Canva has launched Canva Craft, its first image-generation model developed and trained by the company’s own research team, as the design platform expands its competition with AI tools from OpenAI, Google, Meta and other technology companies.
Craft is available globally to Canva users through Dream Lab and can generate images at up to 2K resolution while supporting more than 30 aspect ratios. Developers can also access the model through Canva’s public API.
The new model is designed specifically around visual composition, typography and editable design workflows rather than simply generating a flat image from a text prompt.
What Is Canva Craft?
Canva Craft is the company’s first foundation model built and trained from scratch by Canva Research, its in-house AI laboratory.
Unlike Canva’s previous AI image-generation tools, which relied partly on third-party models, Craft gives the company greater direct control over generation quality, speed and design integration.
Canva says Craft has been built specifically for design-oriented tasks including:
- social-media graphics;
- posters;
- presentations;
- advertising visuals;
- product images;
- illustrations;
- portraits; and
- marketing assets.
How Does Canva Craft Work?
Craft uses a two-stage image-generation process.
During the first stage, the model interprets the user’s prompt and creates a detailed composition plan.
That includes:
- which objects should appear;
- where those objects should be positioned;
- their relative sizes;
- visual hierarchy; and
- where text should appear.
The second stage renders the final image based on that plan.
Canva says separating planning from rendering allows Craft to generate more consistent layouts and improve control over individual elements.
Canva Craft Supports 2K Images
Craft can produce images at resolutions of up to:
2K
Users can select from more than:
30 aspect ratios
or enter a custom size for specific designs such as social posts, banners, stories or posters.
This makes the model especially relevant to Canva users who already create assets for multiple social-media platforms.
Better Text Inside AI Images
Readable text remains one of the biggest challenges for many AI image generators.
Canva says Craft was designed to improve typography and text placement by considering the wording and layout during its planning stage rather than treating text as an afterthought.
The company says Craft can generate text in 55 languages, while prompts can be submitted in any language.
Trained Heavily on Human-Made Designs
One of Craft’s main differences is its training approach.
Canva says its training data placed much greater emphasis on millions of human-created design templates from Canva’s library.
Those templates include:
- posters;
- social-media posts;
- presentations;
- infographics;
- menus; and
- typography-heavy layouts.
According to Canva, this helps the model understand design principles such as spacing, hierarchy, alignment and typography rather than only learning the appearance of finished images.
AI Images Can Become Editable Canva Designs
Craft also integrates with Canva’s Magic Layers technology.
This allows generated images to be transformed into separate editable design elements rather than remaining only as one flat image.
Users can then adjust individual parts of the design without necessarily regenerating everything else.
That could become one of Craft’s biggest advantages for marketers and social-media creators who want AI-generated visuals but still need manual design control.
How to Use Canva Craft
Canva Craft is already available to Canva users worldwide.
To access it:
- Open Canva.
- Go to Dream Lab.
- Enter a text prompt describing the image you want.
- Select the preferred format or aspect ratio.
- Generate the image.
- Edit or convert the result into a layered design where supported.
Canva says the model is available to all users globally through Dream Lab.
Canva Craft API Also Available
Canva is also making Craft available through its public API.
Developers can integrate the image model into applications including:
- marketing platforms;
- e-commerce tools;
- advertising systems;
- print services; and
- other creative software.
Canva also plans to connect Craft with AI assistants and automated workflows through its Model Context Protocol integration.
ChatGPT and Gemini Integration Planned
Craft is expected to work with third-party AI assistants through Canva’s MCP infrastructure.
That could eventually allow users to request an image through tools such as an AI assistant and have Canva Craft generate design-ready output as part of a larger workflow.
The integration is marked as coming soon, so users should not assume every chatbot currently supports Craft directly.
How Does Canva Craft Compare With Other AI Image Models?
Canva is positioning Craft against image-generation models from companies including OpenAI, Google and Meta.
The company says Craft debuted fourth overall on DesignArena, a crowdsourced image-generation benchmark.
Canva also says the model ranked first in categories including People & Portraits and Landscapes & Nature at launch.
Those rankings can change as models and evaluations are updated, so they should be treated as a launch-period benchmark rather than a permanent ranking.
Faster Craft Models Are Coming
Canva is also developing two lighter versions:
Craft-fast
and
Craft-ultrafast
The company says these models are intended to reduce generation costs while improving speed.
Release dates have not yet been announced.
Why Canva Built Its Own AI Model
Canva previously relied on several external AI models for parts of its generation workflow.
Building its own model gives the company greater control over:
- performance;
- image quality;
- editing capabilities;
- costs; and
- integration with Canva’s broader design tools.
Researchers from Leonardo.ai, which Canva acquired in 2024, also contributed to Craft’s development.
Canva Craft marks an important shift for the design platform from integrating other companies’ AI technology to developing its own image-generation models.
Its main differentiator is not simply generating attractive AI images.
Canva is focusing on design-aware generation, where layout, typography and individual elements can be edited within the same workflow.
With 2K output, more than 30 aspect ratios, readable text, Magic Layers support and public API access, Craft could be particularly useful for marketers, designers and social-media teams already working inside Canva.
