Canva cuts revenue forecast as AI feature costs run high, some products up to six months behind schedule
Canva has cut its revenue forecast after AI features proved far more costly to run than expected, with cofounder Melanie Perkins saying the average cost of serving an AI task was too high. Some AI products unveiled in April are now up to six months behind schedule, even as Canva'
Canva has become the latest software company to discover that shipping generative AI features is far more expensive than shipping traditional ones. The design platform cut its revenue forecast after its AI push turned out to cost more than management anticipated, with cofounder Melanie Perkins telling shareholders in the company's Q2 2026 update that the average cost of serving an AI task was too high. A wave of AI products unveiled at Canva's US customer conference in April has proven so costly to build that some features are now running up to six months behind schedule. The setback is notable because it is not coming from a position of weakness: Canva's revenue hit $4.2 billion with 265 million users, and its B2B business, covering companies with more than 25 seats, grew 100% to $500 million in annual recurring revenue. Canva also appears to be holding its own against ChatGPT rather than losing ground to it. The company says its app logged more than 26 million conversations inside ChatGPT by October 2025 and ranks among the AI chatbot's most referred domains. The episode is a preview of a cost problem that will likely show up across the software industry: companies that built profitable businesses on cheap cloud infrastructure are now bolting on AI features that run on expensive compute, and the margin math does not automatically work just because usage is growing.