10 Canva AI Tricks That Feel Like Actual Magic (No Design Degree Needed)

Magic Design

Magic Design takes your design brief and returns with the finished layout–or a few options–in a few seconds. Enter a text prompt or upload an image that describes what you need. Canva AI will return with many design choices you can choose or build upon.

Magic Design can social media graphics, branded presentations, and even polished videos from clips. The right prompt can save you work hours, making this Canva AI tool the foundry for your design work with Canva.

Users on the Canva Free plan have 10 lifetime Magic Design uses, including the presentation and video tools.

Magic Switch

Magic Switch uses generative AI to instantly reformat and resize one type of content into another. For example, you can turn a presentation into a series of Instagram posts, convert a YouTube thumbnail into a Facebook ad, or transform a blog post into an Instagram Reel.

As everything is automatic, this Canva Pro-exclusive tool saves you the pain of keeping every design element proportionate and consistent across social media channels.

Magic Switch can also translate your designs into different languages, making it easier to show your content to a wider audience.

Magic Edit

Magic Edit is invaluable when you love an image or template but want to replace some element or change its look. Instead of painstaking photo editing, brush over the part you want to change, and then describe your edit in words.

Let's say you have a product image but want to show it in a different color. Brush over the object and describe the desired color change. Magic Edit will generate variations with the new color applied seamlessly. Magic Edit is powered by Stable Diffusion.

Magic Edit is available for all account tiers, including Canva Free.

Magic Eraser

Removing unwanted objects or people from backgrounds is every photo editor's staple job. Magic Eraser does this in seconds. Adjust the brush size and paint over the area or object you want to remove, and the AI will do the work.

You will notice that the AI works best on uncomplicated backgrounds with a flat color. By removing objects from each image, you can combine two or more such images into a beautiful composite.

Magic Eraser is only available for Canva Pro subscribers and other paid tiers like Teams and Enterprise.

Magic Grab

Canva's Magic Grab allows users to effortlessly reposition or resize the main subject in a photo without affecting the background. Advanced algorithms identify and isolate the subject, allowing you to move, resize, or composite the extracted part. This level of editing opens up new creative possibilities for re-purposing any graphic in Canva.

The AI tries to fill in the part of the background behind the repositioned subject. So, also pay careful attention to the background when you use Magic Grab. You might like to use other tools like Magic Edit and Magic Eraser to finish the photo.

Magic Grab is only available on Canva Pro and other paid tiers.

Magic Expand

Magic Expand uses AI to enlarge the borders of your image. Think of it as a way to fill the empty areas around an existing image when you expand the scene in any direction.

The generative AI can be inconsistent at times with intricate backgrounds. But it's handy for tweaking the framing and recovering any cut-off details near the borders.

Magic Expand is only available on Canva Pro and other paid tiers.

Magic Animate

Animation has always been time-consuming when creating presentations or graphics. Magic Animate, a part of Magic Studio, makes it as quick as a click. You can animate each element on your document individually by choosing from a dozen animation styles.

For example, you can use Magic Animate to animate text in a presentation by selecting the text and choosing from animation options with names like "Pop," "Drift," "Tectonic," and others. The Al automatically adjusts the speed and positioning of the animation.

Magic Animate is only available on Canva Pro and other paid tiers.

Magic Morph

Remember the complex Photoshop skills needed to create stylized lettering? Or the limited options of Word's SmartArt? With Magic Morph and your creative prompts, you can achieve any text or shape effect you want.

Magic Morph works on both text and shapes. Select the element you want to morph and describe the look you wish to with a detailed prompt. The AI will modify the text or element accordingly. For instance, you might turn a simple triangle into a 3-D pyramid or a text block into a neon sign.

Magic Morph is only available on Canva Pro and other paid tiers.

Magic Media

Magic Media is a text-to-image or video generator that transforms your prompts into images, graphics, or videos. As a seamless part of Canva, you can instantly position the generated file in your document and continue to build around it.

You can choose different styles for images and graphics. It also has an Inspire me button for sample prompts. Canva Free users have a limit of five credits to try this generative AI tool.

Canva Free users get 50 free uses for text-to-image and graphics, while higher paid tiers get 500 uses per month. The limits for text-to-video are 5 and 50 for the free and paid accounts, respectively.

Magic Write

You don't have to depend on another generative AI assistant to do the writing for you. Magic Write is a generative AI text generator like ChatGPT and Gemini within Canva's suite of AI tools. Use it to generate captions, descriptions, and any copy alongside your graphic designs.

Magic Write can produce short and long-form content. You can also start brainstorming and flesh out the details with the right prompt. The writing assistant can also summarize, rephrase, and change the tone of any existing text.

You can personalize Magic Write to adopt your brand voice. Upload sample documents to the Brand Kit on Canva, and Magic Write's AI will try to mimic it.

Magic Write is available to all users for 50 free queries, beyond which you must upgrade. Magic Write has a few limitations; for example, it only sources data and information up to mid-2021. The tool is also limited to 1500-word inputs and around 2000-word outputs.