Design platform Canva has released its first image generation model called Canva Craft, developed by a research team to compete with models in the same category from Google, OpenAI, ByteDance, and Meta.
The company said its model works in two stages. The first stage interprets the user’s prompt and creates a plan that includes details such as spatial relationships of elements, relative scale, visual hierarchy, and information for text generation. In the second stage, the model generates images with up to 2K resolution in 30 different aspect ratios for various platforms.
Canva said this approach allows them to create images with accurate object details and easy-to-read text. Additionally, users can make precise edits without changing other parts of the image.
The company noted that rather than using photos, the model was trained using human-designed templates from the Canva library, including posters, social posts, presentations, infographics, menus, and typography-heavy layouts.
This means images generated with Canva Craft can be turned into layered designs using Canva Magic, the company’s image-to-design conversion tool. Last year, the platform released its own model that understands design and layers.
Canva Craft is available to all users on the company’s platform, and models can be accessed through the Dream Lab tab. This model is also available through the Canva API. Additionally, the company plans to support image generation in third-party chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini through Canva’s MCP.
Canva uses a number of image models for generation on its platform, so the new model could help the company save on API costs. In addition to cost, the new model will also improve platform quality and speed control, he said.
In 2024, Canva acquired media generation platform Leonardo.ai. Leonardo researchers are credited with contributing a new image model.
Canva said it is developing two cost-effective versions of its model, Craftfast and Craft-ultrafast, which are expected to be released soon.
The company was on track for $4 billion in sales last year. However, the company reportedly cut its growth forecast for 2026 and its valuation plummeted from $42 billion to $35 billion, according to outside analysts.
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