Design platform Canva is dramatically raising prices for some customers, a move the company blames on generative AI.
In the US, some subscribers on Canva Teams' older pricing plan have seen their five-person plan list price increase from $119.99 per year to $500 per year (with a 40% discount for the first 12 months), while in Australia, the flat rate of A$39.99 (roughly $26) per month for five users has increased to A$40.50 per user.
Canva Teams is currently priced at $100 per person, or $10 per person per month, with a minimum of three members required for the Teams plan. These prices were quietly changed for new customers earlier this year, but the company is now changing the prices for customers who were previously paying the lower price.
The price change does not apply to Canva's Pro or Enterprise levels.
A Canva spokesperson confirmed the new pricing in a statement to TechCrunch, noting that the growth of the company's suite of AI-generated tools, including Magic Studio, was the reason for the price change. They also noted that some Canva customers had access to lower prices that Canva no longer offers. Canva quietly changed the price of Teams to $10 per user per month earlier this year.
“Our original pricing reflected the early stages of this product and has remained unchanged for the past four years,” the spokesperson said. “We've now updated the pricing for customers on this older plan to reflect the expansion of our product experience.”
Canva's price hike, implemented as it prepares for its IPO, has predictably not been well received, with users particularly taking issue with the fact that the company announced the price increase in a customer email rather than publicly disclosing it, as it has done in the past.
The new prices are a departure from Canva's roots as an affordable alternative to design software like Adobe, and may also reflect that the startup is growing too quickly: In March, Canva acquired U.K.-based graphic design software company Serif for about $380 million, and in August it acquired AI-powered image generation company Leonardo.