Microsoft Designer is Microsoft’s AI-first graphic design app. Instead of starting with a template, you describe what you want — a social post, invitation, digital postcard or graphic — and Designer generates design options and images for you to refine.
Its main features include:
- Prompt-to-design generation for posts, cards and graphics
- AI image generation from text descriptions
- Templates and a drag-and-drop editor
- Background removal and image editing tools
- A basic brand kit
- Integration with OneDrive, PowerPoint and Word for Microsoft 365 users
You sign in with a free Microsoft account. The free tier includes a small monthly allowance of AI credits — around 15 per month — which is enough to experiment but restrictive for regular use. Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers get a larger shared allowance of AI credits across Microsoft’s apps, and Copilot Pro adds faster, priority generation.
Designer is ideal for quick, one-off graphics: a birthday invite, a simple social post or an illustration for a document. It’s less capable than Canva or Adobe Express for serious marketing work, with fewer templates, limited brand controls and a credit system that runs out quickly. For people already in the Microsoft ecosystem who want fast, free AI graphics, it’s a handy option.
