Canva cuts 2026 revenue growth forecast due to AI costs

Canva has adjusted its 2026 revenue growth forecast from 30% down to 20% due to higher-than-expected costs associated with its artificial intelligence features. While the company reported Q2 CY2026 revenue of $921.9 million—a 25.2% year-on-year increase—the growth guidance was impacted by the expense of relying on third-party frontier models.

To address these costs, CEO Melanie Perkins indicated a shift toward technological sovereignty through the development of in-house models and the acquisition of Leonardo.AI. These strategic moves, including task-level routing, have reportedly reduced the cost of serving AI tasks by approximately 90%. Specifically, Canva’s video model is reported to be 17x cheaper and its image model 30x cheaper than equivalent frontier models.

As part of its recent updates, Canva has also rebranded its AI suite, retiring the ‘Magic Studio’ name in favor of ‘Canva AI’. Additionally, the company has replaced its previous credit system with a tiered monthly allowance for AI usage.