Canva brings the Affinity creative suite to iPad with free core tools

Canva puts Affinity on iPad at no cost

Canva has released Affinity for iPad, a tablet version of the Affinity creative suite that bundles vector design, photo editing, illustration and page layout into a single app. According to The Verge, the core toolset is free for individual users, though it requires signing up for a Canva account.

The release follows Canva's relaunch of Affinity as a combined desktop application last year, after the company acquired Affinity's original developer, Serif, in 2024.

Built around the Apple Pencil

The iPad version is optimized for stylus and touchscreen input. As The Verge reports, it supports Apple Pencil Pro capabilities such as pressure sensitivity, tilt, barrel roll, squeeze and hover, giving users finer control over tools and shortcuts.

A new Sketch Studio targets freehand drawing and sketch-to-vector workflows. It includes tools for masking and for automatically converting rough sketches into cleaner geometric shapes, which should cut down the manual cleanup that traditionally sits between an initial drawing and finished vector artwork.

Neil Ladkin, Affinity's head of product design, said in the announcement that the app was built by people who draw on the iPad themselves, with decisions ranging from how the pencil responds to the placement of individual tools.

One file for mixed projects

Sketches, vector work, photo edits and layout projects can all be saved to the same .af file, limiting how often work has to be exported, converted or rebuilt when moving between disciplines. The app also remains compatible with all major design file types, according to The Verge.

AI features form the paid tier

Canva has added its AI Studio to the app, which includes Generative Expand for extending image backgrounds, automatic motion blur and noise reduction, and image resolution scaling. Unlike the core tools, these features are optional and require a Canva Pro subscription, which The Verge reports starts at $18 per month.

The subscription question

When Canva bought Serif in 2024, some Affinity users worried the suite would move away from its one-time license model toward subscriptions and absorb Canva's generative AI technology, changes that would have eroded much of its appeal compared with Adobe. Canva and Serif pledged not to force users into subscribing, and The Verge notes that the pledge has held so far. The iPad release largely preserves that pattern: professional-grade tools at no cost, with AI conveniences positioned as the upsell.

Why it matters

Affinity built its reputation as the one-time-payment alternative to Adobe's Creative Cloud, and Canva's stewardship of that promise has been the open question since the acquisition. A free, professional iPad app extends that accessibility to a platform where comparable Adobe tools are spread across separate apps and subscription plans.

For iPad owners, it lowers the barrier to serious creative work: sketching, vector illustration, photo editing and layout in one app with deep stylus integration. The free core and optional AI split also signals how Canva plans to monetize Affinity going forward — through AI add-ons rather than by charging for the tools themselves.