Canva Lays Off Over 1,200 People Amid Slowing Growth

Canva lays off 1,271 employees, 22% of its workforce, as it restructures teams amid slowing growth and high AI costs.

By Entrepreneur Staff | Nov 05, 2026
Melanie Perkins CEO - Canva

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Canva is laying off 22% of its staff, amounting to 1,271 people. Co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins announced the cuts in a note to employees.

The company is reorganising its structure and merging its product, growth, and platform teams to reduce communication friction. It is also reducing “subspecialisation”, meaning employees may take on more responsibilities, and is moving to hybrid work, with staff asked to work from an office a few days a week.

Canva has been shipping its own AI models to reduce costs and reliance on third-party models, but it still cut its revenue growth forecast to 20% from 30% because of high AI costs. Early investors also cut its valuation to about USD 35 billion earlier this year.

The company faces growing competition from AI startups and general-purpose chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini, whose image generation lets users build posters and presentations.

“Yet success in our first chapter doesn’t guarantee success in the next. This has been our hardest year yet, and as we shared earlier this year, our growth has slowed for the first time in a decade,” Perkins wrote.

Canva is laying off 22% of its staff, amounting to 1,271 people. Co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins announced the cuts in a note to employees.

The company is reorganising its structure and merging its product, growth, and platform teams to reduce communication friction. It is also reducing “subspecialisation”, meaning employees may take on more responsibilities, and is moving to hybrid work, with staff asked to work from an office a few days a week.

Canva has been shipping its own AI models to reduce costs and reliance on third-party models, but it still cut its revenue growth forecast to 20% from 30% because of high AI costs. Early investors also cut its valuation to about USD 35 billion earlier this year.

The company faces growing competition from AI startups and general-purpose chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini, whose image generation lets users build posters and presentations.

“Yet success in our first chapter doesn’t guarantee success in the next. This has been our hardest year yet, and as we shared earlier this year, our growth has slowed for the first time in a decade,” Perkins wrote.

Entrepreneur Staff • Editor

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