When you’re browsing templates in Canva, some have a small crown icon in the corner. That crown means it’s a Pro template, so if you’ve ever wondered what that actually means for your designs (or what happens if you use Pro templates during a free trial and then decide not to upgrade) here’s how it works.
At a Glance: Free Canva templates can be downloaded without watermarks as long as every element in the design is also free. Pro templates are marked with a crown icon and require Canva Pro, a free trial, or a one-time content license to download without watermarks. If you create designs using Pro templates during a free trial, those design files stay in your account after the trial ends — but any Pro content in them may be watermarked on download until you upgrade or swap the elements out.
What You Get on the Free Plan
The free plan gives you access to over 1.6 million templates and over 4.7 million free elements — a substantial library, and one you can use to create polished designs if you’re intentional about how you search and customize.
Free templates don’t have the crown icon and contain only free elements. As long as your design uses free templates and free photos, graphics, and fonts throughout, you can download without watermarks.
The main limitation isn’t quality — it’s selection.
You’re choosing from what’s included in the free tier. And one thing worth knowing: you can start with a free template and still end up with a watermark issue if you add a Pro photo, icon, or graphic later.
The crown isn’t just a template label — it applies to individual elements too. If anything in your design is Pro content, Canva will prompt you to upgrade, pay for that element individually, or swap it out before you can download cleanly.
What Changes with Canva Pro
Pro templates are marked with the crown icon. If you click on one while you’re on the free plan, Canva will prompt you to upgrade or start a free trial.
With Canva Pro, your access increases to over 3.6 million templates in total, along with over 141 million premium elements. But the bigger shift isn’t just the numbers — it’s that you stop having to check. Instead of scrolling past crown icons and asking yourself whether a free version of something exists, you can focus on finding what you actually want.
A lot of the more polished icons, illustrations, and stylized graphics — the kinds of elements that make a design feel cohesive and intentional — are premium. If you tend to gravitate toward those, Pro means you’re not constantly stopping to swap things out. When you’re creating content on a regular basis, that saves more time than it might sound.
What Happens If You Use Pro Templates During a Free Trial?
The short version: your design files stay, but your download access changes once the trial ends.
Any designs you create during the trial — including ones built on Pro templates — remain in your account. Downloads you made during the trial aren’t revoked. But once the trial expires, designs that contain Pro content may show watermarks if you try to download them again. At that point you can either upgrade to Canva Pro, pay for the premium elements individually, or replace them with free alternatives. The design file itself stays intact either way.
If you want a full breakdown of what changes when a trial ends, my post on what happens when your Canva Pro free trial ends walks through it in full.
Is Canva Pro Worth It for the Templates Alone?
Probably not, on its own. If templates were the only consideration, you’d need to consistently want designs that the free library can’t give you — and that’s a harder case to make when there are over 1.6 million free options to start with.
Where Pro tends to make more sense is when the template access is part of a bigger picture: the Brand Kit, Background Remover, Magic Resize, transparent PNG downloads, and just generally not having to work around things. If you’re creating content regularly and keep running into limitations, those features together are usually what makes the decision — not the template count on its own.
The best way to find out is to use the free trial on real designs you actually need to create, not just browse to see what’s available. If Pro fits how you work, you’ll know pretty quickly. Start a free Canva Pro trial here.
For a complete breakdown of what’s included across every area of Canva Pro, my post on what you can do with Canva Pro that you can’t do for free walks through it in full.
