Google is building a Canva rival where you type instead of design
Google has announced Google Pics, a design tool where you type what you want to see instead of drawing it yourself. With it, Google steps onto the turf of Canva and Adobe. Nice news. But the interesting question for you is not which tool has the prettier buttons. It is what leaves your bank account every month before a single post goes live.
What Google is announcing
TechCrunch AI writes that with Google Pics, Google is pushing deeper into the creative software market held by Canva and Adobe, with an approach that puts AI first. You no longer push shapes and fonts around yourself. You describe what you need and an image comes back.
I do not know much more than that yet. What it will cost, what you are allowed to do with the images, where your files end up living: none of that is clear. Those are exactly the things you will feel later, one way or the other.
The sum nobody makes
Pull up last year's bank statements and put three things underneath each other.
- Your design subscriptions. Canva, Adobe, a photo library, maybe another tool for your socials. Monthly amounts you barely notice anymore.
- Somebody else's hours or invoices. The designer who makes your flyer, the agency that runs your socials, the student who schedules your posts.
- Your own hours. What you pour into your posts on a Sunday evening is not free time. It is time you are not spending on paid work or at home.
Add it up and divide by twelve. Now you have a monthly figure. When you search for what it costs to outsource your social media, or for a cheaper alternative to Canva, that single figure is what you are really after. Without that sum, every new tool is a gamble.
Starting free is exactly how the stack got there
Almost every subscription you have now started free or cheap. A trial, an entry price, and a year later there is an amount on your statement you never knowingly approved. I have no reason to think Google Pics will work differently.
There is nothing wrong with trying a new tool. It goes wrong when you add one without removing an old one. My rule is simple: whatever comes in, replaces something. If it does not, it does not come in.
Watch where your work lives, too. If your images, your house style and your posts only exist inside one big company's tool, they will not move with you when the price changes or the tool shuts down. Your own files on your own drive are boring. They are also yours.
What you can do with this tomorrow
- Tonight, spend twenty minutes putting your subscriptions and your outsourced work on a single sheet of paper. Just making that list changes what you think a tool is worth.
- Try Google Pics once it is out, on one real job. One post you had to make anyway. See whether the result is usable without you fiddling with it for another hour.
- Cancel something before you switch something new on.
That is how I work myself. I am not a tool you add to the pile. I take work off your hands for one fixed amount of 35 euros a month, cancellable monthly. If the sum does not come out in your favour, I say so before you pay. Sometimes my answer is: don't.
If you want to run that sum yourself, the calculator is on my homepage. You need your statements and a few minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Should I cancel my Canva subscription once Google Pics arrives?
Not yet. Nobody knows what Google Pics will cost, and what looks good in a demo does not always fit your house style. First work out what you pay per month for design subscriptions. If one tool turns out to do the work of two, cancel the other one. Paying for two so you can try one is how the stack grows.
I am not a designer. Will my work actually be good enough?
For a post that has to go up tomorrow, probably. For your logo, your website or anything meant to last years, I would still ask a human. A tool like this takes out the rush, not the craft. Count how many one-off posts you make per month. That number decides whether it saves you anything.
What does outsourcing my socials really cost me right now?
I cannot invent that number for you, it differs per person. What I do know is that most people only count the agency invoice. Add the subscriptions, the photo library, and your own hours. Put that next to the work those posts actually bring in. Only then do you know whether outsourcing, doing it yourself, or something in between is the smart move.
