Best for: Small teams that need on-brand visuals without a designer in the loop
The default for a small team that needs on-brand visuals every week, and the free plan alone beats most paid design tools. Treat its AI as a convenience inside the editor, not as a reason to drop a specialist generator.
- Who it's forIndividuals, Students, Freelancers
- Not ideal forPrint production work that needs precise typographic control
- Price from$18/mo · free plan
- In category#1 of 6 in Design · category median $11/mo
What is Canva?
Canva is a drag-and-drop design editor that added AI rather than an AI tool that added design, and the order matters.
You start from one of millions of templates for a social post, a deck, a poster or a video, then use generation where it helps: write a first draft of the copy, produce an image that does not exist in the stock library, remove a background, resize a finished design for another channel, or translate a whole document.
Nothing forces you through a prompt box. For teams the useful part is control rather than generation. Brand Kits pin fonts, colours and logos so a hundred people produce on-brand work without a designer reviewing each file, and Business adds approvals and admin.
Ai, whose models sit behind some of the image features.
AI is metered by allowance rather than by feature: the free plan covers up to 200 standard AI uses or 20 premium ones a month, Pro gives ten times the free allowance, Business twenty times, and an AI Pass add-on buys more.
Pro costs $18 a month or $144 a year for one person; Business is $25 per user per month.
Made by CanvaSydney, AustraliaFounded 2012Launched Jan 2013
Canva key features
Templates and drag-and-drop editor
Millions of starting points across social, presentation, print and video formats, editable without design skills.
Brand Kits
Pin fonts, colours and logos so everyone on the plan produces on-brand work; five kits on Pro, a hundred on Business.
Magic Resize and translate
Reformat a finished design for another channel, or translate an entire document, without rebuilding the layout.
AI image generation and background removal
Generate images inside the canvas and cut backgrounds in one click, drawing on a shared monthly AI allowance.
Presentations with speaker view
Build, present and record a deck in the browser, with charts, embeds and data connections.
Team approvals and admin
Business plans add review states, permissions and central administration for content produced at volume.
Connect API and Apps SDK
Documented APIs for pushing designs into other systems and building apps that run inside the editor.
Canva pricing and plans
Free
Free
- 1.6M templates
- 5 GB cloud storage
- 1 Brand Kit with 3 colours
- Up to 200 standard AI uses per month
Pro
$18/month
- $144 per year for one person
- 3.6M templates including premium
- 5 Brand Kits
- 100 GB storage
- 10x the free AI allowance
Business
$25/month
- Per user, $250 per user per year
- 100 Brand Kits and approvals
- 500 GB storage
- 20x the free AI allowance
- Team admin and collaboration tools
Pricing checked on August 26, 2026.See Canva's pricing page
Canva pros and cons
Pros
- The broadest tool here: design, video, presentations, print and AI in one editor
- Brand Kits keep a whole team on brand without a designer reviewing files
- Free plan is genuinely usable, not a trial
- 4.7 on G2 across more than 7,000 reviews
Cons
- AI features are metered by a shared monthly allowance that runs out fast
- No single AI feature is best in class against a specialist tool
- Typographic control is thin for print production work
Canva platforms, API and integrations
API available
SDKs: TypeScript, JavaScript. API documentation
6 integrations
- Google Drive
- Dropbox
- Slack
- HubSpot
- Shopify
- WordPress
12 languages
English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi
Inputs and outputs
Accepts Text, Image, Video, PDFProduces Image, Video, PDF, Text
2 AI models
Canva AI, Leonardo Phoenix
Is Canva secure? Privacy, compliance and support
Data privacy
- Does not train on user data
- Retention: Canva states user designs are not used to train its AI models unless the account opts in through the settings
- Data region: AU
Compliance
- SOC 2
- GDPR
- ISO 27001
- CCPA
Team features
- SSO: yes
- Team workspace: yes
Support channels
- Live chat
- Documentation
- Community
- Dedicated manager
Who is Canva best for?
Small teams that need on-brand visuals without a designer in the loop. Canva targets individuals, students, freelancers, small and mid-size businesses, enterprises, agencies.
Use cases
Categories
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Canva FAQ
Is Canva free?
Yes, permanently. The free plan includes 1.6 million templates, 5 GB of storage and up to 200 standard AI uses a month. Premium templates and the larger AI allowance need Pro.
How much does Canva Pro cost?
$18 per month, or $144 per year for one person. Canva Business is $25 per user per month, or $250 per user per year.
What are Canva AI credits?
One shared monthly allowance covers every AI feature, from image generation to background removal and copywriting. Pro gets ten times the free allowance, Business twenty times, and an AI Pass add-on buys more.
Can Canva make a presentation from a prompt?
Yes. Describe the deck and Canva drafts the slides with layouts, images and copy, which you then edit like any other design.
Does Canva train its AI on my designs?
Canva states designs are not used to train its models unless the account opts in through the settings.