Canva Announces Significant Price Hike for Teams Subscription, Citing AI Features

Canva says its new AI features justify raising subscription prices by 300%

Canva Teams, which is marketed as the platform's "all-in-one solution that will help you address design bottlenecks, bloated tech stacks, and collaboration inefficiencies," is increasing prices for the first time since its 2020 launch -- in some cases, by 300%. The Teams plan allows multiple Canva users to access and edit a design all at once. In the U.S., some Canva users will see their Teams subscription price jump in early December from $119.99 per year to $500 per year. The first 12 months will be discounted to $300, but it's still more than double what users currently pay. The price jump is even more extreme in Australia. The flat fee of $26 per month for five users will switch to about that same amount per user, according to an Information Age report. That means a team of give will go from paying $323 to $1,636 per year, a jump of over 400%. Canva says its price hike is attributable to new features -- particularly those that are AI-powered. "Canva Teams has come a long way since launching in 2020, with major enhancements in team collaboration, brand management, the launch of our Visual Suite and our investments in [Canva's AI feature] Magic Studio," a Canva spokesperson told Fortune in a statement. "Our original pricing reflected the early stage of this product and has remained unchanged for the last four years. We're now updating the price for customers on this older plan to reflect our expanded product experience." The Canva spokesperson also noted anyone who has joined with a Teams subscription since April is already on those updated rates. Magic Studio is the platform's suite of tools that creates AI-generated images, videos, presentations and writing that launched in late 2023. "It's the first all-in-one AI design platform on the market," Canva co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins previously told Fortune. "The real power of Canva comes from being able to have it all integrated into workflows." But some Canva users see the price increase as prohibitive. "Canva's strategy risks pricing out the smaller teams that benefit most from its platform," Chris Kernaghan, a UX designer, wrote in a blog post last week. "These are the same teams that have contributed significantly to Canva's success by championing its tools and expanding its reach through word-of-mouth." While some users have complained about the price hike, others think it's worth it. "While it's certainly something that impacts our budget, the value Canva provides, especially with its AI features, has made it worthwhile so far," Jonathan Goldberg, founder, president and CEO of diamond-jewelry retail platform Kimberfire, told Fortune. Goldberg said his team uses Canva "extensively" to create content, social-media graphics, and marketing collateral. The tool has "streamlined" his team's design process, allowing the marketing team to design more professional content quickly. "However, with the recent price hike, it's crucial for Canva to continue evolving and adding more robust features to justify the increased cost," Goldberg said. While Canva continues to add new features to its platform, some users are disgruntled by the stiff price hike -- particularly because the tech company has long marketed itself as an affordable solution for individuals and companies who need easy design help. Canva recognizes that "pricing changes aren't always easy," the spokesperson said. "We deeply value our community." As of January 2023, Canva reported having 170 million monthly users, although it doesn't break down paid versus free users. The platform offers several tiers of access, including a free, "Pro," "Teams," and "Enterprise." Canva currently reports its pricing for Pro as $120 per year for one person; $100 per person (with a minimum of three people) per year for Teams; and pricing for the enterprise function is negotiated with the company. "The cost of Canva Pro remains unchanged and continues to be available for anyone not working in a team," the Canva spokesperson said. Canva Pro includes extra features including premium templates, brand kits, AI tools, extra cloud storage, and more. There have also been talks of a Canva IPO for years, but its CEO has remained quiet on the matter. "Being private enables us to continue to flesh out exactly who we are and what we're doing," Perkins previously told Fortune.

Canva hikes Teams price up to 300%, cites "Product Experience"

Online design platform Canva announced up to 300% price hikes for its Teams plan. The company has defended the move saying that the price rise reflects the value of their "expanded product experience," referring to their generative AI tools, The Verge reported. "Our suite of products has grown significantly over the last couple of years with the launch of new offerings like the Visual Suite and Magic Studio," Canva's communications lead Louisa Green told Verge. Some users informed their Teams plan's price was set to increase by 100% to 150% by next year, which would then further increase by 300% (from the starting value) after 12 months, leaving the current users in dismay over the sudden and astronomical rise. Additionally, Canva communicated this change in plans to users solely via email, with no public announcement in sight. For the longest time, Australia-based Canva positioned itself, and was thus seen as, a graphic design company that catered to non-professional designers in need of basic editing and designing tools. In the last few years, however, the company has been making aggressive moves to expand its market. This change was initiated by the launch of its Visual Worksuite, through which the company opened itself to enterprises and organizations as customers, in addition to amateur designers. It launched a slew of AI-powered design tools, upping its own Visual Worksuite game with what it called "Magic Studio", in 2023. On top of AI-generated images, the tools allow users to erase, replace, and re-create parts of original images, among other things. Then in March this year, Canva acquired Affinity, a graphic software company and a direct competitor of Adobe. The deal, reportedly valued at "several hundred million [British] pounds," provided Canva with a key opportunity to expand into the professional market through Affinity's advanced design software, a capability Canva previously lacked. "By joining forces with Affinity, we're excited to unlock the full spectrum of designers at every level and stage of the design journey," a Canva press release said. From the looks of it, Canva is seeking to capitalize on these AI tools and acquisitions as part of its broader monetization strategy. Like Canva, Adobe is also seeking to monetize its integration of AI tools, reflecting a broader industry trend. In its latest earnings call, Adobe's leadership outlined a similar strategy, using AI tools to drive user adoption and justify higher pricing. Adobe's CEO Shantanu Narayan in the company's latest earnings call talked extensively about its plans to use AI integrations to expand its market. Pointing out the popularity of its generative AI tool Firefly, President of Adobe's Digital Media Business, David Wadhwani, informed that the company's primary focus with AI was user adoption and then translating it into proliferation. He said that the company first thinks about using AI to add new users and then "getting more value to existing users at higher ARPU [average revenue per user]." Also Read: STAY ON TOP OF TECH NEWS: Our daily newsletter with the top story of the day from MediaNama, delivered to your inbox before 9 AM. Click here to sign up today!

Next year you might need to pay Canva 300% more

Starting next year, Canva users can expect significant price hikes on some subscriptions, particularly for the Canva Teams plan, which is seeing substantial increases due to the company's rollout of new generative AI features. The Verge reports that global customers of Canva Teams, a subscription plan tailored for businesses, will face price increases of over 300% in certain cases. This steep rise is attributed to what Canva describes as an "expanded product experience" brought about by its new AI tools. These price adjustments apply to existing users who had previously locked in lower rates, with Canva now aligning them with the current pricing structure. This change comes after the introduction of new subscription rates in April, which set the cost at $10 per user per month with a minimum of three users. According to a statement made to The Verge by Canva's communications lead, Louisa Green, the updated pricing reflects the value added by Canva's expanded suite of products, which includes new offerings like the Visual Suite and Magic Studio. These generative AI features, including tools like Magic Media and Magic Expand, have broadened Canva's appeal beyond design and marketing professionals to a more extensive workspace solution. Although these price increases were not publicly announced and were communicated mainly through customer emails, they mark a sharp shift for Canva, a platform that was once seen as a cost-effective alternative to more expensive graphic design tools like Adobe's. The news has sparked backlash from users, some of whom are considering canceling their subscriptions in favor of other options, such as Adobe applications. This pricing strategy comes on the heels of Canva's acquisition of the company behind Affinity's creative software and amid speculation of a potential public listing in the U.S. in 2026.

Canva Says Massive Subscription Price Increase Is Due to New AI Features

Subscribers were frustrated by the price increase and noted that small businesses could feel the impact of the price change the most. Is AI worth paying four times as much for a Canva subscription? Design software service Canva is increasing membership prices for users globally, with some U.S. users reporting on X that the cost of five-person team subscriptions has gone up from $120 per year to $500 per year. Canva reportedly told users in an email that it would discount the higher price by 40% for the next year, bringing it down to $300 -- still a $180 increase. The company is worth $26 billion, has 185 million global monthly users, and may be preparing to go public. Canva is justifying the price hikes by touting its new AI features. "Our suite of products has grown significantly in the last couple of years with the launch of new offerings like the Visual Suite and Magic Studio," a Canva spokesperson said in a statement. Visual Suite includes features like AI-powered writing, slideshows from a prompt, and AI turning documents into websites; Magic Studio uses AI to turn written concepts into social posts, videos, and slideshows. Related: From Bailing on College to Billionaire: 5 Entrepreneurial Lessons From Canva Co-Founder Melanie Perkins Even if the new features got an AI, subscribers took to social media to express frustration over the price increase. One user on X noted that small businesses could feel the impact of the pricing change the most. Canva renewed a multi-year partnership last month to give its customers access to Getty images and videos and also acquired AI startup Leonardo.ai in July to bolster its AI offerings. Leonardo's full 120-person team joined Canva's 4,000-person workforce as part of the acquisition. "With every single AI feature that we introduced into Canva, we really think it's helping to cut down that time between A and B of getting the idea into an actual product," Canva CEO Melanie Perkins said in July. Incorporating AI into a business isn't cheap and comes with a significant environmental cost, too. AI models currently cost over $100 million to develop, with the price tag only expected to rise over the next couple of years. AI researchers also estimate that it takes 30 times as much energy to have AI generate text instead of taking it directly from the source.

Brimmed with AI, Canva's hiking subscription prices but skips India for now

Following a series of artificial intelligence (AI) acquisitions alongside layering the Magic Suite product with extensive generative AI functionality, it was perhaps inevitable that those costs will add up. And users will have to pay for the perceived added value. Canva, which can be described as a one of its kind application suite spanning visual communication and workplace tools, has announced changes to the Canva Teams subscription pricing for many countries - in some cases by as much as 300%. The company confirms to HT, that Teams users in India (and indeed Pro users as well) will not be subject to any subscription pricing changes. That is, at least for now. "There has been no surge in pricing for Canva in India," Canva says, in a statement shared with HT. In the US, for example, Canva Teams pricing will cost $500 per year for up to 5 members, up from the present $120 per year pricing. Canva has four subscription tiers - Canva Free, Canva Pro, Canva Teams and Canva Enterprise. In India, the pricing will remain as is. This means Canva Pro will still cost ₹500 per month per user, Canva Teams will be priced at ₹380 per person per month while Canva Enterprise pricing hinges on specific requirements. Also read:Tech Tonic | We must not ignore smart acquisitions as a route to AI domination For Canva, their argument includes pitching a rapidly revamped and more capable Magic Studio and the Visual Suite, while subscription pricing for most users remained unchanged since its launch in 2020. "Canva Teams has come a long way since launching in 2020, with major enhancements in team collaboration, brand management, the launch of our Visual Suite and our investments in Magic Studio. Our original pricing reflected the early stage of this product and has remained unchanged for the last four years. We're now updating the price for customers on this older plan to reflect our expanded product experience, while those who joined since April are already on the updated rates," a Canva spokesperson told HT. Subscription price hikes for Canva come a month ahead of rival Adobe's annual creativity conference, Adobe Max 2024, which is expected to showcase the company's relentless AI push including their Firefly models, across consumer and business focused platforms such as Photoshop, Lightroom, Acrobat and InDesign. Also read:Canva acquiring Leonardo.AI will boost its AI suite for consumers and businesses There is a layer of complexity to when and how the new subscription prices become applicable, because the conditions aren't immediately clear. "To ease this transition, eligible impacted customers will benefit from 12 months of discounted pricing before the changes take full effect," adds the Canva spokesperson. They also confirm that the cost of Canva Pro subscription in all countries remains unchanged, and that subscription remains available to all users not working in a team environment. A few weeks ago, Canva wrote the latest chapter of its AI acquisition spree, completing a deal for Leonardo.AI, an Australian company. At that time, HT had reported the Canva will bring Leonardo.AI's foundation model called Phoenix, and a number of tools for developers as well as customers (these include an AI art generator, an AI video generator, a transparent PNG generator), within their fold. A lot of these will find their way within Canva's Magic Studio, which has rapidly adopted versatile tools and capabilities, in the last year. Canva which now has more than 190 million users worldwide, of which around 20 million are paying premium 'Pro' subscribers, clocking $2.3 billion in annual revenue. Leonardo's another 19 million paying business and enterprise customers, join. Also read:Exclusive | Most cutting-edge tools use AI built in-house: Canva's Cameron Adams For Canva, in-house development costs too would have increased over time. In May, at the Canva Create 2024 showcase, Cameron Adams, who is Canva's co-founder and Chief Product Officer detailed a mix of AI models that are being used across the product. A large chunk of that underlier is developed in-house. "A huge amount of the AI in Canva is developed in-house. We've got a got a huge team of machine learning engineers, which is close to 100 machine learning engineers within Canva, and they're constantly working on our own tech," Adams told HT, at the time. Over the past year, Canva's sped up innovation with smart acquisitions. It needed to find that pace, as it competes with tech giants including Adobe, Google and Microsoft as well as every generative AI platform available. Previously, the acquisition of three apps from UK based Serif (the apps are Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and Affinity Publisher 2), provided a foundation for Canva suite's transformation into a "fullstack solution for all designers, including professional graphic designers, illustrators and typographers." Also read:9 in 10 Indian businesses rely on AI for content creation: Canva In June, Canva released its annual Visual Economy Report, which indicates that 9 out of 10 surveyed businesses and enterprises in India are beginning to take first steps towards the use AI for content creation and visual communication tasks. Alongside, 85% business leaders are realising that resistance towards adopting tech and AI tools for designing communication, shackles creativity.