Is AI worth paying four times as much for a Canva subscription?
Design software service Canva is raising membership prices for users around the world, some US users are reporting at X that the subscription fee for a group of five people increased from $120 per year to $500 per year. Canva reportedly told users via email that it will drop the premium price by 40% over the next year, down to $300 – still $180.
The company is worth $26 billion, has 185 million monthly users worldwide, and may be preparing to go public.
Canva justifies the price hike by touting its new AI features.
“Our products have grown significantly over the past few years with the introduction of new offerings such as Visual Suite and Magic Studio,” a Canva spokesperson said in a statement.
Visual Suite includes features such as AI-powered authoring, fast-moving slideshows, and AI that turns documents into websites; Magic Studio uses AI to turn written concepts into social posts, videos, and slideshows.
Related: From Paying for College to Billionaire: 5 Entrepreneurial Lessons from Canva Co-Founder Melanie Perkins
Even though the new features have received AI, subscribers have taken to social media to express frustration over the price hike. One user on X noted that small businesses can feel the impact of price changes the most.
Canva renewed a multi-year partnership last month to give its clients access to Getty images and videos and also acquired AI startup Leonardo.ai in July to bolster its AI offerings. Leonardo’s full 120-person team joined Canva’s 4,000 employees as part of the acquisition.
“With every AI feature we’ve introduced to Canva, we really think it helps shorten that time between A and B to get an idea into a real product,” Canva CEO Melanie Perkins said in July.
Canva CEO Melanie Perkins. Credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Incorporating AI into business isn’t cheap and comes with significant environmental costs, too.
AI models currently cost over $100 million to develop, a price tag expected to rise over the next few years. AI researchers also estimate that it takes 30 times more energy for the AI to generate text instead of taking it directly from the source.
Related: New Google Report Reveals Hidden Costs of AI
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