Canva says its AI features are worth the 300 percent price enhance

Prices for some Canva subscriptions are set to skyrocket next year following the company’s aggressive rollout of its generative AI feature. Global customers of Canva Teams — a business-focused subscription that supports adding multiple users — can expect a price enhance of just over 300 percent in some cases. Canva says the enhance is justified by the “enhanced product experience” and the value that its generative AI tools have added to the platform.

In the USA some Canva Teams users report subscription increases from $120 per year for up to five users to a staggering $500 per year. A 40% discount will be applied to bring that down to $300 for the first 12 months. In Australia Information Age reports that the flat monthly fee of AUS$39.99 (around $26) for five users will change to AUS$40.50 everyone user. This means a team of five people will pay between AUS$480 (approximately $323) and AUS$2,430 (approximately $1,636) per year.

Some of those accounts were locked into lower pricing that Canva no longer offers. In April, the company quietly changed its offering for fresh Teams subscribers to $10 per month for each user and set a minimum requirement of three users. Now, Louisa Green, Canva’s communications lead, says that current users will also be transitioned to that structure in September “to reflect the current plan pricing and the value of our expanded product experience.”

“Our product suite has grown significantly over the past few years with the introduction of new offerings such as Visual Suite and Magic Studio,” Green said in a statement to Edge.

Although Canva has publicly announced similar price changes in the past, these recent increases were apparently communicated only via customer emails. Other subscription tiers for Pro and Enterprise users do not appear to be affected.

The premium pricing is a major U-turn for Canva, which was once considered a elementary, affordable alternative to Adobe’s more steep graphic design software. Canva users online have decried the increases, with some announcing they’re canceling their subscriptions and switching to Adobe apps. The massive price hikes also come after Canva bought the company behind the original software suite Affinity for a reported “few hundred million [British] pounds” and before potential US public listing in the year 2026.