I road-tested eight tools for graphic design. Here’s what I found.
1. Canva AI
I think Canva is a more accessible, intuitive version of the Adobe suite. Most freelancers rely heavily on Canva for client projects, and I can see why.
Canva has stepped up its design game in the last year. I’m seeing a huge shift towards AI-assisted design workflows through its Visual Suite 2.0. I love how I can create interactive dashboards just through sheets, generate cool new backgrounds, and so much more with the new Canva.
Moreover, Canva is now integrated into HubSpot, which means I can seamlessly use it inside my blogging workflow.
Test Results
I used the web app for this test. But you can achieve the same results with Canva AI on mobile or tablets (iOS and Android), as well as the desktop app (macOS and Windows).
As you can see, the layout and typography are decent. The background? Not so much.
The fact that Canva embeds its own instructions in the image (“Double-click or double-tap this”) is a bit annoying, honestly. But being able to edit the output through the Canva editor is a plus in my book.
I feel that Canva is best for use cases related to social media. You can even get carousel posts with Canva AI.
I would, of course, make some minor tweaks to the above image like removing “announcing our new AI tool’, switching out the copy, etc. However, Canva gives me a good base to start from.
Bonus: Don’t want to write custom prompts? Canva AI has presets for you to use. I tested one of them to show you how they work.
It took almost 10+ minutes to generate these mockups. However, I thought the results were pretty great and can be shipped with some tweaks. You can definitely use Canva AI for social media graphics.
What I like:
- Simple and intuitive interface.
- Ability to edit images within the tool.
- Offers a wide range of premium templates.
- Integration with Canva’s design suite and other platforms like HubSpot.
What can be improved:
- Better adherence to my prompts.
- Generate mockups faster.
Pricing: Free access with limited credits. Paid plans from $5.81/month and $46.49/year.
Best for: Social media graphics and reusable visual assets.
2. ChatGPT
ChatGPT is my go-to AI chatbot for brainstorming content ideas, creating outlines or first drafts, and even analyzing Excel spreadsheets. It’s a great creative partner, and that’s why I also use it for creating design and image mockups to pass on to my designers.
When using ChatGPT for graphic design, I provide the model with existing graphics to serve as a reference for style, layout, and so on. Here’s an example of a typical prompt I use.
As you can see, it comes up with decent designs when it has reference images. For this test, however, I used a fresh chat to ensure fairness and consistency in the results.
Test Results
When I first entered Prompt #1, ChatGPT started breaking it down and explaining it to me. That’s a weird quirk on this platform, probably because it’s trained to be a conversational model.
While this looks alright from a minimalist design perspective, I’m not a huge fan of how the text is positioned. There’s a lot of whitespace, and I’m not too sure about the lightbulb.
I could probably fix this with a reference image, but let’s skip that for now. Instead, let’s see how ChatGPT does with the social media prompt.
As you can see, this graphic isn’t very professional. So I gave ChatGPT another shot, this time putting Canva’s design as a reference. The model mimicked the image and didn’t come up with anything original. Bummer. More often than not, though, providing examples and pushing for iterative fixes with follow-up prompts will give you better results with ChatGPT.
What I like:
- Fits right into my broader AI workflow since I already use ChatGPT.
- Does a decent job when given the right references.
- Images get generated fairly quickly.
What can be improved:
- Design quality; custom training datasets would help here.
- Ability to edit created images inside the context window without changing the whole image.
Pricing: $20/month for ChatGPT Plus and $200/month for the Pro tier. Limited access for free users.
Best for: Brands that already use ChatGPT in their workflow.
3. Ideogram
As a content marketer, I usually need text-heavy graphics. Think blog banners, call-to-action buttons, and infographics. Since my goal is to drive engagement and conversations, visual elements and text in the graphics are helpful for capturing user attention.
However, getting AI tools to render legible text designs was harder than I thought it would be. I heard a lot of good things about Ideogram, though, so I decided to try it out for graphic design.
Test Results
I used the web version of Ideogram for this test. You can also use the newly-launched mobile app if you like. Here’s the output of the first part.
This is by far the best social media post (design-wise) on this list so far. Minimal, modern, and clean — just like I asked. It even came up with a name for the brand, which none of the other tools did. The ‘N’ should have been uppercase, but that is a quick fix. All in all, Ideogram generated a graphic I’d actually use.
What I like:
- High-quality text rendering with good font choices.
- Vibrant color palette and scheme that stops the scroll.
- Original elements like brand name suggestions, etc.
What can be improved:
- More control over design layers.
- Ability to edit text and other components inline.
Pricing: Free access with limited ‘slow’ credits. Paid plans cost $7–$42/month.
Best for: Simple, text-heavy banners, social media posts, billboards, etc.
4. Autodraw
AutoDraw is an AI tool that combines machine learning and drawings from artists. You can doodle in the tool, and it’ll suggest the closest shape to your drawing. I must say I loved the premise of Autodraw. While I am decent at digital design (thanks, templates!), I can’t draw a straight line without a ruler. Having an AI tool improve my art sounded super cool.
A warning: I don’t have a graphics tablet. So everything you’re about to witness, hilarious though it may be, was done with just a mouse. I’m guessing the tool’s capabilities are far greater with a tablet or a stylus at hand.
However, without giving too much away, it proves that you can input a terrible drawing into AutoDraw and get something better back.
Test Results
I started with something basic — a good old smiley face. As you can see, the suggestions were pretty good, but I wanted the smile to be just a tad bit wider.
I knew my drawing skills were questionable, but I didn’t think it would suggest a beard when I was aiming for a girl. I guess the suggestion feature can only help with simple preset shapes, which is a bummer.
What I like:
- Simple to use, free, and very fun!
- A large range of icons as suggestions.
What can be improved:
- Complex artwork needs you to be a good artist (which I’m not).
- Doesn’t consider the whole artwork while generating suggestions.
- No option to upload custom images
Pricing: Get started for free.
Best for: Speeding up the design process.
5. Gemini
I first came across Gemini through AI-generated overviews in Google Search. Then, I saw it integrated natively with most of the products I use daily (Google Workspace, Pixel phone). So, whenever I want a convenient yet powerful AI tool option, I turn to Gemini.
Gemini is pretty good at deep research. It also has one of the best models for video generation with native audio (hello, Veo-3!). So, I was excited to test out Gemini for graphic design.
What I like:
- Intuitive user experience with decent design generation capabilities.
- Free to use with limited credits.
What can be improved:
- Free trials for video graphics.
- Native video editing features.
Pricing: Gemini is free for all Google users. Pro models available with paid plans, starting from $22.26/month with higher AI limits and video generation.
Best for: Brands looking to generate images and video in one tool.
6. Kittl
Honest confession? I wanted to try out this tool because of its name. Kittl! Isn’t that cute? Jokes aside, I didn’t know about this tool until I stumbled upon it during my research for this piece. But I’m so glad I did, because this is actually a very powerful yet free tool. Much like Canva.
The image quality isn’t one of the best ones on this list, but Kittl is great at customization. It lets you choose between multiple image generation models, even as a free user, which is rare from what I have seen so far (and I’ve seen many of these).
7. Adobe Express
Although I started my design journey Adobe tools as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been using them less and less over the last couple of years. I get most things done with ChatGPT and Canva now. However, I decided to give the web version of Adobe AI a shot after reading up on its AI features.
I first tried Adobe Express with simple logos, but the results were mostly subpar. Then I pushed through and tested more extensively for this article.
What I like:
- Integrated with the Adobe suite so that you can edit inline.
- Wide variety of professionally designed templates.
What can be improved:
- Prompt adherence.
- Text rendering.
- Overall image quality.
Pricing: Free to use with limited features. Paid plans start from $4.55/month.
Best for: Brands and marketers who have deeply integrated the Adobe suite into their workflows.
8. Designs.ai
I first heard of Designs.ai as an “Agency-as-a-Service” solution and got instantly curious about the idea. Although I haven’t used it extensively (mainly due to the hefty costs) I think the idea is intriguing.
You can do everything from logo design to text-to-speech for AI voiceovers using Designs.ai. For this article, I only tested the design part.
What I like:
- Interesting packaging and offer idea (although poor execution).
- Extensive product suite.
What can be improved:
- Free trial without card info.
- Relaxed rates limits or higher credit availability.
Pricing: 7-day free trial, followed by Basic plan starting from $29/month or $228/year ($19/month on yearly plan).
Best for: Brands working on multimedia campaigns that need an integrated tool with features for video creation, such as voice-overs.
Should you use AI tools for graphic design?
The results of my experiment proved one thing: AI hasn’t replaced the need for good graphic designers. If anything, AI has made it more important to understand how to differentiate a good design from a bad one.
My favorite AI tools in this list are ChatGPT (ideation), Canva (social media), and Ideogram (text-heavy stuff). While the concept of Autodraw was cool, I don’t think I can draw well enough to make the tool work for me.
However, editing is a bit of a pain with these tools. I can tell a human designer to edit or modify an image or design, pixel by pixel, in any direction. However, when I try to work with AI, it sometimes messes up, gives me the wrong text, or generates a different image altogether.
Bottom line? I’d recommend turning to AI tools for graphic design for quick mockups, ideation, or base designs. While AI does speed up the design process by a lot, you still need a professional designer to polish it and make it publish-ready.