Canva gets to $4B in revenue as LLM referral traffic rises

Canva hits 4 billion in revenue

Canva reached $4 billion in annual recurring revenue at the end of 2025 as its monthly active user base grew 20 percent. The company now reports more than 265 million monthly active users globally.

This growth includes a significant jump in paying customers, with the company counting over 31 million paid users. Canva co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht confirmed these figures during the Web Summit Qatar, noting that the company’s enterprise segment is expanding faster than its consumer base.

The company's B2B division, which serves teams of 25 seats or more, doubled its revenue over the last year. This specific segment now accounts for $500 million in annual recurring revenue, signaling a successful push into corporate environments.

Business users drive revenue growth

Canva is targeting larger corporations to diversify its income beyond individual creators and social media managers. This strategy has helped the company maintain its $42 billion valuation through recent share sales.

North America remains the primary market for the design platform, providing the bulk of its current revenue. However, Canva is aggressively pursuing growth in international territories by adjusting its cost of entry.

The company introduced cheaper subscription tiers in several emerging markets to convert free users into paid subscribers. These regions include:

• Pakistan
• Uruguay
• Morocco
• Jamaica

These localized pricing strategies aim to capture market share in regions where the standard US dollar pricing is a barrier. Canva expects these markets to contribute a larger share of the 265 million user total in the coming years.

Canva pivots to AI platform model

Canva is shifting its identity from a design tool with AI features to an AI platform that includes design capabilities. Obrecht describes this new approach as a "design agency in your pocket" that automates complex creative tasks.

The company’s investment in generative tools is showing clear engagement metrics among its massive user base. A tool that allows users to build mini apps and websites using AI reached 10 million monthly active users within its first year.

This transition responds to the changing ways users interact with creative software in the age of generative models. Canva wants its AI to act as a "cursor for design" that anticipates user needs rather than waiting for manual inputs.

The company is also deepening its ties with external AI models to capture users where they already spend time. By October 2025, users engaged in more than 26 million conversations with the Canva app via the ChatGPT interface.

Data shows that Canva is one of the top 10 domains receiving traffic referrals from ChatGPT. This highlights a fundamental shift in how users discover and start their design projects through conversational interfaces.

Competition intensifies with Apple bundle

Canva faces increasing pressure from established tech giants and specialized startups alike. Apple recently launched its Creator Studio bundle to capture the same market of hobbyists and professional creators.

The Apple bundle costs $12.99 per month and includes several high-end production tools that previously required individual purchases. The package includes:

• Final Cut Pro for professional video editing
• Logic Pro for advanced audio production
• Pixelmator Pro for AI-powered image manipulation
• Motion and Compressor for motion graphics and encoding
• MainStage for live audio performances

Adobe also continues to integrate its Firefly generative AI models across the entire Creative Cloud suite. Meanwhile, smaller competitors like Freepik are fighting for market share in the stock asset and template library space.

Canva believes its advantage lies in its accessibility and the speed of its web-based AI integrations. The company is reallocating internal resources to ensure its tools appear prominently as these competitors move into the generative space.

LLMs replace traditional search engines

Historically, Canva relied on Google search intent to find new customers and drive platform growth. The company spent years perfecting its SEO to capture users looking for specific templates, resumes, or wedding invitations.

Obrecht says the company now views Large Language Models (LLMs) as the primary "top of the funnel" acquisition platform. Traffic coming from LLM referrals already reaches double-digit percentages for the design company.

Canva is optimizing its content so that chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude surface its tools during natural language queries. This ensures the platform remains relevant as traditional search engine usage declines among younger demographics.

The company is also working to improve how its brand appears in LLM-generated search results. This involves a dedicated engineering effort to make Canva’s assets and capabilities readable and recommendable by AI agents.

Instead of just ranking for "flyer template" on Google, Canva wants to be the tool an AI suggests when a user asks for help planning an event. This shift requires a different technical approach to metadata and platform architecture.

Enterprise growth fuels IPO plans

Canva’s financial performance supports its long-term plan to transition into a public company. The company’s $42 billion valuation makes it one of the most valuable private software companies in the world.

Obrecht stated that an initial public offering is likely within the next two years. The company is currently focusing on scaling its enterprise tools and AI infrastructure to maximize its value before hitting the stock market.

This timeline gives Canva room to prove that its AI-first strategy can sustain the 100 percent growth seen in its B2B sector. It also allows the company to further penetrate the international markets where it recently introduced lower pricing tiers.

The company’s path to the public market depends on its ability to fend off Apple’s aggressive pricing and Adobe’s deep industry roots. Maintaining $4 billion in revenue provides a strong financial foundation for that transition.

Canva continues to hire and expand its technical teams to support these AI initiatives. The goal is to move from a template-based editor to a fully automated creative partner for both individuals and Fortune 500 companies.