Microsoft Designer is Microsoft’s AI-first design app, and it’s a fast way to get a first draft of an Instagram story. Instead of browsing templates, you describe what you want — for example, “Instagram story announcing a summer sale at a coffee shop” — and Designer generates several designs with images and layouts to choose from.
Key features include:
- Prompt-to-design generation for stories and posts
- AI image generation from text descriptions
- A simple drag-and-drop editor for refining results
- Background removal and generative erase
- Resizing between story, post and other formats
- Integration with Microsoft 365 apps and Copilot
It’s a handy option for people who don’t want to design from scratch and just need a good-looking starting point quickly.
Microsoft Designer is free with a Microsoft account, including a monthly allowance of AI credits. Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers, from about $9.99 per month in the U.S., get more AI credits shared across Microsoft apps.
Free credits are limited, template choice is smaller than Canva’s, and brand controls and scheduling are basic. For quick, free AI drafts of Instagram stories, though, it’s a useful tool.
