n8n-nodes-canva

Use Canva in your n8n workflows. Create, autofill, and export designs, manage your assets and folders, and use Canva's AI to generate designs and images, remove backgrounds, or turn flat images into editable designs.

This node uses the Canva REST APIs (formerly the Connect API).

• Installation
• Credentials
• Operations
• Good to know
• Run it locally
• Resources

Installation

Follow n8n's guide to installing community nodes, using the package name @canva/n8n-nodes-canva.

Credentials

To connect n8n to Canva, you create an app in the Canva Developer Portal, then paste its details into n8n. It takes about five minutes.

1. Create an app in the Canva Developer Portal

1. Go to Your apps in the Canva Developer Portal and create a new app. Choose Private if your team is on Canva Enterprise (the app stays inside your team), or Public otherwise. You can't change this later.

2. Open Outside Canva and click Start integrating.

3. On Outside Canva → Configuration:

   • Turn on Canva REST APIs.

   • Under Credentials, copy the Client ID, then click Generate secret and copy the secret too. Canva only shows the secret once, so keep it somewhere safe.

   • Under Scopes, turn on all of these:

     • asset: Read and Write
     • brandtemplate:content: Read and Write
     • brandtemplate:meta: Read
     • comment: Read and Write
     • design:content: Read and Write
     • design:meta: Read
     • folder: Read and Write
     • profile: Read

     The node asks for all of them when you connect, and Canva refuses the connection if any are missing.

4. On Outside Canva → Redirect URLs, paste n8n's redirect URL into URL 1. You'll find it in the n8n credential screen (step 2 below). It usually looks like this:

   • n8n Cloud: https://oauth.n8n.cloud/oauth2/callback
   • Self-hosted n8n: https://your-n8n-instance.com/rest/oauth2-credential/callback
   • n8n on your computer: http://127.0.0.1:5678/rest/oauth2-credential/callback (Canva doesn't accept localhost, so use 127.0.0.1)

2. Connect it in n8n

1. In n8n, go to Credentials → New and pick Canva OAuth2 API.
2. Paste the Client ID and Client secret from step 1.
3. Click Connect my account and approve access in Canva.

Operations

A few labels you'll see below:

• (Preview): uses one of Canva's preview APIs. See Preview APIs.
• 💎: needs a paid Canva plan, such as Canva Pro.
• ✨: uses the Canva user's AI credits. See AI credits.

Asset

Autofill

💎 Needs a Canva Pro plan or above.

Brand Template

💎 Needs a Canva plan with premium features, such as Canva Pro.

Comment (Preview API)

Design

Design Import

Export

Folder

Generation (Preview API)

Image Transformation (Preview API)

💎 Needs a Canva plan with premium features, such as Canva Pro.

Merge (Preview API)

Resize

💎 Needs a Canva plan with premium features, such as Canva Pro. Canva Free users get a limited trial.

User

Good to know

Waiting for Canva to finish

Some operations start a job in Canva and wait for it to finish: Upload From URL, Autofill, both imports, Export, Merge, Resize, and all the AI features. While it waits, the node checks every few seconds (Poll Interval) and gives up after a while (Max Wait, 60 to 300 seconds by default, depending on the operation). Big jobs, like long presentations, can take a couple of minutes.

If a job fails, the error tells you Canva's reason, such as a prompt that didn't pass Canva's safety checks.

When Canva is busy, or a quota runs out

If Canva says it's getting too many requests, the node waits and tries again, up to three times. If the user has run out of AI credits, the Canva app has used up its own credit quota, or the user has used up their free autofill or resize trial, waiting won't help, so the node stops straight away and says so.

Preview APIs

Operations marked (Preview) use Canva APIs that are still in preview. They can change without notice, and apps that use them can't be submitted for Canva's public review. They're great for internal workflows and experiments.

AI credits

Import From Image, Generate Design, Generate Image, and Remove Background use the Canva user's AI credits every time they run. Checking on a running job is free.

Not every account can use every AI feature. User → Get Capabilities lists what the connected user can do, for example image_to_design_imports (Magic Layers), background_removal, and design_generation.

Tips

• Autofill: run Brand Template → Get Dataset first. Your data's field names need to match the template's fields.
• Import From Image (Magic Layers): works best on flat graphics like posters, flyers, and social posts. Upload the image first with Asset → Upload From URL, then use its ID: {{ $json.job.asset.id }}. Magic Layers must be allowed in your team's Canva settings.
• Remove Background: saves the result as a new image and leaves the original as it is. The new image's ID is at job.result.asset.id.
• Generate Design: the more your brief says about the topic, audience, wording, tone, and look, the better the result. For presentations, you can also plan the slides with Outline, using Canva's format: {"sections": [{"title": "…", "description": "…", "points": ["…"]}]} (up to 100 slides). Leave sections empty to let Canva decide. If an earlier node gives you just a list of slides, use {{ { "sections": $json.slides } }}. Open the new design from job.result.design.urls.edit_url (the link works for 30 days).
• Generate Image: leave Model on Auto unless you need a specific one. Images are saved to the user's Uploads by default, so you can use job.result.image.asset.id in Design → Create or Autofill. The download link at job.result.image.url works for 24 hours. To pass the file to another node, download it with an HTTP Request node.
• Move Item: use root as the To Folder ID to move something to the top level of your Projects.

Run it locally

For developers who want to work on this node.

You'll need Node.js 24.15 or later and npm. Then run:

npm install
npm run dev

This builds the node and starts n8n at http://127.0.0.1:5678 with the Canva node loaded and hot reload turned on. When you set up your Canva app, use http://127.0.0.1:5678/rest/oauth2-credential/callback as the redirect URL.

If npm run dev fails with EACCES: permission denied, rename ... in ~/.npm/_cacache: your npm cache has files owned by another user, usually left behind by running npm with sudo. Take ownership of the cache, then try again:

sudo chown -R $(id -u):$(id -g) ~/.npm

Resources

• Example workflows, ready to import
• Canva REST APIs and the REST API reference
• Canva Developer Portal
• n8n community nodes documentation