Canva Cuts 1,271 Jobs and 22% of Workforce Amid Slowing Growth and AI Pressures

Canva is cutting 1,271 jobs, representing 22% of its global workforce, following its first decade of uninterrupted growth coming to a halt. Co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins announced the restructuring in a note to employees on November 3–4, 2026, describing the moment as without doubt the hardest in the company's 13-year history.

Reports from TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance, Entrepreneur India, The Guardian, 80 Level, and OfficeChai detailed the sweeping changes at the design software giant. Perkins pointed to a shifting technological landscape and tightening margins as the company faces its first growth slowdown in a decade.

Why is Canva cutting jobs?

Canva cut its revenue growth forecast from 30% to 20% to address ballooning AI costs and unit expenses, as reported by TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance, Entrepreneur India, and OfficeChai. Early investors also cut Canva's valuation to about $35 billion earlier in the year, according to TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance, and Entrepreneur India.

The company has faced increasing competition from AI startups and general-purpose chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini, whose image generation capabilities allow users to build posters and presentations. TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance, Entrepreneur India, and OfficeChai reported that Canva's ballooning AI expenses stemmed from relying heavily on third-party frontier models before shipping its own in-house foundation models to reduce costs. Meanwhile, OfficeChai noted that Anthropic swung to a $567 million operating loss in Q3 due to surging compute costs.

While TechCrunch, Entrepreneur India, 80 Level, and OfficeChai explicitly linked the restructuring to ballooning AI costs and market shifts, The Guardian reported that Canva did not mention AI directly in its restructure announcement.

What severance and support are departing employees receiving?

Departing employees will receive a robust support package designed to ease the transition:

• At least six months of salary, inclusive of statutory entitlements, regardless of location (The Guardian, 80 Level, OfficeChai).
• Removal of the one-year vesting cliff for employees who joined within the past year (80 Level, OfficeChai).
• 12 months of continued healthcare coverage where Canva offers it (The Guardian, 80 Level, OfficeChai).
• 12 months of Canva Care employee assistance program extended to family members (OfficeChai).
• Permission to keep company-issued MacBooks and laptops (The Guardian, 80 Level, OfficeChai).
• Career support including one-on-one coaching, interview preparation, resume help from the Talent Acquisition team, and a one-year LinkedIn Premium subscription (80 Level, OfficeChai).
• An opt-in alumni talent directory shared with investors and partners (OfficeChai).
• US$10,000 (A$14,000) grants for employees interested in launching their own ventures and businesses (The Guardian, 80 Level).

What does this mean for the company's structure and operations?

Canva is merging its product, growth, and platform teams into a single product organization to reduce communication friction and collapsing layers, according to reports from TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance, Entrepreneur India, The Guardian, and OfficeChai. The company is also reducing subspecialization so employees take on broader start-to-finish responsibilities.

In tandem with the restructure, Canva is shifting toward a hybrid work model, making Sydney a primary home for more product teams and requiring most hybrid employees to work from an office two to three days a week starting in January. On the product side, Canva has begun rolling out Canva AI 2.1, described as the first version built on an economic model supporting its freemium strategy.