Canva Launches Free Affinity App for iPad With Apple Pencil Support and Optional AI Tools

Canva has released Affinity for iPad, a free app that brings pro-grade design, illustration, photo editing, and page layout tools to Apple’s tablet. The app became available in November 2026, extending the Affinity creative suite — previously relaunched as an all-in-one desktop app — to iPad users.

The app is built around Apple Pencil support, including compatibility with Apple Pencil Pro features such as pressure sensitivity, tilt, barrel roll, squeeze, and hover. A new Sketch Studio is included for freehand drawing and sketch-to-vector workflows, with tools for masking and automatically converting rough sketches into cleaner geometric shapes.

Affinity product design head Neil Ladkin said in the announcement: “Affinity for iPad delivers the full power of Affinity, together with the versatility and portability of iPad. Every development decision was made by people who create on iPad themselves, from how the Apple Pencil responds to where the tools sit.”

Projects across sketch, vector, photo editing, and layout can be saved in a single .af file format, reducing the need to export or convert between file types. The app is also compatible with all major design file formats. Canva’s AI Studio is integrated into the app, offering features including Generative Expand for extending image backgrounds, automatic motion blur and noise reduction, and image resolution scaling.

The core tools are free for individual users, though a free Canva account is required. The AI features are optional and locked behind a Canva Pro subscription, which starts at $18 per month.

The release follows Canva’s 2024 acquisition of Serif, the developer behind Affinity. At the time, some users expressed concern that the suite would shift to a subscription model. Canva and Serif pledged to avoid mandatory subscriptions, and the free-tier structure of the iPad app suggests that commitment remains in place for now.