![\"Get](\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/53\/46dfd1b9-9ad1-4a12-ae8b-db589462e73f.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEven with these shortcuts, it was still a lot of work. I used to spend hours tweaking graphics, adjusting colors and fonts, exploring new presets, and watching YouTube tutorials on how to create specific effects in Photoshop.<\/p>\n
Now, with AI tools for graphic design, I can spin up on-brand banner variations in just a few clicks. I\u2019m also able to give more detailed design briefs to my team, do minor edits myself, and overall, deliver higher-quality designs in half the time.<\/p>\n
But which tools give you the usable results and, most importantly, the best ROI? I tested the top 8 AI tools for graphic design to find out.<\/p>\n
In this article, I\u2019ll walk you through the exact testing process, including the prompts I used and the results, and whether I would recommend using AI graphic design tools at all.<\/p>\n
Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n Here are the top 3 benefits of using AI for graphic design.<\/p>\n According to HubSpot\u2019s State of AI survey<\/a>, over 40% of marketers use image and design generators like DALL-E and Synthesia. The most common reason? To help them generate designs faster.<\/p>\n Here are the most common graphic design use cases I\u2019m seeing for AI:<\/p>\n Expert tip:<\/strong> I spoke to Robert Avila<\/a>, an art director from Platinum Black, who shared how he uses AI to create animations: \u201cYou can prompt your AI tool to render an entire scene or create assets to composite your scenes manually. When inevitable revisions arise, it\u2019s much faster to update them through AI prompts rather than re-drawing an entire scene.\u201d<\/p>\n From creating design briefs to helping me choose color palettes, I find that AI is a great strategic partner. AI is also quite helpful when I have creative fatigue.<\/p>\n For instance, if I am stuck on a social media campaign design, I can prompt AI tools to give me five different concepts. I can even generate creative briefs by providing the tool with additional context, such as design references, rough sketches, or campaign documents.<\/p>\n A\/B testing graphics is a huge part of my job. I\u2019m constantly testing which graphics perform better on social media or ad variations that give us better ROAS. With AI, I can quickly spin up dozens of on-brand designs and choose the best based on audience response.<\/p>\n The best part? AI tools help me experiment with color combinations I\u2019d have never considered and wacky, trend-based layouts. Some AI-generated designs have actually been top performers.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n I tested AI graphic design tools with two optimized design \u201cmega\u201d prompts. Basic prompts weren\u2019t giving the output I wanted, so I decided to go all out.<\/p>\n Each prompt covers a common marketing use case and includes detailed instructions to keep the model on track (AI can be notoriously distracted!).<\/p>\n \u201cDesign a clean, modern blog banner for an article titled \u2018<\/strong>The Rise of AI in Graphic Design\u2019 using a minimalist layout (1200x628px) optimized for web and social sharing. Prioritize a bold, high-contrast headline in a contemporary, tech-inspired font. Use a subtle background texture or gradient that enhances, but doesn\u2019t compete with, text legibility. Incorporate understated AI-themed motifs like neural nodes, abstract chips, or creative lightbulb icons. Maintain visual harmony with generous white space and balanced composition. Enhance the title\u2019s visual impact through font weight, spacing, or soft shadowing, and ensure strong text-to-background contrast for clarity. Export as a high-res PNG or JPG.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDesign a high-impact Instagram post (1080×1080 px) to announce a new AI-powered design tool, featuring the bold tagline \u2018Design Smarter. Not Harder.\u2019 in large, modern sans-serif typography with layered effects, dimensional shadows, or motion-inspired blurs for depth. Use a vibrant, futuristic background with gradients (blue, purple, teal, pink), abstract shapes, and subtle tech motifs like HUD overlays or network nodes. Include the product logo or name subtly in the bottom corner, with an optional CTA like \u201cTry It Free Today.\u201d Ensure clean balance, mobile readability, and visual clarity on both light and dark interfaces. Export as a high-res PNG or JPG under 1MB.\u201d<\/p>\n Note<\/strong>: I also considered other factors like cost, ease of use, design capabilities, and copyright usage before arriving at my final list of AI-based graphic design tools below.<\/p>\n Pro tip: <\/strong>If you want to learn how to write prompts like these, you can read my list of the 33 best ChatGPT prompts<\/a> for inspiration.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n I road-tested eight tools for graphic design. Here\u2019s what I found.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Canva has stepped up its design game in the last year. I\u2019m seeing a huge shift towards AI-assisted design workflows through its Visual Suite 2.0<\/a>. I love how I can create interactive dashboards just through sheets, generate cool new backgrounds, and so much more with the new Canva.<\/p>\n Moreover, Canva is now integrated into HubSpot<\/a>, which means I can seamlessly use it inside my blogging workflow.<\/p>\n Free resource:<\/strong>\u00a0Learn how to use Canva in HubSpot in this Academy course<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, let\u2019s get to testing.<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n Find Canva AI, click on it, and you\u2019ll get a prompt field where you can describe what you want. Here\u2019s what I got for Prompt #1:<\/p>\n As you can see, the layout and typography are decent. The background? Not so much.<\/p>\n The fact that Canva embeds its own instructions in the image (\u201cDouble-click or double-tap this\u201d) is a bit annoying, honestly. But being able to edit the output through the Canva editor is a plus in my book.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what I got for the second prompt:<\/p>\n I feel that Canva is best for use cases related to social media. You can even get carousel posts with Canva AI.<\/p>\n I would, of course, make some minor tweaks to the above image like removing \u201cannouncing our new AI tool\u2019, switching out the copy, etc. However, Canva gives me a good base to start from.<\/p>\n Bonus: <\/strong>Don\u2019t want to write custom prompts? Canva AI has presets for you to use. I tested one of them to show you how they work.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n What I like:<\/strong><\/p>\n What can be improved:<\/strong><\/p>\n Pricing: <\/strong>Free access with limited credits. Paid plans from $5.81\/month and $46.49\/year.<\/p>\n Best for: <\/strong>Social media graphics and reusable visual assets.<\/p>\n ChatGPT is my go-to AI chatbot for brainstorming content ideas, creating outlines or first drafts, and even analyzing Excel spreadsheets<\/a>. It\u2019s a great creative partner, and that\u2019s why I also use it for creating design and image mockups to pass on to my designers.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s an example of a typical prompt I use.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n When I first entered Prompt #1, ChatGPT started breaking it down and explaining it to me. That\u2019s a weird quirk on this platform, probably because it\u2019s trained to be a conversational model.<\/p>\n Anyway, after asking it again to create the banner, here\u2019s what I got.<\/p>\n While this looks alright from a minimalist design perspective, I\u2019m not a huge fan of how the text is positioned. There\u2019s a lot of whitespace, and I\u2019m not too sure about the lightbulb.<\/p>\n I could probably fix this with a reference image, but let\u2019s skip that for now. Instead, let\u2019s see how ChatGPT does with the social media prompt.<\/p>\n As you can see, this graphic isn\u2019t very professional. So I gave ChatGPT another shot, this time putting Canva\u2019s design as a reference. The model mimicked the image and didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n What I like:<\/strong><\/p>\n What can be improved:<\/strong><\/p>\n Pricing:<\/strong> $20\/month for ChatGPT Plus and $200\/month for the Pro tier. Limited access for free users.<\/p>\n Best for:<\/strong> Brands that already use ChatGPT in their workflow.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n I used the web version of Ideogram for this test. You can also use the newly-launched mobile app if you like. Here\u2019s the output of the first part.<\/p>\n Honest opinion? I thought the layout was sub-par. The generated banner also had unnecessary elements (like \u201c1200 px\u201d), but I can\u2019t complain about the quality and style of the text.<\/p>\n Next, I entered my social media prompt, and here\u2019s what I got.<\/p>\n This is by far the best social media post (design-wise) on this list so far. Minimal, modern, and clean \u2014 just like I asked. It even came up with a name for the brand, which none of the other tools did. The \u2018N\u2019 should have been uppercase, but that is a quick fix. All in all, Ideogram generated a graphic I\u2019d actually use.<\/p>\n What I like:<\/strong><\/p>\n What can be improved:<\/strong><\/p>\n Pricing:<\/strong> Free access with limited \u2018slow\u2019 credits. Paid plans cost $7\u2013$42\/month.<\/p>\n Best for: <\/strong>Simple, text-heavy banners, social media posts, billboards, etc.<\/p>\n AutoDraw is an AI tool that combines machine learning and drawings from artists. You can doodle in the tool, and it\u2019ll 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\u2019t draw a straight line without a ruler. Having an AI tool improve my art sounded super cool.<\/p>\n A warning:<\/strong> I don\u2019t have a graphics tablet. So everything you\u2019re about to witness, hilarious though it may be, was done with just a mouse. I\u2019m guessing the tool\u2019s capabilities are far greater with a tablet or a stylus at hand.<\/p>\n However, without giving too much away, it proves that you can input a terrible drawing into AutoDraw and get something better back.<\/p>\n I started with something basic \u2014 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.<\/p>\n So, after selecting the right smiley, I tried to make the mouth wider. Sadly, Autodraw doesn\u2019t take the whole drawing into account while suggesting shapes. The suggestions were way off \u2014 I definitely wasn\u2019t trying to draw shorts.<\/p>\n So, I went back to the drawing board (literally) and tried to get what I wanted with a single drawing. This time, I wanted to draw a girl.<\/p>\n I knew my drawing skills were questionable, but I didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n What I like:<\/strong><\/p>\n What can be improved:<\/strong><\/p>\n Pricing:<\/strong> Get started for free.<\/p>\n Best for: <\/strong>Speeding up the design process.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Gemini is pretty good at deep research. It also has one of the best models for video generation with native audio (hello, Veo-3<\/a>!). So, I was excited to test out Gemini for graphic design.<\/p>\n Gemini\u2019s UI is pretty similar to ChatGPT. I sent it the first prompt, and this is what I got.<\/p>\n Decent text rendering, but I felt the image was too simplistic. The I tested it for the social media use-case. Here\u2019s what I got.<\/p>\n Much better, although not as good as what we got from the other tools like Ideogram. I\u2019d rate it 6\/10.<\/p>\n What I like:<\/strong><\/p>\n What can be improved:<\/strong><\/p>\n Pricing: <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n Best for: <\/strong>Brands looking to generate images and video in one tool.<\/p>\n Honest confession? I wanted to try out this tool because of its name. Kittl! Isn\u2019t that cute? Jokes aside, I didn\u2019t know about this tool until I stumbled upon it during my research for this piece. But I\u2019m so glad I did, because this is actually a very powerful yet free tool. Much like Canva.<\/p>\n The image quality isn\u2019t 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\u2019ve seen many of these).<\/p>\n You need to sign up with an email or Google to access Kittl. But thankfully, you don\u2019t need to give any card details. Also, Kittl does not have a mobile app as of August 2025, so you need to use the web app like I did for this test.<\/p>\n As you can see, Kittl\u2019s UI\/UX combines elements from Canva, Adobe Illustrator, and other top graphic design tools. While its AI certainly needs to evolve, let\u2019s see how it fares with the social media use case.<\/p>\n While this one\u2019s much better from a design standpoint, the text was all over the place, so I checked if there\u2019s an option to edit this. There wasn\u2019t, but I stumbled upon the \u201cDesign Generator (Beta)\u201d tool and decided to try it out. It returned this editable design.<\/p>\n The design looks pretty clean, and I can work with it to make it better. The problem, however, is that you can only put 50-character prompts in Design Generator (Beta). Because of this, the output wasn\u2019t aligned with my needs, and I had to edit most of the text to make it usable. That\u2019s a lot of work for an \u201cAI designer.\u201d<\/p>\n What I like:<\/strong><\/p>\n What can be improved:<\/strong><\/p>\n Pricing: <\/strong>Free access with limited credits. Paid plans start from $11.42\/month.<\/p>\n Best for: <\/strong>Brands looking for a freemium alternative to Canva.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n\n
Why use AI for graphic design?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Faster Time to Design<\/h3>\n
\n
Remove Creative Blocks<\/h3>\n
Creative Experimentation<\/h3>\n
How I Tested the Best AI Graphic Design Tools<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Prompt #1 \u2014 Blog Banner\/Featured Image<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Prompt #2 \u2014 Social Media Post<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Best <\/strong>AI Tools for Graphic Design<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. <\/strong>Canva AI<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Test Results<\/h4>\n
![\"canva](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/canva20ai20interface20and20my20prompt2c20blog20banner20designed20by20canva20ai.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"social](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/social20media20post20designed20by20canva20ai2c20ai20graphics20for20software20tool20announcement.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"four](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/four20outputs20for20a20preset20prompt20in20canva2c20ai-generated20real20estate20listing20designs.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
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2. <\/strong>ChatGPT<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"prompting](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/prompting20and20graphic20design20workflow20with20chatgpt.png\")
<\/p>\nTest Results<\/h4>\n
![\"blog](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog20post20banner20designed20by20chatgpt2c20ai20generated20feature20image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"chatgpt](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/chatgpt20ui20and20graphics20for20social20media2c20ai20generated20graphic20for20instagram.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
\n
3. <\/strong>Ideogram<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Test Results<\/h4>\n
![\"ideogram\u2019s](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ideogramE28099s20ui20and20graphics20design20outputs2c20four20ai20generated20blog20banners.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"instagram](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/instagram20post20designed20by20ideogram2c20ai20generated20social20media20graphics.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
\n
4. <\/strong>Autodraw<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Test Results<\/h4>\n
![\"attempt](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/attempt20to20draw20a20happy20face2c20hand-drawn20smiley20in20autodraw.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"smiley](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/smiley20on20autodraw2c20ai20generated20smiley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"girl](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/girl20drawn20on20autodraw2c20ai20tool20suggesting20design20shapes.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
\n
5. <\/strong>Gemini<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Test Results<\/h4>\n
![\"google](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google20gemini20chat20interface20and20my20prompt2c20ai20image20for20a20blog20banner.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"google](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google20geminiE28099s20social20media20post20design2c20ai20generated20instagram20post.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
\n
6. <\/strong>Kittl<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Test Results<\/h4>\n
![\"kittl](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/kittl20ai20graphic20design20ui20and20artboard2c20ai20generated20blog20banner.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"social](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/social20media20graphics20by20kittl2c20ai20generated20instagram20post.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"editable](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/editable20graphics20generated20by20kittl2c20ai20generated20social20media20graphic.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
\n
7. <\/strong>Adobe Express<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"adobe](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/adobe20express20ui20and20graphic20design20outputs2c20blog20post20banner20generated20by20ai.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"social](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/social20media20graphics20designed20by20adobe20express2c20simple20ai20generated20instagram20post.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"blog](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog20post20banner20generated20by20design.ai2c20ai20generated20blog20featured20image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"designs.ai](\"http:\/\/www.coclea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/designs.ai20ui20and20output20for20social20media20post2c20ai-generated20graphic20design.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/track.hubspot.com\/__ptq.gif?a=53&k=14&r=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.hubspot.com%2Fmarketing%2Fai-for-graphic-design&bu=https%253A%252F%252Fblog.hubspot.com%252Fmarketing&bvt=rss\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"