Canva Craft is Canva’s first in-house AI image model, and it is available now to every Canva user around the world. You can use it in Dream Lab inside Canva, and developers can use it through Canva’s public API. It makes images at up to 2K resolution in more than 30 aspect ratios. What makes it different is how it works: Craft plans the layout and any text first, then draws the image, so posters, social posts and infographics come out with text that is easier to read and objects where you asked for them.
Canva Research, the company’s own AI lab, built and trained Craft from scratch, and it is the first foundation model the lab has released. Its focus is useful for posters and social posts with text, although Canva has not said how many Craft images each plan can generate.
How Canva Craft works
Most image models turn your prompt straight into pixels. Craft splits the job into two stages:
- Planning: a planning model reads your prompt and writes a detailed plan of the image. The plan covers which elements appear, where they sit, how big they are relative to each other, what should stand out most, and the exact text that needs to appear.
- Rendering: a separate rendering model turns that plan into the final image, at up to 2K resolution.
Because the plan comes first, Craft handles the things that usually trip image models up: legible text, objects placed exactly where you asked, and layouts with a clear hierarchy. Canva says Craft can change an element without disturbing the whole layout. Its structured output is also designed to work with Magic Layers, which can split an image into editable parts where that feature is available.
The training is aimed at design. Canva says most image models learn mainly from photographs, while Craft’s training data puts far more weight on millions of human-made Canva templates, including posters, social posts, presentations, infographics, menus and text-heavy layouts. Canva then refined it with supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning, using feedback from its own designers. They compared more than 25,000 pairs of images against leading models, and whenever the automated scores disagreed with a designer, Canva went with the designer.
How to use Canva Craft in Dream Lab
- Open Canva in your browser or the app and sign in. Any Canva account works.
- Open Dream Lab from Canva’s homepage. If you do not see a shortcut, choose More, then Dream Lab.
- Make sure Canva Craft is selected as the model in the menu under the prompt box.
- Choose an aspect ratio, or enter a custom one, so the image fits where you will post it.
- Write your prompt. For anything with text, put the exact words in quotes and say what should be the biggest or most prominent part of the image.
- Review the image and its text before using it. If Magic Layers is available on your account, you can try splitting it into editable elements.
Be specific. Canva’s own example is that if you ask for a purple sky, long shadows and a lone tree, you should get all three, with the emphasis where you wanted it. You can write prompts in any language, and Craft can render text in 55 languages. Canva has not published that list, so if you need text in Hindi, Tamil or another Indian script, check the spelling closely before you use the image in a real poster or ad.
What Canva Craft is good at
| Use | Examples Canva gives |
|---|---|
| Social and marketing | Posters, social posts, flyers, presentation visuals and ads with text to check before publishing |
| Lifestyle and editorial photos | Realistic scenes with people, places, food, travel and everyday moments |
| Illustration and digital art | Flat, vector, painterly and hand-drawn styles |
| People and characters | Portraits, groups and fashion, including complex scenes |
| Nature and environments | Landscapes, cityscapes, interiors and architecture |
| Conceptual work | Imaginative scenes that mix real and stylised elements |
Canva says the first version still has room to improve on fine print and technical drawings, so do not rely on it for small legal text or detailed diagrams yet. Editing with a reference image and more advanced editing tools are planned for later releases.
Craft images are realistic enough that labelling matters. If you share AI images publicly, it helps to know how others will judge them, and our guide on how to spot AI-generated images covers the checks people use. Like other AI tools in Canva, Craft is covered by Canva Shield, which includes moderation of prompts and outputs, privacy and safety controls, and a way to report harmful or misleading images.
Where Canva Craft ranks on DesignArena
Canva says Craft debuted fourth overall on DesignArena, a crowdsourced design leaderboard. Its launch chart placed Canva second among image-generation labs. These are early rankings, not a guarantee that Craft will be the best choice for every prompt.
By category, Canva says Craft ranks first for People and Portraits (out of 87 models) and first for Landscapes and Nature (out of 85). It is second for Abstract and Patterns and fourth for Products. Crowdsourced rankings move as votes come in, so treat these as launch-day numbers, not a permanent verdict.
Canva Craft for developers: API and MCP
Developers can call Craft through the image generation endpoint in Canva’s Connect API, which is still a preview API. Set the model to craft_v1_2k on POST /v1/image-generations, then poll GET /v1/image-generations/{jobId} until the status is success. Canva’s example request looks like this:
POST /v1/image-generations
{
"prompt": "A clean infographic poster titled 'Ocean Plastics 2026' with three stat callouts and a wave illustration",
"model": "craft_v1_2k",
"aspect_ratio": "portrait_2_3",
"idempotency_key": "9c1f2d3e-5b6a-4c7d-8e9f-0a1b2c3d4e5f"
}- You need a user access token with the
asset:writescope. - Craft plans before it renders, so a job takes roughly 50 to 60 seconds. Poll with backoff, not a tight loop.
- Each job uses the user’s AI credits, the same as Canva’s other image models.
- The download link lasts 24 hours. Set
asset_upload.typetouploadto save the image to the user’s Canva uploads instead. - If Craft is unavailable, a pinned job fails with
model_not_available. Retry, or remove the model pin so Canva picks another model. Rejected prompts returnunsafe_input.
Craft support in the Canva MCP Server is coming soon. That will let AI assistants and agent workflows generate a launch graphic or social post as one step in a bigger task. If you already connect MCP servers to your coding agent, Canva’s MCP server is how Craft will reach those tools once support arrives.
What Canva has not said yet
Canva’s announcement does not say how many Craft images you can make on Canva’s free or paid plans, or how much of your monthly AI allowance one image uses. If you are on the free plan, try a few images and keep an eye on any usage warnings in Dream Lab before you plan a whole campaign around it.
Speed and cost are the next steps. Canva says distillation and a custom inference engine already make Craft an order of magnitude faster than its first internal version. Two lighter versions, Craft-fast and Craft-ultrafast, are on the way, and Canva says they will cost a fraction of what leading frontier models cost. It has not given dates for either.
If you already make social posts, thumbnails or flyers in Canva, Craft is worth trying for layouts and text placement. Check the result before publishing it, and use Magic Layers if it is available on your account. Canva’s template library gives you a place to finish the design.
FAQ
Is Canva Craft free?
Craft is available to all Canva users, including free accounts. Canva has not said how many Craft images each plan includes or how they count against your AI usage.
Where do I find Canva Craft?
On Canva’s homepage, open Dream Lab from the shortcut or More menu, then pick Canva Craft as the model.
What resolution does Canva Craft support?
Up to 2K, in more than 30 aspect ratios or a custom ratio you enter.
Can I edit images made with Canva Craft?
You can use the generated result as an image. Canva says Craft is designed to work with Magic Layers for more detailed editing, but that feature may not yet be available on every account.
Can I use Canva Craft in ChatGPT or other AI assistants?
Not yet. Craft is coming to the Canva MCP Server, which AI assistants can connect to, but Canva has not given a date.
