What Canva's subscription plans include
Canva offers a free version and two paid plans: Canva Pro and Canva Teams. The free version gives you access to thousands of templates, basic design tools, and a limited library of images and fonts. Canva Pro adds a much larger content library, brand kit storage, background removal, and the ability to resize designs in bulk. Canva Teams is designed for groups working together and includes everything in Pro plus team collaboration features, shared brand assets, and admin controls.
Each plan has different storage limits, content access, and features. The choice between them depends on whether you design alone or with others, and how many premium images, videos, and fonts you need for your work.
Key Takeaways
- Canva Pro costs a monthly or annual fee and includes millions of premium images, videos, fonts, and templates not available in the free version.
- The brand kit feature in Pro lets you save your logo, colors, and fonts so they stay consistent across all your designs.
- Canva Teams adds collaboration tools and shared team assets, making it useful for groups rather than individual designers.
- You can cancel your subscription at any time, and Canva does not charge you for the next billing period once you cancel.
Canva Pro: What's included and the monthly cost
Canva Pro includes access to over 100 million stock photos, videos, and music tracks, plus millions of premium templates and fonts. You get 1 TB of cloud storage for your designs, the ability to remove backgrounds from images automatically, and a feature called Magic Resize that lets you resize a design for different platforms at once—useful if you need the same graphic in multiple sizes for social media.
Pro also includes the brand kit, where you can upload your logo and save your brand colors and fonts. When you use the brand kit in a design, those colors and fonts appear as quick options, so your branding stays consistent without having to remember hex codes or font names each time.
Canva Pro is available as a monthly subscription or an annual plan. The annual plan costs less per month than paying month-to-month, but you pay the full year upfront. You can switch between monthly and annual billing, though the change takes effect at your next renewal date.
Canva Teams: Sharing designs and assets with a group
Canva Teams includes everything in Pro, plus the ability to invite team members to a shared workspace. Team members can work on the same designs together, comment on drafts, and access shared brand kits and folders. The plan includes admin controls so you can manage who has access to what and remove team members if needed.
Teams is billed per person, so the cost scales with the number of people on your team. You can add or remove team members at any time, and you only pay for the people currently on the plan. This makes it useful for small groups—design teams, marketing departments, or freelancers who work with regular collaborators.
What the free version includes and its limits
The free Canva account gives you thousands of templates, basic design tools, and access to Canva's free stock photos and fonts. You get 5 GB of cloud storage. The free version is genuinely useful for straightforward projects like social media posts, flyers, or presentations, and many people use it without ever upgrading.
The main limits are the size of the content library and the number of premium features. Free users cannot use Magic Resize, do not have access to premium stock photos and videos, and cannot create a brand kit. If you find yourself wishing you had a specific premium image or font, or if you need to resize designs frequently, that is usually when upgrading makes sense.
How to upgrade from free to a paid plan
In Canva, click the menu icon in the top left and select "Upgrade." You will see the Pro and Teams options with their current prices. Choose the plan you want and the billing cycle (monthly or annual for Pro). You will need to enter a payment method—Canva accepts major credit cards and some other payment options depending on your location.
Once you complete the purchase, your account upgrades when ready and you can use all the Pro or Teams features right away. Your free designs stay in your account and you can edit them with your new tools. If you have any free designs you want to keep, make sure to save them before you downgrade later, because Canva will delete designs that exceed your storage limit if you go back to the free plan.
Canceling your subscription and what happens to your work
You can cancel your Canva subscription at any time through your account settings. Go to your profile menu, select "Billing," and look for the option to cancel your plan. Once you cancel, you will not be charged again at the next renewal date. You can use your paid features until the end of your current billing period, then your account reverts to free.
Your designs do not disappear when you cancel. They stay in your account, but you lose access to premium features like Magic Resize and the brand kit. If your designs use premium fonts or images, those elements stay in the design but you cannot edit them or use new premium content. You can still read and edit your designs using free tools and fonts.
Comparing Canva to other design tools
Canva's main strength is ease of use and the size of its template library. If you need to make designs quickly without learning design software, Canva is faster than tools like Adobe Express or Figma. Adobe Express offers similar features and is also free with a paid tier, but Canva has more templates and a larger stock content library.
Figma is more powerful for detailed design work and team collaboration, but it has a steeper learning curve and is aimed at professional designers. Canva is better for people who want to make polished designs without design training. If you need advanced features like vector editing or complex animations, you would outgrow Canva, but for most small business and social media work, Canva Pro is sufficient.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Canva Pro designs for my business or to sell?
Yes. Canva Pro includes a commercial license, so you can use your designs for business purposes, client work, and selling products. You cannot resell the templates or stock content themselves, but you can use them in designs you create and sell. Check Canva's terms for specific restrictions on certain content types.
What happens if I do not renew my subscription?
Your account becomes free again and you lose access to Pro features. Your designs stay in your account and you can still view and read them, but you cannot use premium fonts, images, or features like Magic Resize. You can resubscribe at any time and regain access to all Pro tools.
Can I share my Canva Pro account with someone else?
Your Canva account is personal to you and should not be shared. If you want to work with someone else, use Canva Teams instead, which is designed for multiple people to collaborate on the same workspace with proper access controls.
Does Canva offer a free trial for Pro?
Canva occasionally offers trial periods for new users, but this varies by region and changes over time. When you click Upgrade, you will see whether a trial is available for your account. If no trial is shown, you can start a paid subscription and cancel within a few days if you decide it is not for you.
Can I change my billing from monthly to annual or vice versa?
Yes. You can switch your billing cycle in your account settings under Billing. The change takes effect at your next renewal date, not when ready. If you switch from monthly to annual, you will be charged the annual price at your next renewal.