Estate planning as a Canva account holder
Canva Pty Ltd reviews transfer requests for accounts individually upon receipt of documentation
OverviewWhen someone dies
Canva Support
WebsiteVisit website→
Canva Privacy Team (no dedicated estates team; use privacy contact for next-of-kin and data deletion requests)
Emailprivacy@canva.com
Mailing Address
Head of Privacy, Canva Pty Ltd, 110 Kippax St, Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia
WebsiteFile estate claim→
Verified Apr 2026
Canva is a design platform with over 190 million users, offering graphic design, document creation, whiteboards, website publishing, and print services. A Canva account can hold designs, Brand Kits (logos, colors, fonts, brand voice), templates, uploaded media, Canva Docs, whiteboards, published websites, and print order history. Team accounts add shared folders, Brand Templates, and collaborative workspaces.
Canva Pty Ltd reviews transfer requests for Canva accounts on a case-by-case basis after the account holder's death. Approval is at the company's sole discretion, and documentation requirements must be met before any transfer is considered.
Canva supports transferring accounts to another person during the account holder's lifetime.
What happens at death
Canva has no publicly documented bereavement, estate, or deceased account process. There is no dedicated form, memorial account option, or support path for next-of-kin. The Terms of Use state the license is "non-exclusive, limited, non-transferable, freely revocable" and that accounts may not be assigned without Canva's written consent. Upon termination, users "lose access to your Designs, User Content, and any other information uploaded to the Service (and Canva may delete all such data unless legally prohibited)." Family members would need to contact Canva support directly. For team accounts, admins can transfer design ownership when removing a member, but this requires admin access and a 5-day waiting period.
How to protect your Canva accounts
Because Canva Pty Ltd reviews transfer requests on a case-by-case basis, there is no guarantee that accounts will be transferred after death. Lifetime planning reduces dependence on that outcome.
Here are 8 steps to protect and manage your Canva accounts while the account is active:
1
For Team accounts: ensure at least one additional Team Admin exists. Admins can transfer departing members' designs and manage team content independently of the Owner.
2
If you are a Team Owner, consider proactively nominating a successor owner. The nominee has 30 days to accept. Payment method must be updated before the transfer (cannot be changed after).
3
Export critical designs periodically. Canva's native format is proprietary and cannot be opened in other design tools. Export as PNG, SVG (Pro/Teams only), PDF, PPTX (presentations), or DOCX (Docs). All exports are flattened -- individual layers and text editability are lost.
4
Use bulk download to back up all designs, uploads, and data. Available on desktop only; takes 24-72 hours. Download link valid for 14 days. Only the Team Owner can bulk download team content.
5
Move important designs from personal drafts into shared Team folders where other members have access.
6
Brand Kits (logos, colors, fonts, brand voice) are team-level assets that persist with the team, not with individual members. If the team is deleted, Brand Kit data is deleted with it. Back up brand assets externally.
7
Document your Canva account email and team URL for your executor. Note that Canva has no published estate process, so access may require working directly with Canva Support.
8
If you have published Canva Websites, be aware these are hosted exclusively on Canva's infrastructure and cannot be exported as standalone HTML. If the account is deleted, published websites go offline immediately.
Family sharing
Canva Teams have a single Owner who controls billing, team deletion, bulk data downloads, and ownership transfer. The Owner can nominate a new owner from existing team members; the nominee has 30 days to accept. Team Admins can manage members, content, Brand Kits, and permissions but cannot delete the team or transfer ownership. For design ownership: admins can transfer a departing member's designs only when removing them from the team (not if the member leaves voluntarily). This transfer has a mandatory 5-day waiting period and is irreversible. Personal (free/Pro) accounts have no transfer mechanism.
When someone dies
Handling Canva accounts after a death
Transfer is handled on a case-by-case basis, 6-step process, and 3 required documents.
View details →Canva does not offer a beneficiary designation feature. Without this option, accounts cannot be assigned to a named recipient through the program's own settings.
Frequently asked questions
All designs, folders, templates, uploads, teams, and apps created by the user are scheduled for permanent deletion. There is a 14-day recovery window: if the user logs back in within 14 days, everything is restored. After 14 days, deletion is permanent and irreversible.
No. Canva's native format is proprietary and cannot be opened directly in Figma, Adobe, or other design tools. Designs can be exported as PNG, JPG, SVG, PDF, PPTX, or DOCX, but all exports are flattened -- individual layers, text editability, and element positioning are lost. There is no way to export in an editable format compatible with other tools.
Published Canva Websites are hosted exclusively on Canva's infrastructure and cannot be exported as standalone HTML files. If the account is deleted, all published websites go offline. There is no way to download or migrate a Canva Website to another hosting provider.
Yes. Bulk download is available on desktop and takes 24-72 hours depending on the volume of content. The download link is valid for 14 days. For team content, only the Team Owner can initiate bulk downloads. The account cannot be deleted until the bulk download completes.
Sources
Data sourced from Canva Pty Ltd primary sources (11 pages reviewed). How we research.
Canva Support
WebsiteVisit website→
Canva Privacy Team (no dedicated estates team; use privacy contact for next-of-kin and data deletion requests)
Emailprivacy@canva.com
Mailing Address
Head of Privacy, Canva Pty Ltd, 110 Kippax St, Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia
WebsiteFile estate claim→
Verified Apr 2026