Since its release in 2022, ChatGPT has introduced a number of new tools and features to support creative work. One of its most recent additions is Canvas, a writing assistant designed to streamline the process of drafting and editing.
To see if it’s as useful as it claims to be, I decided to put Canvas through its paces. I explored all its features and tested it with three different types of prompts to find out how much it really helps—and where it might fall short.
What is Canvas by ChatGPT?
Canvas by ChatGPT is a dedicated space for writing with AI support. It helps you draft, edit, and organize longer pieces—like articles, reports, or scripts—in a single window.
This is what it looks like:
On the left is the chat section (the AI conversation) and on the right is your Canvas (the generated output). You can start writing in the Canvas section and pick parts of your content to chat about. There’s many more features which I’ll discuss further.
With Canvas, you can focus on creating while getting useful AI suggestions. It’s an easy way to move your ideas from a rough draft to something more polished.
Canvas Features I Love
Canvas looks basic at the first glance, but it’s not. It’s filled with small yet impactful features which make Canvas a great writing assistant. Here are some Canvas features that impressed me:
Version Control
Writing often involves multiple revisions, and it’s important to track those changes. Canvas keeps a record of all edits, allowing you to compare versions and restore previous drafts when needed. This is a similar feature to Google Docs, making Canvas a great alternative to Google Docs.
Content structuring
Whenever I am writing, my biggest issue is how messy it gets. It’s as if my rough and final drafts get mixed up. Canvas solves that problem. How?
- A clear division between chat and writing section
- The ability to create my own sections by writing/editing in the Canvas
I use the chat for suggestions and changes and those get automatically implemented into my Canvas. I don’t have to delete, copy or paste different blocks of texts. As a writer, this saves me time and effort.
Inline Feedback
Here’s the coolest part: I can select any sentence or paragraph directly in Canvas and ask ChatGPT to modify it. This makes it easy to enhance multiple parts of my content without all the tedious copy-pasting or constant context switching. It’s by far my favorite feature of Canvas—one I use all the time.
Other Useful Features of Canvas
Here are other Canvas are useful:
Writing Shortcuts
Canvas offers a range of writing shortcuts to improve the quality and usefulness of a text. These are four features:
- Suggest edits: This feature gives you feedback to improve your text.
- Add emojis: You can add relevant emojis to your text—great for social media content.
- Add final polish: This formats your content, adds appropriate punctuation and fixes any grammatical errors.
- Adjust reading level: You can adjust between kindergarten to graduate reading levels.
- Adjust length: A sliding bar lets you adjust the length of the text.
Integrated Research
Canvas also supports integrated research, enabling you to pull in relevant information and resources without leaving the platform. This keeps you focused and saves time, making it easier to find the facts or inspiration you need while writing.
Text formatting
There are not many formatting options with Canvas, however, it has the basic ones. You can choose between H1, H2,H3 and body text for formatting. You can also bold or italicize the text. I wish there was the ability to add tables or hyperlinks.
How do you Access and Use Canvas?
Canvas is available to all ChatGPT users.
To use Canvas, in the ChatGPT web interface, choose “GPT-4o with canvas” from the model picker at the top of the page. When you select this model, a Canvas gets created for responses exceeding 10 lines of responses. In case you want to manually create a Canvas, just type “open a Canvas”.
Currently, each Canvas is associated with the specific ChatGPT conversation in which it was created. To revisit a particular Canvas, you need to access the original chat session. In case a single chat has multiple Canvases, those show up at top right of the chat.
When you share a ChatGPT conversation that includes a Canvas, the Canvas content appears as a “created document.” The detailed content of the Canvas isn’t directly visible in the shared conversation.
Prompt Tests for Canvas
I decided to test usability and efficiency of Canvas based on three types of prompts:
- Blogging and online content
- Creative writing
- Reports, articles and essays
Here’s each of them:
Blogging and Online Content
To bring organic traffic in, a lot of us post blogs (among many other things, ChatGPT can be used for). So, for the first test I decided to work on an outline for a white paper with Canvas. Here’s the prompt I used:
“Outline a white paper about the benefits of adopting AI in small businesses.”
It gave me a great outline with key points that can be covered. I decided to do editing by picking up the examples section and asking it to give me actual real examples I can use.
Although ChatGPT was not able to put a name on it, it did give me a generic example of a local boutique.
Creative Writing
When you’re doing creative writing, it’s easy to get hit by a writer’s block. It could be due to something as simple as having to think of a new character name. So, I decided to do some creative writing with Canvas.
I used this prompt:
“Write the opening paragraph of a novel set in an abandoned amusement park.”
Canvas gave me great results. Since I can adjust reading levels with Canvas, I decided to do it.
When I asked Canvas to bring it to graduate level, it replaced the simple words with a lot of heavy words. In my opinion, the text became too complex even for someone at the graduate level.
Overall, Canvas is a saviour for all creative writers. Running out of plot twist ideas? You can use inline feedback to get suggestions. Want to improve the reading level? Use the reading level adjustment. Want to create different sections of your story? Create multiple Canvases in your chat.
There’s a lot you can do with Canvas and it will boost your writing efficiency.
Non-Fiction Projects
Website content and creative writing aside, can you generate outlines and content for reports and whitepapers? I decided to use this prompt:
“Provide a brief introduction for a report on the benefits of mindfulness in the workplace.”
Initially, I got a small introductory paragraph which I decided to make longer. This is what the result was:
Now, if I was generating this text with ChatGPT, I would have to copy a section of the text and ask it to add some bullet points. The good thing about Canvas is that I was able to do that within the writing section. This distinction between the writing and chat section is what helps.
I could also pick a particular section and do follow up prompting with it. Like, I converted this paragraph into bullets.
This is what the result was like. It made the text more readable. As you can see, with more follow-up prompting you can reach the final product.
How does ChatGPT’s Canvas Benefit Writers?
ChatGPT’s Canvas is a great tool for writers. The document-style workspace streamlines the writing process by consolidating ideas, drafts, and revisions in one intuitive environment.
While ChatGPT already aids idea generation, Canvas lets writers immediately structure and refine those ideas into actionable drafts. Writers can easily break content into sections or outlines, simplifying complex projects and keeping everything clear and accessible.
From novels to academic papers, Canvas adapts to diverse formats, making it ideal for any writer. However, Canvas does not allow collaboration at the moment. You can share your Canvases but co-editing is not possible, which is a huge limitation for now.
With Canvas in ChatGPT, OpenAI has now a similar feature Anthropic’s Claude AI has with artefacts.