Canva closed 2025 with $4 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR), fueled by a 20% surge in monthly active users and a strategic pivot toward becoming an AI-first design platform. As of the end of the year, the company reached 265 million monthly active users and 31 million paid subscribers, according to COO and co-founder Cliff Obrecht.
Scaling B2B and Global Markets
The company’s B2B segment—targeting organizations with over 25 seats—emerged as a major growth engine, doubling in size to reach $500 million in ARR. While North America remains the primary revenue driver, Canva is aggressively expanding its international footprint by introducing localized, lower-priced subscription tiers in emerging markets, including Pakistan, Uruguay, Morocco, and Jamaica.
From Design Platform to AI Powerhouse
Canva’s shift in strategy is centered on integrating artificial intelligence directly into the user experience. A standout success is the company’s AI-powered mini-app and website builder, which has already surpassed 10 million monthly active users. Obrecht describes this transition as moving from a “design platform with AI tools” to an “AI platform with design tools,” effectively functioning as a “design agency in your pocket.”
The Battle for the Creator Economy
This evolution is a tactical response to mounting competition from major industry players. Adobe, Freepik, and Apple are all vying for market share, with Apple’s “Creator Studio” bundle—which includes Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Pixelmator Pro—posing a direct challenge to Canva’s ecosystem.
Leveraging LLMs as Acquisition Channels
Canva is aggressively optimizing for the new era of search by treating Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Claude as critical top-of-funnel acquisition channels. By October 2025, users had engaged in over 26 million conversations with the Canva app via ChatGPT, cementing Canva as one of the top 10 referred domains from the chatbot.
Obrecht confirmed that the company is shifting significant resources toward SEO and LLM-based search visibility. “We drove a lot of early growth through Google search intent; we now see LLMs as the new top-of-funnel acquisition platform,” he noted, adding that referral traffic from these models is already seeing double-digit growth.
Path to Public Markets
With its last valuation pegged at $42 billion, the company is preparing for its next phase of maturity. Obrecht recently signaled to Bloomberg that Canva is eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) within the next two years.