Excalidraw

What it is for

Excalidraw is a hand-drawn editor playground: you open a scene, pick Stroke / Background / Fill, and leave comments on the same canvas, and the OSS editor is $0. Use it when the job is a whiteboard you start at a public $, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is Excalidraw’s official editor playground (Stroke / Background / Fill, HEX #f0bc00, Opacity 0–80, Layers / Alignment / Action, comments Butterbean a day ago / Torony + 30min / Smokin + 5min, Copy link / Remove, 3 replies, + 99 users, Sort by date / unread) from plus.excalidraw.com HP_hero_Excalidraw_editor_playground.png — not a pricing card. The #f0bc00 swatch itself is ops of the editor.

Key features

• Editor playground — infinite canvas plus the left Stroke / Background / Fill panel (cover still; excalidraw.com). One desk. Cover HEX #f0bc00 / Opacity 0–80 sit here.
• Comments thread — named notes on the selected shape (Butterbean / Torony / Smokin; cover). A thread, not a stroke swatch. Cover Copy link / Remove / Reply, @mention sit here as CTAs, not a sixth desk.
• Comments rail — Sort by date / Sort by unread / Show resolved, plus 3 replies and + 99 users (cover; Plus pricing “Comments”). A list, not a HEX cell. Comments print on Plus.
• Layers / Alignment / Action — the left-rail stacks you restack and snap from (cover Layers / Alignment / Action). A stack, not a comment name.
• Share / live collab — avatars on the scene plus Share (cover; pricing “Invite collaborators by link”). A session, not a Fill chip. View-only / voice hangout print on Plus.
• Stroke chrome — Stroke width / Stroke style / Sloppiness / Edges on the same left rail (cover). A style, not a comment timestamp. Cover + 100% zoom is a meter on the canvas.

Copy link / Remove / Reply / Share on the cover are CTAs (not desks). Free / Plus tiles are the meter. Generate (AI) (10 requests/day on Free; 100/day on Plus) is an AI extra, not a sixth desk we fold into the playground.

Who it's for

Best fit: engineers and PMs who will stay on the forever-free OSS editor at $0 (excalidraw.com; no account) while they open a first playground, then Plus at $7/user/month monthly ($6/user/month billed annually) when they need comments, cloud scenes, and presentations — not a $20 chat seat.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) from plus.excalidraw.com/pricing page data (priceMonthly / priceAnnually) and the free editor. Figures below are printed USD. 14-day Plus trial on plus.excalidraw.com.

• Free (OSS editor) — $0, Free forever (priceMonthly / priceAnnually: “Free forever”). Infinite canvas. Full editor. Invite collaborators by link. PNG / SVG / JSON save-to-file. Personal library stored in the browser. Image uploads: compressed. AI requests: 10 a day. Mermaid to Excalidraw: unlimited. No account on excalidraw.com.
• Plus — $7 a month per user monthly (priceMonthly: “$7 a month per user”). Annually: $6 a month per user (priceAnnually: “$6 a month per user”; page “Annually save 14 %”). Unlimited scenes. Automatically sync to server. Presentations. Image uploads up to 4k. AI requests: 100 a day. Comments. View-only access. Voice hangout & screensharing. User accounts / workspace teams. Personal library saved on server. PDF & PPTX export. Embeddable / read-only links.
• Education — a separate education page exists. Do not invent a student $ we did not re-read on that page.
• Bank transfer — not supported (pricing FAQ). Credit card only.

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Limitations / costs

• Comments, cloud scenes, and presentations print on Plus. The OSS editor stays local-in-browser at $0.
• Plus is a per-user seat. Quote $7 monthly / $6 annually from priceMonthly / priceAnnually — do not invent a workspace flat $.
• A hand-drawn playground, not tldraw’s agent canvas. For that agent see tldraw AI.

Alternatives

• tldraw AI — an agent canvas when you want the MIT starter $0, not Excalidraw’s #f0bc00 playground.
• Figma AI — Figma Make when you want Starter Free (150 AI credits/day, 500/mo), not Plus $7/user/month.
• Napkin — a text-to-visual canvas when you want Free $0, not a comments rail with Butterbean.

Official tutorial

Official Excalidraw channel video: 🔎 Exploring Excalidraw – Editor Walkthrough 👀 | GUIDED #1 (oEmbed author: Excalidraw). First-party GUIDED #1 walkthrough; the editor playground still is the cover. Toolbar chrome on the video is ops of the editor playground, not generate-on-the-comment.

Written path: plus.excalidraw.com/pricing plus the editor playground still.

Website

https://excalidraw.com

Repository

https://github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is Excalidraw’s official editor playground still (Stroke/Background/Fill #f0bc00 + Butterbean/Torony/Smokin comments + 3 replies / +99 users). Dollars checked on plus.excalidraw.com/pricing page data (Free $0 forever; Plus priceMonthly $7 / priceAnnually $6 a month per user; AI 10 / 100 a day). Tutorial oEmbed author: Excalidraw.

Last verified

2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.