Canvathe Australian startup that’s won over 265 million users with its design softwareis launching a new suite of tools that combine visual creation and workflow automationrun by AI agents that respond to conversational prompts.
Dubbed Canva AI 2.0the new platform of services lets users create and alter designs using natural languageand connects to other services like GmailSlackand Zoom in order to generate new content. The new platform also boasts persistent memoryallowing Canva to learn how people workand can automatically update designs as brand imagery gets tweaked.
“We had to rearchitect the whole Canva platform,” Cliff ObrechtCanva’s cofounder and chief operating officertells Fortune.
Canvafounded in 2012integrated generative AI functions onto its platform in early 2023just a few months after ChatGPT’s release. (At the timeFortune noted that the startup was wary of using the term “AI” to advertise its servicespreferring the term “magic” instead.)
Obrecht describes Canva’s previous AI services—generating images and videoor generating a whole presentation—as “a design platform with AI services built on top.” With these new servicesCanva hopes to go beyond design to offer more coworking capabilities for users.
For examplethe new Canva can crawl the web for breaking tech news overnightdetermine what’s trendingthen create—and even schedule—social media posts on its own. “It can help you complete your whole job,” Obrecht says.
Canva’s rise in AI
Canva has quietly become one of the world’s most used consumer AI apps. Canva is the world’s third most used generative AI web product by monthly active usersbehind Google Gemini and ahead of China’s DeepSeek chatbotaccording to an analysis by VC firm a16z.
Canva’s massive user base has pushed the company to think carefully about how to offer AI services without blowing a hole in its budget. “There’s only so long you can fund your user base with VC-funded dollars,” Obrecht says. “With 265 million users on a monthly basis hammering our serviceswe have to own our models and we have to own infrastructure that serves our models.”
Canva has acquired several other AI startups in recent yearsincluding Leonardo AIan image-generating platformin 2024. Just last week, Canva acquired Simtheorya platform for building agentsand Orttoa marketing automation company.
These investments have helped Canva produce its own foundational AI modelsrather than solely relying on models from third parties. The startup claims that its AI services are sevenfold faster and 30-fold cheaper than “comparable” frontier models. Obrecht adds that Canva is also trying to explore how to tap device processing power for AIrather than go into the cloud.
Canva will offer multiple tiers for pricing. Free users will get access to Canva’s basic AIwith a small number of credits for premium models. Pricing then escalates through different tiers all the way up to $100 a monthwhich Obrecht describes as “almost all-you-can-eat”—even if there are still some limits on Canva’s most powerful models.
Software-as-a-service companies have been hit hard in recent months by investor fears about competition from AI developers like OpenAIGoogleand Anthropic. Design software developers are particularly threatened by AIas ChatGPT and Claude increasingly take on the ability to generate video and images.
Shares in Adobewhich makes Photoshop and other design and publishing softwareare down by more than 30% over the past 12 months. Shares in design startup Figma have performed even worselosing almost 85% of their value since the company’s $1.2 billion IPO.
Canvawhich is still privately heldclaims it reached $4 billion in revenue for 2025. Obrechtin an interview with Bloomberg last Novembersuggested an IPO was “probably imminent in the next couple of years.”
Obrecht notes thatdespite the so-called AI scare tradeCanva’s shares are still trading at its last valuation of $42 billionreached during an employee stock sale last year. “We’ve fortunately avoided being hit by that SaaS apocalypse,” he adds.
But he’s aware that rapidly changing technology can pose a threat to Canva if executives aren’t careful. “If we’re not going to disrupt ourselvesthen we’re going to be disrupted,” he says.
UpdateApril 162026: This article has been updated with a more current figure for Canva’s 2025 revenue.