ChatGPT and Canva Integration
You can now create Canva designs and templates with text prompts within ChatGPT. The Canva plugin is available in the plugin store.
Here is how to install it, how it works and my analysis.
Install the Canva ChatGPT plugin
- Go to the ChatGPT Plugin store.
- Type in the search box: Canva
- Install the Canva plugin.
Note. This is only available for ChatGPT 4.
Prompt to create a design/visual
Once the plugin is installed, in the ChatGPT message box, type in what you want to create.
Prompt I used: Create a LinkedIn banner to encourage people to connect with me.
P.S. This is not a super great prompt. I purposely wanted to keep it generic to evaluate the output.
Choose your design and finish it in Canva
ChatGPT gave me five options.
If you don’t see one you like, ask ChatGPT for more options.
When you find one you like – click on the link below the visual. The link takes you to Canva to edit the visual.
In Canva, edit the image as much as you want.
When you are done editing – download your image from Canva.
Comparison – the same workflow in Canva
In order for me to properly evaluate this workflow, I did the same search using Canva directly.
On the Canva homepage, I typed “LinkedIn banner connect” in the search box.
I saw the same templates here on the search results that were the suggestions by ChatGPT. All were non-Canva Pro templates.
Observations:
1. Designs ChatGPT pulls are NOT unique. They are templates available in Canva.
I could speculate that the integration/connection is looking at the specific keywords you use in your ChatGPT input.
This is why:
The first test I ran, was me asking for a Twitter banner. It did not work. ChatGPT said it could not find any Twitter banner’s so instead it gave me LinkedIn banner.
Now, if this was a real situation, this would not work. I would not want to have LinkedIn banner when I ask for Twitter banner. I might not also know that I need to use a different keyword, in this case, Twitter header, to get the correct output.
2. The designs suggested by ChatGPT appear to be limited to the standard Canva templates (NOT Pro).
3. The suggestions from ChatGPT were mediocre. Subjective, I know.
Takeaways
It is easier to use Canva directly.
I found it much easier to use Canva directly. When I do a search in Canva, its autosuggest is super useful to be able to quickly find the exact template I need, and I instantly have a large selection of templates to choose from.
It is faster to use Canva directly.
I can quickly see a large selection of options to choose from. I can quickly find the right template for my purpose.
Adding ChatGPT into the mix adds an unnecessary step, making the workflow less streamlined – and I’m all about streamlining workflows, so in this case, I would not use ChatGPT + Canva, I would simply do this work directly in Canva.
Just because a new AI tool or integration is available, it doesn’t mean it should be implemented.
Just because a new AI tool or integration is available, it doesn’t mean it should be implemented.