TipCanva Craft: Canva's own AI image model plans the image first – and it is in the free plan too
Canva has released Craft, its first in-house AI model for images. It first plans the layout and text and then draws the image, which should give readable text and correct placement. Craft is available to all Canva users in Dream Lab. It costs nothing extra, but counts against your AI allowance: Canva Free includes up to 20 AI uses a month.
On 22 October 2026 Canva launched Craft, the first image model Canva has built and trained itself, in its own research lab Canva Research. Craft creates images at up to 2K resolution and in more than 30 aspect ratios, from social media posts to posters and banners. It is available from day one to all Canva users worldwide, and to developers through Canva's API.
What sets Craft apart from many other image AIs is that it works in two stages. First a planning model writes a plan for the image: which elements to include, where they go, how big they are, what matters most and which text should appear. Then a separate model draws the image from that plan. Craft is trained on millions of human-made templates in Canva, such as posters, menus and presentations. That is why it should be better at what AI images often get wrong: readable text and a clear structure.
According to Canva you can write the prompt in any language, and Craft can put text in the image in 55 languages. You can ask for changes to one part of the image without altering the rest, and with Canva's Magic Layers tool the image can be turned into editable layers. Canva says Craft entered the DesignArena leaderboard, where users vote, as the fourth-best image model. According to The Verge it sat behind three image models from OpenAI. Such a list changes as more votes come in, so treat it as a rough guide.
What does it cost? Craft has no price of its own, but every image counts against Canva's monthly AI allowance. Canva's pricing page says Canva Free includes up to 20 uses of Standard or Premium AI a month. In what we have read, Canva has not said exactly how much of the allowance one Craft image uses. Faster and cheaper versions, Craft-fast and Craft-ultrafast, are on the way, and Craft is also meant to be usable from AI assistants through Canva's MCP connection. No date has been given for either.
Good to know: always check spelling, prices and dates in the image before you publish or print, especially special characters. And do not use AI images of real people or products in ways that could mislead customers.
How to get started
- Open Canva in your browser or the app and go to Dream Lab in the left-hand panel (according to The Verge it sits under the three-dot menu).
- Put the exact text in quotation marks, for example "AUTUMN SALE –30%", and say what should be biggest.
- State the format straight away, for example A4 poster or Instagram post, so you do not crop off text later.
- Change one thing at a time, for example only the colour or only the headline, instead of rewriting the whole prompt.
- Read through all text in the image and fix spelling, prices and dates before publishing.
- Want help writing the image prompt? Use the Design image prompt in the Prompt Workshop.
More on TipAI
Sources
- Canva Newsroom: Introducing Canva Craft (22 okt 2026) (retrieved 2026-10-23)
- The Verge: Canva’s first AI image model plans designs before generating them (22 okt 2026) (retrieved 2026-10-23)
- Canva: Pricing – Compare Free, Pro, Business and Enterprise plans (AI-kvot i Free) (retrieved 2026-10-23)
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