balcony ideas", "fall outfit ideas"). Write down the hook, the format and the landing page for each one.
5. Repeat monthly. Ads disappear once they stop running, so the only history you get is the one you keep.

For step 1, saving is the easy part. I use our free extension, Klipio's Meta Ad Library Downloader, which adds a download button to every ad in the Meta Ad Library and can bulk-export a whole brand into one ZIP with a searchable swipe board and a CSV of every ad (disclosure: Klipio is ours; it is free, needs no account and runs in your browser). Since so much Pinterest creative also runs on Instagram, that export is often a good starting set. The full method is in downloading Facebook Ad Library videos.

One rule for all of it: copy the angle, not the asset. Study what makes a Pin work, then shoot or design your own. Reusing a competitor's images or videos in your ads raises copyright and trademark problems. This is not legal advice.

FAQ

Does Pinterest have an ads library?

Yes. It is called the Ads Repository and lives at ads.pinterest.com/ads-repository. It is free and lets you search ads by country, advertiser, date and category, but it covers ads shown in the EU and a few other markets rather than the whole world.

Can I see Pinterest ads from US advertisers?

Only if they also advertised in a market the repository covers. At the time of writing, there is no US version of the Ads Repository. For US-only brands, watch for their Promoted Pins in your feed and search results, check their profile, and look them up in the Meta Ad Library, where the same creative often runs.

Do I need a Pinterest account to search the Ads Repository?

No. The repository is public and works without logging in. You can use it from any country, but the ads inside are those shown in the covered markets.

Does the Pinterest Ads Repository show spend or clicks?

No. It shows the creative, the advertiser and paying party, the dates and the main targeting parameters. There is no spend, click, save or conversion data for commercial ads.

How do I find good Pinterest ad examples?

Open the Ads Repository, pick a European country, and filter by a category such as Home decor or Beauty without entering an advertiser. That returns a wide sample of real ads in that vertical. Searching your category on Pinterest itself and saving the Promoted Pins you see adds US examples.