Canva Developers Innovation Fund

At Canva, we've seen that the key to gaining viral user adoption is to build products with incredibly simple onboarding and delightful user experiences. This means that minimizing authentication and paywall friction is essential. We also know the realities of app development and its associated costs make this difficult.

The Canva Developers Innovation Fund is designed to recognize developers of particularly delightful, free-to-use apps that empower our community. If you build or connect an app that unleashes creativity, makes the day-to-day more manageable, showcases innovative design (check out our app design guidelines), or just wows people's socks off, we're on board, and we’ll help you launch it on the Canva Apps Marketplace.

The Innovation Fund has two parts:

• The App developer grants: Apply for grants to help fund the development of high-quality, free-to-use apps.
• The App adoption awards: Earn cash for every usage milestone you pass with our App Adoption Awards.

The fund will also contribute to creating a diverse and inclusive Apps Marketplace by financing developers from markets usually underserved by venture capital.

To apply, fill in the Canva Developers Innovation Fund application⁠(opens in a new tab or window) form.

As per our authentication guidelines, minimizing authentication and paywall friction is essential. Developing an app that's free-to-use (or at least includes a significant free component) and doesn't require authentication can be critical to the success of your app. The App Adoption Awards are designed to facilitate this. You might be eligible to receive one-time payments when your app reaches each of the App Adoption milestones for the first time.

Your app must:

• Be publicly listed on the Apps Marketplace.

• Be built using the Apps SDK.

• Adhere to our App Developer Terms⁠(opens in a new tab or window).

• Provide the majority of its functionality before requiring the user to manually sign in to an account. For more information on how this can be set up, or for an alternative to paid authentication, see how user tokens can help achieve frictionless authentication.

• Include a significant free component. This could mean:

  • A large number of free credits for generative apps.
  • The majority of features are offered for free, and only a small portion are behind a paywall.
  We strongly encourage you to consider launching a completely free-to-use app. Paywalls increase user friction and will likely reduce usage of your app, which makes it hard to hit the usage milestones, and therefore receive award payments.

• Have launched before June 1st, 2025.

• Have been released in the last 12 months. Apps are only eligible for adoption awards in the first 12 months since they are first released.

• Not be built by Canva or Canva employees.

• Not be financed, built, or otherwise contributed to by developers in:

  • Belarus
  • North Korea
  • Russia

Canva may, at its sole discretion, withhold payment of the App Adoption Awards program at any time for any reason, including but not limited to:

• The payment, app, or other details provided are incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading
• The app does not comply with the eligibility criteria above.

An app’s user adoption tier is based on Canva’s calculation of the number of monthly active app users.

A user is counted as active when they have performed at least one of the following actions within an app:

• Added something to a Canva design (for example, images, audio, video, text) using the addAudioTrack, addElementAtPoint, or addElementAtCursor APIs.
• Uploaded assets to Canva using the upload API.
• Exported a Canva design using the requestExport API.

Monthly active app use is calculated and determined by Canva, the calculation is done in two steps:

1. The number of unique users is determined on a rolling 30-day period
2. This figure is then averaged for the last 7 days to obtain a smoothed value that removes day-of-week variations.

Payments for the App Adoption Awards program begin in December 2023. If you become eligible for an App Adoption Awards payment, Canva will contact you via email and in the Developer Portal that the award is live. Your payment details must be available in order to enroll in the program and receive the one-time award payment. The payment will be made the next payment period after receiving these details. You are responsible for all taxes related to the award payment.

1. Navigate to the Your apps⁠(opens in a new tab or window) page.
2. Select the app you're configuring payout details for.
3. Navigate to the App Adoption Awards tab.
4. Click Add or edit payout method.
5. In the Details tab of the Payments page, enter your payout details.

To help make your dream a reality, you can apply for grants to assist with development. We’re looking to fund the best apps for our diverse, global community. We’re particularly focused on financing developers from markets usually underserved by venture capital, as well as those that already have a proven track record — like a live app on Canva.

Grant applications are open for two categories of apps:

• Free-to-use design apps that provide new and delightful capabilities.
• Apps built by developers from markets usually underserved by venture capital.

To apply, fill in the App Developer Grant application form⁠(opens in a new tab or window). We review all applications monthly and reach out to developers to discuss potentially issuing grants. All applications are kept on file for any future implementation of the Canva Developer Innovation Fund.

Users want apps they can access and use to create beautiful designs as quickly as possible. This means no signup or login and no paywall friction. With this in mind, we're offering grants for developers creating innovative, free design apps on the Apps Marketplace.

• Your app must include a significant free component at the very least. This could mean:

  • A large number of free credits for generative apps.
  • The majority of features are offered for free, and only a small portion are behind a paywall.
  We will prioritize completely free apps, so we encourage you to consider how you could launch your app for free in this application.

• Your app should not require manual authentication (when the app user is met with a login or sign-up wall) to use free features.

• As the app developer, you must support or enhance your app for a minimum of 1 year.

We are lucky to have an incredibly diverse and inclusive community using Canva every day. To ensure we are doing our best to empower our entire community to design, we need to ensure that our Apps Marketplace is also diverse and inclusive.

With this in mind, we are committed to empowering underrepresented developers and companies in global markets that are underserved by venture capital. We want to fund developers that are BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, or from underserved regions, such as Africa, who can contribute to the amazingly diverse Apps Marketplace we envision.

• Include a significant free component at the very least.
  • This could mean:
    • A large number of free credits for generative apps.
    • The majority of features are offered for free, and only a small portion are behind a paywall.
  • We will prioritize completely free apps, so encourage you to consider how you could launch your app for free in this application.
• Your app should not require authentication to use free features.
• As the app developer, you must support or enhance your app for a minimum of 1 year.

Eligible developers can now include premium features in their apps and get paid for users engaging with those features. This gives developers the opportunity to create advanced tools and functionality which can be bundled with paid subscriptions, providing added value to Canva's growing community.

Joining our Premium Apps Program is by invitation only. We'll be opening it to more partners soon.