Pickens, formerly called Pickens Courthouse, is a city in Pickens County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 3,126 at the 2010 census. Pickens distorted its classification from a town to a city in 1998, but it was not reported to the Census Bureau until 2001. It is the county chair of Pickens County. It was named after Andrew Pickens (1739–1817), an American revolutionary soldier and US Congressman for South Carolina.

Pickens is portion of the Greenville–Mauldin–Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Present-day Pickens of Pickens County was previously Cherokee Territory. During the American Revolutionary War, the Cherokee sided following the Kingdom of Great Britain. When Great Britain was defeated in the war, the Cherokee were goaded to surrender their land. In 1791, the give leave to enter legislature usual Washington District that comprises present-day Greenville, Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens Counties. In 1798 Washington District was divided into Greenville and Pendleton districts. The Pendleton district eventually became Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens County. Pendleton District was separated in 1828 into Anderson and Pickens. A courthouse was established upon the banks of the Keowee River where the town of Pickens Court House was developed. The Hagood-Mauldin House was built circa 1856 and is one of the historic structures of Pickens County. In 1868, the Pickens District was separated for a fixed time, into Pickens and Oconee counties. Pickens Court House relocated to its present-day site and was renamed to Pickens.

The Pickens Railway was established in 1898 as a shortline railroad from Easley to Pickens. From 1955 until 1987, Sangamo-Weston Inc. operated a capacitor manufacturing power just outside Pickens. Until they were banned in the US, Sangamo discharged a significant amount of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into a tributary of the Twelve Mile River which feeds into Lake Hartwell. Sangamo after that dumped mixed waste in six locations in the vicinity of Pickens. In two of these locations, the waste was burned, forming more risky dioxins. According to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, contamination was discovered at the “Breazeale site”, southwest of town. Schlumberger paid $11.8 million to federal and divulge agencies for injuries to natural resources caused by the contamination.