Australian design platform Canva expanded its partnership with OpenAI to curb artificial intelligence costs. The agreement grants the graphic software maker broader access to GPT-6 Astra and GPT-5.6 models. Both companies will work together to make deploying these frontier systems more economical.
New proprietary tools
The deal came four days after Canva introduced Brush, its second in-house model. Brush allows subscribers to modify design elements without recreating entire presentation slides. It follows the launch of Craft, a proprietary tool released last month to generate images.
Revenue and cost pressures
Rising technical expenses previously prompted leadership to rethink how Canva delivers automated features. Chief executive Melanie Perkins lowered revenue growth forecasts from 30% to 20% in August. Perkins explained that the company had depended too heavily on external frontier models.
Platform performance gains
Canva created Brush by training an open-weights model on specific design tasks. The new tool operates up to 69% faster and cuts editing costs by 46%. OpenAI technology also continues to power Canva Code for building interactive websites and applications.
During internal trials, Astra reviewed over 80 million lines of Canva code. The business also widened employee access to OpenAI tools like ChatGPT and Codex. Separately, Canva laid off 32 employees in its finance division earlier this year amid structural changes.