Canva Says Massive Subscription Price Increase Is Due to New AI Features
Canva hiked fees on some subscriptions by 300%.
Key Takeaways
- Canva, the popular design-software service worth $26 billion, is increasing membership prices.
- Some users are reporting team subscriptions increased from $120 to $500 per year.
- 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 that the cost of five-person team subscriptions has gone up from $120 per year to $500 per year. Canva reportedly told users 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 , has , and may be preparing .
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 .
includes features like AI-powered writing, slideshows from a prompt, and AI turning documents into websites; uses AI to turn written concepts into social posts, videos, and slideshows.
Related: From Bailing on College to Billionaire: 5 Â鶹Éçial Lessons From Canva Co-Founder Melanie Perkins
Even if the new features got an AI, subscribers took to social media to express the price increase. One user on X that small businesses could feel the impact of the pricing change the most.
Canva last month to give its customers access to Getty images and videos and also acquired in July to bolster its AI offerings. Leonardo’s full team joined Canva’s 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 .
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 that it takes 30 times as much energy to have AI generate text instead of taking it directly from the source.
Key Takeaways
- Canva, the popular design-software service worth $26 billion, is increasing membership prices.
- Some users are reporting team subscriptions increased from $120 to $500 per year.
- 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 that the cost of five-person team subscriptions has gone up from $120 per year to $500 per year. Canva reportedly told users 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 , has , and may be preparing .
