Canva increases prices on Teams plan, pushing AI innovation | What is generative ai vs ai examples | Generative ai benefits for business | | Turtles AI

Canva, a renowned design platform, recently announced a significant price increase for Teams plan users. The decision, influenced by the integration of new AI-based features, has generated mixed reactions, especially among long-term customers accustomed to lower rates. The company justifies the change as necessary to align costs with the new technology offering.

Key points:

• Price increase: Canva has significantly increased costs for Teams plan users, especially those with older rate plans.
• Business rationale: The company attributes the increase to the need to reflect growth and new features, such as generative AI tools.
• Impact on users: Users who had contracts with locked-in prices are now affected by the adjustment to the new standards, with costs nearly quadrupling.
• International aspects: The change also affects international customers, with different price changes by region, as was the case in Australia.

Canva, the popular online design platform, recently announced a significant price increase for its Teams plan, a move that surprised many long-term users. In particular, those who benefited from older pricing plans are seeing a significant increase in annual costs, with the price for a five-person plan rising from $119.99 to $500 per year in the United States, albeit at a 40 percent discount for the first 12 months. In Australia, the flat rate of $39.99 AUD monthly for up to five users has been replaced by a cost of $13.50 AUD per user per month, with a minimum of three users per plan.

This change in costs was justified by Canva as a necessity to align prices with the growing range of innovative tools the platform has integrated, particularly in the field of generative AI. Among the new features, Canva introduced Magic Studio, a toolset that leverages AI to improve the efficiency and creativity of design projects. The decision to revise prices was motivated in part by a desire to reflect the added value these new technologies offer users.

For some customers, this revision represents a change from the more affordable prices that Canva had historically offered, positioning itself as a cost-effective alternative to more expensive design software such as Adobe’s. Interestingly, the price adjustment, initially implemented earlier this year for new users, is now being extended to those who had been “locked” into older, more favorable contracts. The change mainly affected users who had joined the Teams plan in previous years, a period when Canva was still consolidating its offerings and had not yet developed the full range of current features.

The company, which is preparing for a possible IPO, preferred to announce these changes through private e-mail communications to affected customers, rather than doing so publicly as in the past. This approach has drawn some criticism, with users complaining about a lack of transparency and clarity in communications. However, Canva points out that the original Teams plan price was established during an early phase of the product and that the new cost reflects the expansion and evolution of the capabilities offered.

Globally, the change in pricing has not been uniform: Australian customers, for example, have seen a reshaping of rates differently than U.S. users, with the introduction of a per-user price that increases the overall cost for larger teams.

The context of these changes should also be seen in light of Canva’s recent acquisitions, such as the purchase of British design software company Serif for approximately $380 million and, more recently, the acquisition of generative AI image startup Leonardo. These strategic moves seem to indicate a clear direction toward strengthening technology offerings, which, however, has led to inevitable cost increases for end users.

Canva’s price evolution reflects a significant phase of business transformation, with an eye toward expanding technological capabilities and preparing for a future IPO.