Melanie Perkins, CEO and co-founder of Canva, announced that the design-software company has lowered its expected revenue growth rate to roughly 20% after the cost of providing generative AI features turned out to be far higher than projected.
Why the AI cost surge matters
The Australian-born firm has been praised for growing quickly while remaining profitable, a rare feat among high-growth startups. Yet the rapid uptake of AI tools forced the company to confront a fundamental shift in software economics. As Derek Hernandez, senior research analyst at Pitchbook, explained, "AI is making SaaS no longer a zero marginal cost solution, which has really been what I would call a lot of software's secret sauce up until now."
"This validated the demand, but also showed us we needed to reduce the cost of completing an AI task to support a broad rollout," Perkins said in an email.
Because AI inference, the ongoing cost of processing each request, now eats into margins, companies such as Canva and its public-market peer Figma are seeing slower growth and tighter profitability. Figma's free-cash-flow margin fell from 27% to 14% in its latest quarter, illustrating the broader industry pressure.
What Canva is doing next
Perkins said the firm has already cut the cost per AI task by almost 90% since launching Canva AI 2.0 in April, but usage has tripled, prompting a reassessment of the business model. The company is rebuilding its AI architecture to lower unit costs and strengthen its overall economics.
Analysts note that the slowdown comes as Canva weighs a potential initial public offering. An employee share sale last year valued the company at $42 billion, with earlier speculation pointing to a 2026 listing. Hernandez now suggests the firm may aim for an IPO as early as next year, making the decision to pause AI expansion a move to protect profitability for future investors.
"People want a much more capable product and solution, which through today's technology means cost of usage is becoming a really global challenge for all of these companies," Hernandez added.
Canva's next steps will focus on further reducing AI processing costs, refining its enterprise-workflow tools such as Canva Code, and signalling to the market that its financial foundations remain solid ahead of any public listing.