Pinterest Hits 640M Users as Gen Z Reaches Half Its Audience

Pinterest closed Q2 2026 with 640 million monthly active users, an all-time high and 11% year-over-year growth, according to the company's Q2 2026 earnings. Gen Z now accounts for half of the global user base, and the platform has posted record user numbers for 12 consecutive quarters, CEO Bill Ready said at Pinterest Presents in September 2026.

The revenue picture

Full-year 2025 revenue reached $4.222 billion, up 16% year over year, with GAAP net income of $417 million, adjusted EBITDA of $1.270 billion, and free cash flow of $1.252 billion. Q2 2026 revenue came in at $1.180 billion, up 18% and above Pinterest's own guidance of $1.133–$1.153 billion. Q3 2026 guidance sits at $1.190–$1.210 billion, or 13–15% growth. The quarter still posted a GAAP net loss of $47 million, with adjusted EBITDA of $311 million.

The revenue base remains heavily concentrated: the US and Canada generated $880 million, or 75%, of Q2 2026 revenue despite holding only 106 million of the platform's 640 million MAUs — roughly 17%. US and Canada ARPU hit $8.30, up 14%, while global ARPU was $1.86. Rest of World ARPU grew 21%, the fastest of any region.

Where the audience sits

Europe counted 157 million MAUs (+8%) and Rest of World 377 million (+15%), making it the fastest-growing region. Per DataReportal's Digital 2026 report, the top countries by users in late 2025 were the United States (96.9 million), Brazil (42.2 million), Mexico (28.5 million), Germany (22.7 million), France (18.3 million), and the UK (15.5 million).

Globally, 70% of users are female. The largest ad audience segments are women aged 18–24 (20.0% of the advertising audience) and women aged 25–34 (18.5%). The average user is aged 25–34. Pinterest ranks #10 among social platforms globally, reaching 4.1% of the world's population and 5.3% of people aged 13 and above.

Search behavior is the strategic core

Pinterest processes more than 80 billion searches per month, the majority visual and more than half commercial. The number that matters most for brands: 96% of top searches are unbranded, meaning users search by category, style, or need rather than by brand name. That behavior positions Pinterest closer to a visual search engine than a social feed, and it gives brands a discovery opening that branded-search-heavy channels do not.

Session data reinforces the intent-driven pattern. Pinterest.com drew roughly 1.4 billion visits over a rolling period as of April 2026, per SimilarWeb, with an average session of 7 minutes 10 seconds, 8.10 pages per visit, and a 35.59% bounce rate.

What advertisers are seeing

Pinterest ads reach 340 million users globally, a figure that grew 32.5 million users (+10.6%) between January 2024 and January 2025. US ad reach grew another 1.30 million (+1.4%) between late 2024 and late 2025, now covering 32.6% of Americans aged 13 and above. In the US, ads reach approximately 46% of adults aged 18–24 and 40% of those aged 25–34.

Pinterest's own performance claims are notable but platform-reported, so treat them as benchmarks rather than guarantees. Brands using Performance+, Pinterest's AI-powered automated ad suite, saw at least 20% lower cost per action versus standard campaigns, and a 19% average increase in checkout revenue when using AI-generated creative. Brands combining the Conversions API with the Pinterest tag saw a 24% increase in attributed conversions and a 9% CPA reduction versus tag-only setups. Ads with promotional callouts drove 12.7% more conversions than identical creative without them in an alpha-tester study.

Independent case evidence is thinner but consistent. Furniture brand Castlery's A/B test of Performance+ against manual campaigns produced 2.3x ROAS, a 98% lift in average order value, and a 14% lower cost per acquisition. A Pinterest and LiveRamp study of Tesco Clubcard data in the UK found shoppers exposed to Pinterest campaigns spent 26% more annually and visited stores 25% more often. When Visual Search Ads launched in September 2026, one app advertiser reported up to 85% improvement in cost per install.

Pinterest's engagement metrics also skew commercially useful. Weekly Pinners spend 40% more on holiday purchases than users of other platforms, 58% say sales and promotions influence their shopping decisions, and users scroll 1.5 times slower while generating 170% more total ad attention than on other platforms. Pinterest says 40% of US households earning over $150,000 annually are reachable on the platform.

External forecasts point to continued growth: eMarketer estimates US Pinterest ad revenue hit $2.95 billion in 2025 and projects $3.78 billion by 2027. With Q3 guidance implying mid-teens growth and Rest of World monetization accelerating, Pinterest enters late 2026 as a channel where unbranded search demand and rising automation are redefining how marketers should plan for 2027.