Canva AI Writer vs Grammarly: Which tool is right for you?

Canva's AI writer, Magic Write, and Grammarly are two popular AI-powered tools that help with content creation, but they do very different jobs. Canva’s tool is made for generating text inside a visual design project, whereas Grammarly is built to polish and improve text you've already written, no matter where you are writing it.

This guide offers a straightforward, factual comparison of their features, best use cases, and pricing. The idea is to help you figure out which platform fits the work you actually do. It's also worth mentioning that while these tools are great for bits of text, other platforms like the eesel AI blog writer are designed to create complete, ready-to-publish blog posts from just a topic.

What is Canva AI Writer?

Canva AI Writer, which is officially called Magic Write, is a feature that lives directly inside the Canva design platform. It's part of the larger Canva Visual Suite and isn't available as a separate app. Its main job is to generate short pieces of text like headlines, social media captions, or body copy for presentations, right within a design you're working on.

It functions as part of a visual workflow, adding text generation to the design process. Its knowledge is based on data up to mid-2021. Powered by OpenAI, its main features include generating text from prompts, brainstorming ideas, creating outlines, and supporting over 100 languages.

What is Grammarly?

Grammarly is a writing assistant designed to improve the quality of your text. It's used by 40 million users and 50,000 teams to check for grammar, spelling, punctuation, clarity, and tone. It works across more than 500,000 apps and websites, making it a flexible tool for almost any writing situation.

With the addition of its generative AI features, called GrammarlyGO, it can also draft, rewrite, and brainstorm text, acting as an assistant wherever you happen to be writing. Grammarly is positioned as a tool for refining all kinds of written communication, from emails to long articles.

Feature comparison

Here's a factual breakdown of the main functional differences between Canva's Magic Write and Grammarly. This infographic provides a quick visual summary of where each tool excels in the Canva AI Writer vs Grammarly matchup.

Content generation

• Canva AI Writer: This tool focuses on generating text that fits into a specific design. It's good for brainstorming headlines, writing ad copy, or filling text boxes in a visual template. Its abilities are meant to support the design process, not to create standalone documents.
• Grammarly: Its generative AI has more advanced features for both creating and refining text. This includes rewriting full sentences, adjusting the tone, and drafting replies. The free plan offers 100 AI prompts per month, which is fine for light use, while the Pro plan bumps that up to 2,000 per month for heavier users.

Editing and proofreading

• Canva AI Writer: This tool doesn't have advanced editing features. It doesn't perform grammar checks, analyze style, or detect plagiarism. Its job is to generate text, not correct it.
• Grammarly: This is Grammarly's core strength. It gives detailed suggestions on correctness (grammar, spelling, punctuation), clarity, engagement, and delivery (tone). Paid plans come with a plagiarism checker that scans billions of web pages and academic databases, along with features for tone detection and enforcing style guides for teams.

Workflow and integrations

• Canva AI Writer: The workflow is entirely inside the Canva ecosystem. Magic Write is an internal feature and you can't use it in other applications like your email client, a word processor, or a content management system.
• Grammarly: This tool integrates almost everywhere you write. It has browser extensions for Chrome and Safari, plugins for Microsoft Office and Google Docs, and dedicated desktop apps. This broad integration makes it a smooth part of just about any writing workflow.

Collaboration features

• Canva: The platform has strong visual collaboration tools. Teams can use shared folders, leave comments on designs in real-time, and use Brand Kits to keep visuals consistent across projects. The collaboration is focused on the visual assets.
• Grammarly: This tool offers text-focused collaboration features. The Pro plan supports teams with shared style guides, custom brand tones, and analytics dashboards to help maintain consistent written communication across a company.

Ideal use cases

The right choice really depends on your main tasks and what you do for a living.

I write blog content regularly and use a few tools to make things easier and faster. I use ChatGPT to plan and write drafts. It helps a lot with speed and structure. Grammarly is great for checking grammar and improving the tone of my writing. For keyword research, I use LowFruits. It is very useful if you want your content to do well in search engines. I use Canva to make visuals for social media posts. Sometimes I also use QuillBot when I need to rewrite or reword something quickly.

Reddit

When to choose Canva AI Writer

• Social media managers: Good for quickly generating captions and text for visual posts directly within the design tool.
• Marketers: Useful for writing short copy for digital ads, banners, and presentations without having to switch tools.
• Small business owners: A handy option for creating marketing materials that mix text and design in one place.

The main user is anyone whose final product is a visual asset that also happens to have text.

When to choose Grammarly

• Content writers and copywriters: Well-suited for polishing long-form articles, improving clarity, and checking for plagiarism before publishing.
• Students and academics: Helps check papers for correctness, format citations, and keep a consistent academic tone.
• Business professionals: Makes sure all communication, from emails and Slack messages to formal reports, is professional and free of errors.
• Customer support teams: Can use tone detection to write clear, empathetic, and consistent replies to customers.

At a glance use case comparison

Pricing comparison

Here is a look at the pricing and features for both tools.

Canva pricing plans

• Canva Free: $0/year. Includes limited access to premium design tools and AI features like Magic Write.
• Canva Pro: Starts at $120/year for one person. This plan includes "High AI access," premium templates, Brand Kits, and 100GB of cloud storage.
• Canva Business: Starts at $200/year per person. This tier offers "Higher AI access," advanced collaboration features, and team administration tools.

Grammarly pricing plans

• Free: $0/month. Provides basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation checks. It also includes tone detection and 100 generative AI prompts per month.
• Pro: Starts at $12/member/month (billed annually). This plan adds full-sentence rewrites, plagiarism detection, advanced clarity suggestions, and increases the generative AI prompt limit to 2,000 per month.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing. This includes everything in the Pro plan plus SAML single sign-on, advanced security features, and unlimited AI prompts.

An alternative for long-form content: eesel AI blog writer

While Canva AI Writer generates text snippets for designs and Grammarly refines existing content, the eesel AI blog writer serves a different, more complete purpose. It's built to turn a single keyword into a full, SEO-optimized, and publish-ready blog post in minutes.

Neither Canva nor Grammarly is set up for this kind of end-to-end workflow. Some key differences of the eesel AI blog writer include:

• Comprehensive Output: It generates a full article with a logical structure, including an introduction, headings, a conclusion, and FAQs, not just text snippets or corrections.
• Automatic Asset Generation: It automatically creates and embeds relevant assets like AI-generated images, tables, and infographics to make the content more readable and visually interesting.
• Social and Media Integration: It enhances content by embedding relevant YouTube videos and finding real Reddit quotes to add authority and authenticity.
• Deep, Context-Aware Research: The AI performs in-depth research tailored to the content type, ensuring the final article is substantial and not just generic filler.

The eesel AI team used this exact tool to scale its own blog, growing from 700 to 750,000 daily impressions in three months.

Choosing the right tool

The choice between Canva AI Writer and Grammarly isn't about which one is better overall, but which one is made for your specific task.

• Canva AI Writer (Magic Write) is for generating text as part of a visual design. Its job is to support the creation of visual content.
• Grammarly is for improving and refining existing text wherever you write it. Its purpose is to make sure all your written communication is clear, correct, and professional.

Neither tool is built for creating long-form content from start to finish. For that, a dedicated solution is needed. By looking at your primary workflow and the final output you need, you can make the right decision.

For a more in-depth look at how these tools can be combined in a professional workflow, the following video offers practical design hacks for writers using both platforms.

This video offers practical design hacks for writers using both Canva and Grammarly in their workflow.

Generate your first article for free

If your goal is to produce complete, high-quality blog content that brings in organic traffic, then neither Canva nor Grammarly is the complete answer.

You can try the eesel AI blog writer for free and see how it can generate a publish-ready article from a single keyword in just a few minutes.