Canva Released Its Image-Generation Model to Compete with Similar Offerings from Google, Meta, and OpenAI
October 29, 2026
IBL News | New York
Canva released its first image-generation model, Canva Craft, to compete with similar offerings from Google, OpenAI, ByteDance, and Meta.
Canva Research, its in-house AI lab, developed and trained the model specifically for design. It’s available in Canva and via its public API for developers, and the Canva MCP Server.
Craft generates high-quality images at 2K resolution in any aspect ratio, ranking, according to the design company, as “#1 spot globally for both People & Portraits (out of 87 models) and Landscapes & Nature (out of 85 models); and #2 for Abstract & Patterns and #4 for Products.”
The company noted that, rather than using photographs, it trained the model on human-designed templates from Canva’s library, including posters, social posts, presentations, infographics, menus, and typography-rich layouts.
That means Canva Magic can convert images generated with Canva Craft into layered designs using the company’s image-to-design transformer.
“Unlike conventional image generation models that generate pixels directly from a prompt, Craft uses a two-stage architecture that separates compositional planning from image rendering. This allows the model to reason about the structure of an image before generating it, delivering greater precision, consistency, and control over the final output.”
“The same underlying structure makes Craft outputs particularly well suited to Canva’s Magic Layers, which can transform generated images into fully editable design elements.”
Canva said it is developing two cost-efficient versions of the model, Craftfast and Craft-ultrafast, which it will release soon.
In 2024, Canva acquired media generation platform Leonardo.ai. It said that the researchers from Leonardo contributed to the new image model.
The company, with over 250 million users worldwide, was on track for $4 billion in revenue last year. However, it cut its 2026 growth forecast, reportedly causing its valuation to plummet from $42 billion to $35 billion.
