Affinity by Canva has reached the iPad, and the core app costs nothing. The design suite, which folds vector drawing, photo editing, page layout and a new touch-first sketching mode into one program, is listed as a free download on the App Store, with a free Canva account required to sign in. Canva is charging only for its AI add-ons.
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For iPad owners who have priced professional design software before, the move changes the math. A tablet that already sits in a bag can now run a layered, print-capable design app without a subscription for the basics. The trade is a Canva account and the occasional prompt toward a paid plan, since Canva’s premium plans are what unlock the AI features.
Four studios in one .af file
According to MacRumors’ Nov. 2 report, the app combines Sketch, Vector, Pixel and Layout studios in a single interface, and a person can move between them inside the same .af file. That file format also opens on the desktop version, so a project begun with an Apple Pencil can be finished on a Mac or Windows PC. Canva says the interface was designed for the iPad and not scaled down from the desktop program.
Sketch Studio is the addition built for touch, and it is the part of the app with no direct desktop equivalent. It offers freehand drawing with a customizable brush library and a feature called Sketch to Shapes that converts hand-drawn forms into editable vector shapes. Affinity’s iPad page puts the brush count above 350 and lists Apple Pencil support for pressure, tilt and barrel roll.
Photo, layout and file-format tools on the tablet
The photo side includes RAW development, non-destructive adjustments and a Mask Tool meant for tracing hard edges such as hair and fur with a Pencil. Layout work covers multi-page documents, master pages and print-ready output. The Affinity page says the app opens PSD, AI, INDD, IDML, PDF and SVG files with layers intact and exports to JPEG, PNG, WebP, PDF, SVG, EPUB and INDD, with a direct export route into Canva. Brand-conscious teams can also reach a Canva brand kit for approved colors, fonts and imagery from inside the app. Apple Pencil Pro owners get barrel roll, squeeze and hover on top of pressure and tilt.
What stays free and what needs a Canva plan
The App Store listing shows the price as free with in-app purchases, which are Canva Pro and Business plans, and it states that all core photo, vector, layout and sketching tools are free. Canva AI Studio features require a premium plan, and the British listing prices Canva Pro at £13.00 a month or £100.00 a year and Canva Business at £18.00 a month or £179.99 a year. MacRumors names Generative Expand, image upscaling, noise reduction and Decompose Layer, which splits a flat image into editable layers. The listing says the app needs iPadOS 18.0 or later and runs about 1.9 GB.
Feature gaps remain at launch. Per Affinity’s website, the iPad version lacks Books, Batch, Data Merge, Quick Adjustments, the Info and Scope panels, macro recording and Astrophotography Studio. Affinity says more features will be added over time, and its release notes will track them. Professionals who lean on batch processing, data-driven layouts or macros will find those workflows still tied to the desktop app for now, while illustrators and photographers working one file at a time lose little. The Affinity page does not list specific iPad models, pointing readers to its Help Center for system requirements, so owners of older tablets should check there before downloading a 1.9 GB app.
From the desktop relaunch to the iPad release
The free model began on the desktop. When Canva relaunched Affinity in October 2025, the Designer, Photo and Publisher apps were merged into one program for Mac and Windows, with an iPad version promised for the following year. Ash Hewson, the CEO of Affinity, said at the time that there was no catch, no stripped-back version and no gotchas about the free price. MacRumors says Canva reports more than seven million sign-ups for the desktop app, a figure that gives some sense of the audience the company expects to follow onto the tablet. Existing owners of the earlier paid Affinity version 2 apps could keep using what they bought, without the Canva integrations, according to the same 2025 coverage.
Release timing was reported with some variation. Thurrott wrote ahead of launch that the iPad app would arrive on November 3 and that pre-ordering on the App Store would install it automatically, and it quoted the listing’s description of the app as a fully fledged creative experience built for touch. MacRumors reported the app as available on Nov. 2, the date this article uses. Whether Canva will keep the core tools free beyond the launch is not stated in any of the sources reviewed.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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