Design platform Canva has rolled out its first in-house image-generation model, named Canva Craft, developed by the company's research team to compete with models from Google, OpenAI, ByteDance and Meta.
Two-stage process and training on designs
Canva says the model operates in two phases. In the first phase it parses the user prompt and creates a composition plan that specifies spatial relationships between elements, relative scale, visual hierarchy, and information for text generation. In the second phase the model produces the image itself, supporting resolutions up to 2K and as many as 30 different aspect ratios to suit various platforms.
According to Canva, this staged approach helps produce images with accurate object details and legible text, and lets users make precise edits to parts of an image without unintentionally altering other elements.
Instead of training the model on photographs, Canva used designs from its library of human-created templates — including posters, social posts, presentations, infographics, menus and typography-heavy layouts.
Layered outputs, access and integrations
Because the model is trained on design files, images generated by Canva Craft can be converted into layered designs using Canva Magic, the company’s image-to-design transformer. Canva previously released a model that understands designs and layers.
Canva Craft is available to all users on the platform via the Dream Lab tab. The model will also be accessible through the Canva API, and Canva plans to support image generation in third-party chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini via its MCP.
Cost control, performance and product roadmap
Canva has relied on multiple external image models for generation on its platform in the past, so deploying its own model is likely to reduce API costs. The company also says the in-house model gives it tighter control over output quality and speed.
In 2024, Canva acquired the media-generation platform Leonardo.ai; researchers from Leonardo contributed to the new image model, Canva says. The company is also developing two more cost-efficient variants, named Craftfast and Craft-ultrafast, which it plans to release soon.
Financial context
Canva was on track for roughly $4 billion in revenue last year. However, the company lowered its growth forecast for 2026, and external analysts say that its valuation fell from about $42 billion to roughly $35 billion.
