Canva’s first AI image model plans designs before generating them

Canva is diving even deeper into AI with the launch of an image generation model that competes directly with those from OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. The model, called Canva Craft, uses a two-stage architecture that allows it to plan a design before generating an image, allowing for “greater precision, consistency and control,” according to an announcement on Thursday.

Canva Craft can generate images at up to 2K resolution and in more than 30 aspect ratios. In addition to generating social media posts and marketing content, it’s also supposed to create realistic scenes, digital art, environmental imagery, and more. The model’s two-stage system allows it to more accurately generate complex images that require legible text and precise object placement, according to Canva.

Canva says it trained Craft on “millions of human-made templates” from the platform’s content library, which includes things like social media posts, presentations, infographics, and menus. The model is currently ranked fourth on Design Arena’s leaderboard for the best AI image generation models, a crowdsourced benchmark for AI designs. It sits behind OpenAI’s GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst, GPT-Image-2.5 Flare, and GPT-Image-2.

Canva notes that its AI model comes with “robust input and output moderation, privacy and safety controls, and reporting tools.” The company plans to allow AI agents to plug into Canva Craft through the open Model Context Protocol, and will also roll out more efficient Craft-fast and Craft-ultrafast models in the future.

Canva Craft is available now to all users globally. You can try it by navigating to the three-dot option on Canva’s left-hand menu and then selecting Dream Lab.