Pinterest Q1: Adds Users, Invests In AI Ad Suite, Search

Focused on building out its AI-powered advertising platform for product discovery and heightened user engagement, Pinterest’s first-quarter performance for 2026 shows strong user growth across the globe, while its revenue per user decreased compared to previous quarters.

In Q1, Pinterest boosted its monthly active user count by 11% year-over-year, reaching a total of 631 million MAUs and adding 61 million users since the previous quarter.

The majority of the company's user growth took place in the “Rest of the World” category, rising 15% year-over-year, compared to only 4% across the U.S. and Canada, and 7% in Europe.

As for revenue, Pinterest once again surpassed $1 billion, showing an 18% year-over-year increase.

These numbers were stronger than the 15% growth previously expected, according to a statement that CEO Bill Ready recently shared with analysts.

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In February, Pinterest actually forecast lower-than-expected Q1 revenue, citing competition from TikTok and Meta.

But despite welcome earnings results, the company's year-over-year revenue per user declined across every region compared to last quarter, as did its overall revenue when compared to Q3.

Ongoing investments in its AI-powered Performance+ advertising suite has helped Pinterest advance its functionality as a product discovery platform while attracting advertisers, driving user engagement, and bringing in more revenue.

“Ten straight quarters of double-digit user growth are the direct result of multi-year investments in AI and improving personalization and curation within visual search and discovery,” Ready said, explaining that the platform’s AI-powered discovery graph (“Taste Graph”) captures users' visual intent and curation signals built on a decade of user interactions.

“Every search, click and save gives our AI more signal about who a user is and what they care about which allows us to deliver more relevant and personalized experiences across the platform,” Ready added. “Higher relevance drives deeper engagement.”

Over the past year, 30% of Pinterest’s lower-funnel revenue is running directly through its Performance+ ad campaigns, while the platform's AI-powered shopping assistant has powered over 80 billion monthly searches, half of which Ready said are “commercial in nature.”

Ad Impressions grew 24% in Q1, according to Pinterest CFO Julia Donnelly, while ad pricing dropped 5% year-over-year due to outsized impression growth in under-monetized markets.

Moving forward, Ready said Pinterest will continue building a differentiated visual search, discovery and shopping experience “to drive sustained momentum with users,” while focusing on AI and attempting to boost monetization through enhanced go-to-market and measurement capabilities.

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