Canva Launches Its First Image Generation Model, Canva Craft

Design platform Canva has released its first image generation model, Canva Craft. Developed by the company’s research team, the model is designed to compete with similar offerings from Google, OpenAI, ByteDance, and Meta.

Two-Stage Image Generation

According to Canva, the model operates in two stages. First, it interprets a user’s prompt and creates a plan covering details such as the spatial relationships between elements, relative scale, visual hierarchy, and text-generation requirements. It then generates an image at up to 2K resolution in as many as 30 aspect ratios for different platforms.

Canva said this approach enables the model to produce images with accurate object details and legible text. Users can also make precise edits without altering other parts of an image.

Trained on Human-Designed Templates

Rather than training the model on photographs, Canva used human-designed templates from its library, including posters, social media posts, presentations, infographics, menus, and typography-rich layouts.

As a result, images generated with Canva Craft can be converted into layered designs using Canva Magic, the company’s image-to-design transformer. Last year, Canva released its own model capable of understanding designs and layers.

Availability and Integrations

Canva Craft is available to all users through the Dream Lab tab on Canva’s platform. The model will also be accessible through the Canva API. In addition, the company plans to support image generation in third-party chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini through Canva’s MCP.

Cost, Quality, and Speed

Canva has previously relied on several image-generation models across its platform, so the new model is likely to help reduce the company’s API costs. Canva said that, beyond cost savings, owning the model gives the platform greater control over quality and speed.

In 2024, Canva acquired the media-generation platform Leonardo.ai. The company said Leonardo’s researchers contributed to the development of the new image model.

Canva is also developing two cost-efficient versions of the model, called Craftfast and Craft-ultrafast, which are expected to be released soon.

Revenue and Valuation

Canva was on track to generate $4 billion in revenue last year. However, it lowered its 2026 growth forecast, reportedly causing its valuation to fall from $42 billion to $35 billion, according to external analysts.