Imagine having a workspace where brainstorming, drafting, and refining ideas all happen seamlessly—no messy threads, no scattered notes, just one organised space. Whether you’re writing a blog, or preparing a detailed report, Canvas can help you stay on track. Think of it as a digital assistant that not only organises your thoughts but also helps polish them. We put it to the test, here’s what we found.
Launched in late 2024, Canvas is OpenAI’s latest step toward making ChatGPT more useful for professionals and creatives. Initially introduced in October for Plus and Team subscribers, it quickly expanded to Enterprise and Edu users. By December, Canvas became available across all ChatGPT plans, including Free, Plus, Team, and Enterprise.
Getting started with Canvas is simple. Once inside ChatGPT, just click the Canvas icon, shaped like a document or note, to open your workspace. From there, you can create new projects or revisit existing ones with ease.
So, what sets Canvas apart from ChatGPT’s previous capabilities? Before, managing longer projects often meant juggling multiple prompts or relying on external tools. Now, Canvas provides an interactive workspace where you can organise, edit, and refine your work in one seamless flow. It’s like someone finally connected all the dots.
What better way to test the Canvas feature other than when writing a blog about it. We pasted our draft in and tested the features.
We asked Canvas to generate multiple titles based on the blog content and it provided 15 options categorised as Informative, Conversational, Analytical, Benefit-Driven and Creative allowing you to best meet the tone needed.
When we asked Canva to highlight any lengthy content that could be more concise it highlighted the sentences in our draft and listed suggestions that you could choose to apply or ignore.
You also have the option to highlight any text and select ask ChatGPT where you can prompt any edits you would like, ask questions, ask tone to be changed or grammar checked. You could also provide a reference link or document to adapt the style to your organisations voice.
ChatGPT’s Canvas is designed to enhance collaboration by allowing multiple users to contribute to a shared document or code file. One of its intended features is team collaboration with colour-coded contributions, which should make it easier to track individual edits and feedback.
In practice, however, we found that while we could share a project and both view it, real-time collaboration wasn’t quite there. Unlike tools like Microsoft Word, Canvas follows a sequential collaboration model, meaning only one person can edit at a time. Once they submit their changes, the next person can jump in. Comments can be left for feedback, but edits don’t sync instantly.
As for the colour-coded contributions? That feature didn’t seem to work as expected. We didn’t see clear indicators of who made which changes, making it harder to differentiate between contributions.
Ultimately, rather than providing true real-time collaboration, Canvas currently requires teams to rely on structured feedback loops and version-based updates. While it has potential, this feature is definitely a work in progress.
We put Canvas to the test by asking it to generate SEO-friendly meta descriptions for our blog. It quickly produced multiple variations, categorised by tone: informative, persuasive, and conversational, so we could pick the best fit for our audience.
Need something more engaging? No problem. We could highlight any description and ask for tweaks, like making it punchier, adding a call to action, or incorporating key search terms. This made refining meta descriptions faster and more intuitive.
That said, while Canvas is great for drafting, it doesn’t provide built-in SEO analysis or ranking insights. If you’re after detailed keyword optimisation, you’ll still need an external tool. But for quick, well-structured meta descriptions, it’s a solid time-saver.
Canvas is a powerful tool for organising and refining long-form content, making it an excellent workspace for drafting blogs, reports, and case studies. The built-in AI support for rewriting, summarising, and tone adjustments adds real value, streamlining the editing process.
That said, while it claims to support team collaboration, real-time editing isn’t quite there yet. The colour-coded contributions feature didn’t work as expected, and collaboration relies more on structured feedback rather than seamless co-editing. Advanced formatting options are also limited, meaning you may still need to export your work for final touches.
If you’re looking for a more organised way to develop and refine content with AI assistance, Canvas is worth exploring. Just keep in mind its current limitations when working with teams or complex formatting needs.
Have you tried Canvas? Let us know your thoughts!
