Image: Canva
Canva has launched Canva Craft, its first image generation model built in-house. The design company says Canva Research trained it from scratch and that it is available to all Canva users now. Canva announced it on X and in a newsroom post.
Introducing Canva Craft 🚀
— Canva (@canva) October 22, 2026
Extraordinary image generation is now available to everyone, powered by our first frontier model built specifically for design.
With Craft, Canva is now the world's second most advanced AI lab for image generation on @DesignArena's global leaderboard.
See what it can do 👇
Craft works in two steps. Canva says a planning model first writes out the layout, including what appears, where it sits, how big it is and what text is needed. A second model then draws the image at up to 2K resolution, in more than 30 aspect ratios. The idea is that planning first gives cleaner text and lets users change one element without redoing the rest.
Image: Canva
The training data is different too. Canva says it used millions of its own human-made templates, such as posters, menus, slides and infographics, instead of mostly photographs. It then tuned the model with feedback from its designers, who judged more than 25,000 image pairs. Those figures come from Canva, and the comparisons have not been published. TechCrunch reports that researchers from Leonardo.ai, which Canva bought in 2024, also helped.
The headline claim is a ranking. Canva says Craft debuted fourth on DesignArena's image leaderboard, which it argues makes Canva the world's second most advanced image lab. The Verge reports that the three models ahead of it are all from OpenAI. Canva also says Craft ranks first for portraits and for landscapes.
Treat those claims with care. The lab ranking rests on one model's position, and crowdsourced boards shift as votes come in. We found no independent side-by-side tests yet.
Image: Canva
Craft is also in Canva's developer API, where Canva says a job takes roughly 50 to 60 seconds because the model plans before it draws. Canva says it will reach AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini through its MCP server soon. Two cheaper, faster versions, Craft-fast and Craft-ultrafast, are promised without dates. TechCrunch notes the move is likely to cut what Canva pays for outside models, and Canva also cites better quality and speed control.
How to try Canva Craft
Open Dream Lab from the left-hand menu in Canva and choose Canva Craft as the model. Test it on something you really make, such as a poster or social card with a headline, and check the small text closely. Canva says Craft images can be turned into editable layers with its Magic Layers tool. Check your plan's AI allowance, since Canva has not said how many Craft images each plan includes. Team, school and enterprise accounts may have Dream Lab switched off by an admin, according to Canva's help center.
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