Canva Free Trial — Get Canva Pro for 30 Days

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Canva free trial graphic (the Canva logo plus a '30-day free trial' ribbon)

In our guide to the Canva free trial, we show you how to access the free version of the platform. We also show you how to unlock all the platform’s premium features via a 30-day free trial of ‘Canva Pro.’


What is Canva?

Canva is a web-based graphic design tool that lets you create visual materials without needing extensive graphic design experience.

The app is typically used to create social media graphics, simple videos, presentations, slides, posters and other visual assets. A wide range of customizable templates and royalty-free images is provided to help users without design skills do so.

In addition to providing graphic design tools, Canva also gives users some ‘organizational’ features, in the form of a content planning tool and an interactive whiteboard.

The Canva interface
The Canva interface

The app is currently used by 125 million users worldwide.


Is there a free trial of Canva Pro available?

For a limited time only, Canva has made a fully-featured 30 day Canva Pro free trial available, which you can access here.

Getting a free trial of Canva Pro — video guide


Is there an entirely free version of Canva available?

Yes. You can use Canva for free indefinitely; and the free version is actually very usable.

However, it…

  • doesn’t give you access to most of Canva’s royalty free image and videos
  • prevents you from using its most sophisticated features (including the ‘magic resize’ option, the image background remover tool and the video background remover tool)
  • restricts the output formats available to you when exporting your design
  • stops you creating brand kits (these allow you to use your own brand colors and fonts in your designs).

You can sign up for the Canva free plan here.


What are the main differences between Canva Pro and Canva Free?

The table below highlights the key differences in features between the two plans, or to help you decide which one is for you, you can read our full Canva Pro vs Free comparison here.

FeatureCanva FreeCanva Pro
CostFree$12.99 per month
Users11
Templates250,000+610,000+
Images, video and audio1+ million4+ million
Cloud storage5GB1TB
Customized exportsLimitedFull
Magic Eraser toolNoYes
Magic Resize toolNoYes
Magic Write AI tool25 total uses250 uses per month
Background removalNoYes
Custom templatesNoYes
Music auto-sync featureNoYes
Brand hub featureNoYes
Option to upload fontsNoYes
Social schedulingNoYes
FoldersUnlimitedUnlimited
Translations50 per month500 per month
SupportSupport emails answered within 1 weekSupport emails answered within 24 hours
Free trial lengthForever freeFree for 30 days (note: this offer is available for a limited time only)

What’s the difference between the Canva Pro free trial and the Canva free plan?

The main difference involves time — the trial lets you use Canva Pro for free for 30 days, but you can use the free Canva account indefinitely.

And while the free trial unlocks all the features of Canva Pro (including 100 million premium images, videos and audio clips; all the premium templates; and 1TB storage), the Canva free plan restricts you to a cut-down version of the platform with a limited number of stock images, videos and audio files.

(You can insert Canva Pro content into a design created with the free version, but it will be watermarked. You can remove this watermark by buying a license to use the content in that design, however — the fee for doing so is $1).

Buying a premium image while using the free version of Canva
Buying a premium image while using the free version of Canva

Additionally, you need to enter your credit card details to start a free trial of Canva Pro — this is not the case with the Canva free plan.

Canva Free vs Pro video comparison


Can I cancel a Canva free trial before my paid subscription starts?

Yes, you can cancel your Canva trial before your paid subscription starts — but note that you must cancel it on the device that you signed up to Canva with.

To cancel your trial on a desktop computer, log in to your Canva account, go to Account settings > Billing and Plans, and under ‘Subscriptions’ click the ‘Cancel Subscription’ option. You’ll find instructions on how to cancel your trial on other devices here.


Can I pause a Canva plan?

Yes, you can pause a Canva plan for up to three months (note that if you’re on an annual plan, you can pause it if you have less than two months until your plan renews).


How much does the paid version of Canva cost once I’ve subscribed?

There are two paid-for Canva accounts available: Canva Pro and Canva for Teams. Canva Pro costs $12.99 for 1 user. Canva for Teams has a variable pricing structure, which starts at $14.99 per month for the first 5 users. If you have more than 5 users, the price per additional user depends on the total size of your team (you can calculate the precise costs on the Canva website).

You can try either plan here, or to learn more about the differences between Canva Free, Canva Pro and Canva for Teams you can read our detailed Canva pricing guide.


Can I use Canva for commercial purposes?

Yes — you can use your Canva to create designs for commercial use (so long as you are on a paid-for plan and not a Canva for Education, Canva for Campus or Canva for Nonprofits one). However, there are some terms and conditions attached to doing so — accordingly, it’s a good idea to read Canva’s commercial content license document in full.


Is Canva Pro worth it?

We feel that Canva Pro is extremely good value. For a small monthly fee (typically the same amount as a stock photography company would charge you for just one image), you get access to a huge range of stock images, videos and audio, plus the tools to turn them into very usable designs. Canva Pro users also get full access to an increasing number of AI-based tools, including the Magic Write, Magic Eraser, Beat Sync and Translation features.

If you are thinking of using Canva Pro to produce complex printed assets, edit photos or create digital art there are better apps available, but it’s a superb tool for creating online ads, social media content, PDF presentations and simple printed items (like business cards or flyers).

Check out our Canva review for our full take on the platform, along with what we view as being its main pros and cons.


Why should I use Canva instead of Adobe Photoshop?

The key difference between Canva and Photoshop involves assets: Canva gives you access to a huge range of royalty-free images and graphics that you will have to source separately and import into Photoshop to use (a process that will often involve stock photography fees). Additionally Canva is easier for design novices to use and lets you access video editing and web design tools that are not available in Photoshop.

Photoshop is definitely the more advanced tool however, and more suitable for advanced photo editing and complex design projects. But for simple design tasks — particularly the creation of online assets — Canva is hard to beat.

Canva vs Photoshop — video comparison

Canva Pro Free Trial | Photoshop Free Trial

What are the alternatives to Canva?

In terms of browser-based solutions, key alternatives include VismeAdobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark) and VistaCreate. Like Canva, these are affordable, user-friendly graphic design apps that let non-professional designers create visual assets online.

Visme — a key alternative to Canva
Visme: a key alternative to Canva

(You can learn more about how Canva stacks up against three of these competitors in our Canva vs Adobe Express, Canva vs VistaCreate (formerly Crello) and Canva vs Visme comparisons.)

Adobe Express vs Canva — video comparison

Canva free trial details | Adobe free trial details

It’s tempting to think of desktop Adobe applications like Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere as direct alternatives to Canva. But they are actually quite different. While Canva comes with a built-in library of graphics, stock photos, videos and audio, when using the Adobe apps, you often have to source these sort of assets ‘outside’ of them.

If your aim is to create presentations, Microsoft PowerPoint is an obvious alternative (you can check out our Canva vs PowerPoint comparison here); and for more serious web design applications than Canva caters for, tools like Shopify and Squarespace are worth investigating, as is Wix.

And finally, if you’re interested in creating (or selling) printed items, Printful is a good option. This gives you a much wider range of products to print on than Canva, and they are a little bit cheaper too. You can learn more about Printful in our ‘What is Printful?’ article and our full review of the platform.

‘What is Canva?’ video guide


Where can I learn more about Canva?

We have several other resources about Canva available to help you get the most out the platform:

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