Canva is on an absolute tear lately. Between buying up world-class animation studios like Cavalry and snapping up stealth AI startups like Mango.AI, the design giant is rapidly evolving into a full-blown “Creative OS”. But while the headlines are focused on billion-dollar valuations and C-suite shakeups, I stumbled upon something much more practical for the everyday creator, and it might just change how you use the platform.
Like many of you, I’ve been a loyal “Free” user for years. The basic drag-and-drop editor and 5GB of storage usually get the job done. But with all this news about Canva doubling down on professional motion design and advanced AI marketing tools, I decided to poke around the subscription settings to see what I was missing.
That’s when I saw it: Canva Pro now offers Daily and Weekly “One-time” plans.
Usually, we think of Canva Pro as a monthly or yearly commitment. Here in Kenya, that’s typically KES 850 per month or KES 6,800 per year. But if you just have one big project to finish over the weekend, those long-term subs can feel like a reach.
Enter the “top-up” model. According to the latest plan picker, you can now unlock the full power of Pro for 1 day at KES 130 or 1 week at KES 340, payable via M-PESA or the usual card method.
What makes this particularly “pro-user” is that these are one-time payments. There is no auto-renewal obligation; you just top up when you need it. Even cooler? If you’re currently on a 30-day free trial, Canva says you won’t lose that trial period just because you bought a one-day pass.
What do you actually get?
If you’re wondering if these “micro-subs” give you the “lite” version, think again. You get the full suite of premium tools:
- Unlimited assets: Jump from 1.6 million templates to over 3.6 million, and gain access to 141 million+ premium photos and videos.
- AI superpowers: You get high AI access for design and video, which is essential now that Canva is integrating Mango.AI’s high-performance algorithms.
- Pro tools: Background remover, Magic Resize, and 100GB of cloud storage, up from 5GB on the free version.
- Professional suite: Access to Affinity with AI and advanced ad inspiration tools.
Is this a local secret?
After some digging, it seems this isn’t just a Kenyan thing, though it’s definitely not global yet. While mentions of these plans have popped up over the last year, they seem concentrated in specific markets like India, Malaysia, Mexico, and now, Kenya. It appears Canva is testing a more flexible “pay-as-you-go” model for emerging markets where a monthly subscription might not always make sense.
With Canva recently topping $4 billion in revenue and hitting 265 million users, with only 31 million of them paying subscribers, they are clearly looking for ways to make “Pro” accessible to more people. With these daily and weekly plans, the barrier to entry has never been lower.
Of course, we want to hear from you: Did you know these daily and weekly plans existed? Is this the “One-time” payment model that fits your usage patterns, or do you prefer the set-and-forget monthly sub?
Let us know in the comments below!
