Canva cuts 1271 jobs as AI costs force retreat from aggressive expansion
Canva cuts 22 per cent of staff to control costs of its free AI product.
Canva announced a major restructure affecting 1271 jobs, or 22 per cent of its global workforce. Co-founder Melanie Perkins said the decision was needed to set the design software company up for its next chapter after rapid expansion.
The restructure follows the April launch of Canva Create, the company's highly anticipated AI product. Canva was forced to slow the rollout because serving 200 million monthly users with a free AI tool incurred enormous costs.
Co-founder Cliff Obrecht said in August they had cut the cost by about 90 per cent and could now scale it properly. Departing staff will receive at least six months of salary, 12 months of healthcare coverage, and career support.
Canva was valued internally at US$43.9 billion as of August, down from more than US$10 billion a year prior.
- 1271 employees
- Jobs cut
- 22 percent
- Workforce percentage
- 200 million
- Monthly users affected
- 43.9 billion dollars
- Company valuation in August
Why it mattersThe cuts show even high-flying tech companies must rein in spending when free AI products prove unsustainable, and signal a shift from growth-at-all-costs toward profitability.
AustraliaCanva remains Australia's most valuable private tech company by far, but the restructure reflects the global pressure on AI startups to demonstrate sustainable business models.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 2 h ago
