Canva slows AI rollout after cutting 2026 growth forecast to 20%
Canva cut its 2026 growth target from 30% to 20% as it works to lower AI serving costs and improve the economics of a wider rollout.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
Canva AI costs forecast concerns have led the design-software company to lower its 2026 revenue-growth target from 30% to 20%, according to Startup Daily and Fortune. The 10-percentage-point reduction is roughly a one-third cut from its prior target, and Canva said it slowed the release of AI features while it works to make them less costly to run.
The reports describe a change in Canva's forward outlook, rather than a report of falling revenue. Startup Daily said Canva recorded June-quarter revenue of US$921.9 million, up 25.2% from a year earlier, though chief executive and co-founder Melanie Perkins said the result was below the goal set at the start of the year.
Why did Canva cut its 2026 growth forecast?
Perkins told Fortune that demand for Canva's new AI tools exceeded the company's expectations, but that the cost of completing an AI task needed to come down before the tools could be released more broadly. She said Canva chose to slow the rollout as it rebuilt its architecture, reduced unit costs and strengthened its business model.
Startup Daily reported that Perkins told shareholders the average cost of serving an AI task was too high. The company said the slower rollout affected distribution and near-term growth, while allowing it to work toward AI products that can be expanded on a more sustainable basis, according to Startup Daily.
The available reports are based on descriptions of Canva's shareholder update and reported comments from Perkins; the underlying update was not included in the material reviewed for this report.
What is Canva changing to reduce AI costs?
Canva is rebuilding the technical setup behind its AI products and seeking lower costs for each task, Perkins told Fortune. Fortune reported that the company had cut its cost per AI task by nearly 90% since launching Canva AI 2.0 in April.
Lower per-task costs have not ended the challenge because use has grown with the product. Fortune reported that Canva AI users were creating three times as many designs as they did with the previous version, increasing the importance of getting the economics right before expanding access further.
For conventional subscription software, adding activity may not create a large new cost each time a customer uses the product. AI features can be different: Fortune described inference expenses as the recurring cost of processing AI requests. Derek Hernandez, a senior research analyst at PitchBook, told Fortune that usage costs had become a broad issue for software companies offering more capable AI products.
Canva's move therefore links its lower growth target to a deliberate product-distribution decision, not to a claim that AI expenses automatically reduce revenue. The company's stated sequence was heavy demand and high task costs, followed by a slower rollout and work to improve the cost structure before wider expansion.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.