How To Use Canva AI: 10 AI Features To Try in Canva Magic

AI is becoming a fixture in everyday software—from text editors to email apps—helping expedite tasks and cut back on busy work. Design platforms are no exception. AI features can now remove objects, resize graphics, and generate placeholder copy, freeing you up to focus on strategy and fine-tuning your marketing materials.

Canva, which is already known for its customizable templates and user-friendly interface, has Magic Studio, a suite of AI-powered features. Here’s more on Canva’s Magic tools, what they can do, and how to weave them into your creative workflow.

What is Canva AI?

Canva is a web-based design platform letting you create everything from social media graphics and presentations to posters, videos, and logos. Its AI features, known as Magic Studio, bring automation to the design process. These include Magic Eraser, Magic Switch, Magic Morph, and Magic Animate—all built directly into Canva’s interface.

With Canva’s AI tools, you can create images and video clips from written or spoken prompts, remove or replace objects in photos, and extend backgrounds. You can also apply animations, and convert designs between formats. The goal is to make creation faster and more intuitive for users of every skill level.

Canva Connect is an app for Shopify users, making it easy to add product images to the designs created in Canva. Users can drag and drop product images from their store into Canva to create email marketing materials, social media creative and more.

Pricing

Canva’s pricing includes a free tier, a Pro subscription, and a couple of other options to meet your needs: 

Free plan

The free plan provides basic design tools and limited access to Magic Studio features like:

• Magic Write (up to 25 prompts for free)

• Magic Edit

• Magic Media tools like text-to-image and text-to-video (with usage limits)

• Magic Design (limited lifetime uses for presenting and video creation)

Canva Pro

A fee of $15/month or $120/year unlocks the full range of Magic tools.

Canva Teams

For $100/year/person (minimum three people at $300/year) you get additional brand kit tools, collaboration options, and content templates for small teams.

Canva Enterprise

Canva offers custom pricing for large organizations with advanced needs. It includes everything in Teams, plus features like:

• Single sign-on (SSO)

• Enterprise-level brand management

• Advanced collaboration and workflow tools

• Role-based permissions

• Asset controls

• 24/7 support

• Onboarding assistance

10 AI design features to explore in Canva Magic

1. Magic Media
2. Magic Edit
3. Magic Eraser
4. Magic Grab
5. Magic Expand
6. Magic Morph
7. Magic Design
8. Magic Animate
9. Magic Switch
10. Magic Write

Canva Magic tools work together. You might generate an image with Magic Media, use Magic Grab to reposition subjects, then hop over to Magic Switch to adapt it for Instagram, LinkedIn, or email headers. This means you can handle multiple design tasks without jumping between different apps.

Here’s a breakdown of all of Canva’s AI features:

1. Magic Media

Magic Media can generate images and videos from text prompts. This text-to-image generator can help create a custom photo, graphic, or cutaway video without starting from scratch. No need to search through stock libraries or shoot your own content.

The Magic Media tool is simple to use. Just type a detailed description of what you envision, pick a style and size, and the AI image generator spits out different options. For example, you could enter: “30% Black Friday Sale poster for my retail clothing store called Dashpeak.”

2. Magic Edit

Magic Edit is an AI-powered photo editing tool letting you add or replace elements in an image with a text prompt. Simply mark the area to modify and describe what should replace it. Magic Edit fills it in.

This is handy for quick photo edits, like adding an item that wasn’t originally in the picture or changing a detail (e.g., turning a red shirt blue, or putting a hat on a person).

3. Magic Eraser

Magic Eraser lets you cleanly remove unwanted objects or blemishes from a photo. Just select the tool, brush over the area you want to erase, and the AI removes it, filling in the background as if it were never there. For a background remover tool, use Canva’s transparent image maker instead.

This tool is great for touching up pictures. For example, use it to take out a distracting photobomber in the background or remove clutter from a product image so the main subject stands out.

4. Magic Grab

Magic Grab turns subjects in your photos into movable, resizable elements—like stickers. This feature uses AI to detect people, text, or objects in an image so you can reposition them without manually cutting anything out.

This is especially useful for adjusting a layout, like centering someone who’s off to the side, or removing embedded text (like logos) by isolating and deleting it.

To use Magic Grab, open your photo and activate the tool, then click the element you want to move. Canva lifts the object from the background so you can drag, resize, or delete it—no advanced photo editing skills necessary.

5. Magic Expand

Magic Expand uses AI to extend the edges of an image, letting you adjust its aspect ratio or create a larger background. It’s great for fixing tight crops or transforming a close-up into a wider shot by generating new content beyond the original frame.

Common uses include converting a portrait (vertical) photo into a landscape (horizontal) one to fit different social media formats, or adding more scenery, like sky, around your subject.

To use Magic Expand, select your photo and go to Edit from the quick actions toolbar, then select Magic Expand under Magic Studio. Choose a size or drag the crop handles to expand the image past the border, then select Magic Expand again to let the AI fill in the rest.

6. Magic Morph

Magic Morph transforms text and graphics with AI-generated textures and styles based on your description. Canva applies the effect directly to your selected element.

It’s perfect for creating eye-catching word art or stylized graphics. For example, you can turn the word “sale” into balloon letters or cookie dough texture.

Use the Canva search bar to find Magic Morph in the left-hand sidebar. Select a text box or shape in your design, choose Magic Morph, and enter a description of the look you want (such as “neon lettering” or “grass texture”).

7. Magic Design

Magic Design is Canva’s AI layout generator. Think of it as a quick way to jumpstart a design project. Just enter a prompt—or upload an image, logo, or media file—and Magic Design creates a selection of design templates to match.

For example, you can generate a presentation outline from a simple topic description or create branded social posts by uploading your logo.

To use Magic Design, enter a prompt like “retail presentation with retro slides.” Magic Design then shows you a range of matching layouts, ready for you to customize and refine.

8. Magic Animate

Magic Animate adds motion to your static designs using AI-generated animations. Rather than manually adding animations to each element or slide, you can apply Magic Animate to have Canva’s AI choose the best transitions and motion styles automatically.

For instance, if you have a multi-page slideshow, Magic Animate can uniformly apply entrance effects, pan or zoom on images, and smooth slide transitions.

Once your design—like a slideshow or social media graphic—is ready, click on the Animate option and choose Magic Animate. The tool will analyze your content (text, font, colors, images) and automatically apply animations across your design. You can always tweak or remove any effect, but Magic Animate gives you a polished starting point without the manual effort.

9. Magic Switch

Magic Switch instantly converts your design into different formats, sizes, or even languages. It goes beyond resizing by adapting the content to suit a new context.

With just a few clicks, you can turn a poster into a presentation, document, or graphic for social media posts. You can also translate your design into different languages. This is useful for repurposing content. For example, you might design a flyer and then use Magic Switch to create matching Instagram posts, Facebook ads, and an email newsletter.

To try Magic Switch, open your finished design and choose the Magic Switch option. Choose the new format, size, or language, and Canva’s AI generates the updated versions ready for your final tweaks.

10. Magic Write

Magic Write is Canva’s built-in AI text generator helping you create written content from a prompt. It’s like having a writing assistant inside Canva Docs. You provide a short description or request, and Magic Write produces paragraphs, lists, or ideas for you.

Use it for all kinds of writing tasks—brainstorming social media captions, drafting blog content, outlining a presentation, or generating product descriptions—especially when you’re unsure how to start or need creative text fast. Magic Write can even mimic your brand tone if you feed it sample text.

To pen with Magic Write, open a document or text box in Canva and find the Magic Write option (for example, in Canva Docs, you might click the “+” or use the assistant). Then type your request, like “List 5 tagline ideas for a coffee shop” or “Help me write a job description for a retail associate at my athletic apparel store.” The AI tool then generates the written content, which you can insert and edit.