How to create a Canva template link (step by step)

Published October 24, 2026 · 7 min read

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What is a Canva template link?

A template link is a share link with one job: whoever opens it gets their own copy of your design. They edit the copy. Your original, the master file you sell from, stays exactly as you left it.

That is what makes it the right link for selling templates on Etsy, Gumroad, Shopify or Teachers Pay Teachers, and for handing templates to clients or students. Canva's other share links do different things: an edit link lets people work inside your original, and a view link only lets them look. The full comparison is in template link vs share link.

Already have a link? Check it as a buyer

Paste the link from your delivery PDF, or upload the PDF itself. We open it in a signed-out browser, the way a new buyer arrives, and tell you whether they get your template or a wall.

How to create a template link, step by step

1. Open the finished design in the Canva account you sell from. The link belongs to that design, so make it from the account you plan to keep using.
2. Click Share in the top-right corner of the editor. On a phone, tap the share icon instead. The app lays the menu out differently, but the options are the same.
3. Find “Template link”. In recent versions of Canva it is not on the first screen of the Share menu: choose More (or See all), then look for Template link. Canva has moved this option before, so if you don't see it, use the search box in the Share menu if there is one, or check Canva's help page for the current path.
4. Create and copy the link. Depending on the version, Canva either shows the link with a Copy button straight away or asks you to create it first. Copy it.
5. Save it with a name. Paste it into a simple list: design name, link, and which listing or PDF it goes in. When something changes later, this list saves you an afternoon.
6. Open it as a buyer. Use a private browser window where you are not signed in, or run it through the checker above. You should see the design itself, not a login wall, a “Request access” screen or an error page.

If you see a crown next to Template link, your account is on Canva Free. That is the next section.

Do you need Canva Pro to create a template link?

You need Pro or another paid plan. Since around the end of January 2025, creating template links has been limited to Canva's paid plans, such as Pro and Teams, and to free trials. Before that, sellers on Canva Free could make them. The details are in are Canva template links Pro-only now? and the template link timeline.

Two things follow from that:

• Links you already made kept working when the rule changed. Sellers report they also kept working after a downgrade to Free, but Canva doesn't clearly document this, so open them signed out after any plan change.
• Replacement links need a paid plan or a trial. If a link breaks while you are on Free, you cannot make a new one until you upgrade or start a trial. If you plan to cancel, create the links you will need first.

Your buyers are a different question. Current guides state that buyers on a free Canva account can open a template link made by a Pro user. Pro photos, graphics and fonts in the design show watermarks or payment prompts for them, which many buyers read as “broken”, so mention any Pro elements in your listing.

What the buyer gets with each kind of link

Same design, three different links. This is what happens on the buyer's side:

Only the first row is a sale that ends well. The edit link looks fine to the buyer at first, which is why sellers often find out late: someone else's changes show up in the master.

Five mistakes that make a fresh link fail

• Copying the address bar. While you edit, the browser shows a URL ending in /edit. That address is for you. Anyone else who opens it gets a login screen or “Request access”. Always copy from the Share menu.
• Copying the collaboration link. The link at the top of the Share menu is for people you work with. If its access is set so anyone with the link can edit, every buyer lands in your original. See anyone with the link can edit.
• Sharing a view-only link. Buyers can look at the design but have no way to copy it.
• Deleting and recreating. A new template link is a new URL. Every PDF that holds the old one has to be replaced, on every listing.
• Shortening it and not testing the short link. Your PDF holds the short link, so that is what a buyer opens. Check the exact link you deliver.

Watch: why the link opens for you and not for your buyer

You are signed in as the owner, so Canva shows you your design whatever link you copied. This 36-second video shows the same link from the buyer's side.

Put the link in your delivery PDF

Most marketplaces deliver a file, not a link, so the template link goes into a short PDF. Put it on plain text or a plain button, add one line telling buyers to sign in to Canva to make their copy, and export an interactive PDF so the link stays clickable. A flat export keeps the words but drops the link.

The details are in what to put in a Canva template delivery PDF, and the Etsy specifics in how to add a Canva template link to Etsy.

Keep it working after you publish

Template links have no expiry date, but they stop working when the design is deleted, the link is deleted, sharing settings change, or Canva changes the rules, as it did on July 31, 2024. None of these send you a warning, and the owner's view never shows the problem.

A simple habit helps: recheck your live links signed out after any Canva announcement or plan change. Pro does it for you every day as a signed-out buyer and emails you when a link changes, with the screenshot. $9/month or $90/year, cancel anytime.