Leonardo AI

Leonardo AI is a generative artificial intelligence platform that enables users to create high-quality images, video content, and design assets. Founded in Sydney in 2022 and acquired by Canva in July 2024, the platform serves over 19 million registered users who have collectively generated more than one billion images. It is designed for creative professionals, marketers, game developers, and enterprises seeking fine-grained control over AI-generated visual content.

How It Works

Leonardo AI offers a browser-based workspace where users generate visuals from text prompts, image references, or freehand sketches. Its flagship model, Phoenix, produces photorealistic and stylized outputs across various artistic genres. The platform differentiates itself through the level of creative control it provides — the Live Canvas feature allows users to sketch a rough concept while simultaneously entering a text prompt, and Leonardo AI renders a photorealistic image in real time based on both inputs. Users can also train custom AI models using their own datasets, enabling consistent brand styles, character designs, or product imagery without starting from scratch each time.

Key Capabilities

The platform includes a suite of creation tools: text-to-image generation, image-to-image transformation, real-time canvas sketching, background removal, and AI-powered video generation. A private cloud lets users store and manage their trained models, while collaboration tools support team workflows. For developers and enterprises, Leonardo AI provides REST APIs that allow customers to integrate its generative capabilities into their own applications and infrastructure. The platform also offers model fine-tuning, inpainting, outpainting, and upscaling features that give users granular command over the output quality and composition.

Use Cases

Leonardo AI was originally built for video game asset creation — its founders met while working at a video game company. It has since expanded to serve fashion, advertising, and architecture industries. Common applications include concept art and character design for games, product mockups and lifestyle imagery for ecommerce, architectural visualization, social media content production, and branded marketing creatives. The acquisition by Canva positions Leonardo AI as a core technology provider for Canva’s Magic Studio generative AI suite, broadening its reach into the broader design and productivity market.

Target Audience

The platform caters to both individual creators and teams. Hobbyists and freelance designers use the free tier to experiment with AI art generation, while agencies, game studios, and enterprise marketing teams rely on the paid plans for higher generation limits, custom model training, API access, and collaboration features. The acquisition by Canva has further opened access to Canva’s 180 million monthly users.

Privacy and Training Data

Leonardo AI trains its in-house models — including its flagship Phoenix model — on a combination of licensed, synthetic, and publicly available or open source data. The company has stated that it does not knowingly train on copyrighted content without permission. Canva, its parent company, has committed $200 million to pay creators who consent to having their content used for AI model training, reflecting an industry shift toward more transparent data sourcing practices.