You need an infographic. Maybe it’s for a presentation, a blog post, or a social media campaign. You don’t want to pay for it, and you definitely don’t want to learn Illustrator. Fair enough.
I spent the last month testing every free infographic maker I could find. Some were terrible. A few were genuinely impressive. Here’s what actually works in 2026, with specific steps so you can go from blank canvas to finished infographic in under 30 minutes.
If you also work with PDFs regularly, check out our roundup of the best free graphic design tools – several of those handle infographics well too.
| Tool | Best For | Free Templates | Export Formats | Watermark? | Sign-up Required? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canva | Overall best free option | 7,000+ | PNG, JPG, PDF | No | Yes |
| Piktochart | Data-heavy infographics | 200+ | PNG, PDF | Small logo on free | Yes |
| Venngage | Professional templates | 100+ | PNG (free tier) | Yes (removable with paid) | Yes |
| Visme | Interactive infographics | 500+ | JPG, PNG | Visme badge | Yes |
| Infogram | Charts and data viz | 35+ | PNG, GIF, embed | Infogram branding | Yes |
| Google Slides | Zero learning curve | Custom only | PNG, PDF, SVG | No | Google account |
| Easel.ly | Quick simple infographics | 50+ | PNG, PDF | No | Yes |
1. Canva – The One Most People Should Start With
Look, Canva isn’t the most exciting recommendation. But there’s a reason 190 million people use it. The free tier gives you access to over 7,000 infographic templates, and most of them don’t look like they were designed in 2014.
How to create an infographic in Canva (step by step)
- Go to canva.com and sign up (free, takes 30 seconds)
- Search “infographic” in the template search bar
- Pick a template – filter by style, color, or topic
- Replace the placeholder text with your content
- Swap out images using Canva’s free stock library (over 1 million photos)
- Adjust colors to match your brand using the color picker
- Download as PNG for web or PDF for print
The whole process took me about 20 minutes the first time, and closer to 10 once I got familiar with the interface. The drag-and-drop editor is genuinely intuitive.
What I liked: The AI-powered resize feature lets you adapt one infographic to different dimensions instantly. Made a vertical infographic for Pinterest? Convert it to landscape for a presentation in two clicks.
What bugged me: Some of the best templates are locked behind Canva Pro ($13/month). The free ones are still good, but you’ll run into the “premium element” wall occasionally.
Free tier limits: 5 GB storage, 1 million+ free photos, basic brand kit with one brand color palette. No watermarks on exports. You can create unlimited designs.
2. Piktochart – Built Specifically for Infographics
While Canva does everything, Piktochart was designed from the ground up for infographics, reports, and presentations. The difference shows in how it handles data. You can paste a spreadsheet directly into the editor and it generates charts automatically.
Creating a data-driven infographic in Piktochart
- Sign up at piktochart.com (free plan available)
- Choose from the infographic category
- Select a template or start from scratch using their block-based system
- Import your data – CSV, Excel, or Google Sheets all work
- The tool auto-generates charts you can customize
- Add icons from their built-in library (4,000+ free icons)
- Export as high-res PNG or PDF
I tested this by importing a Google Sheet with 6 months of website traffic data. Piktochart generated a clean bar chart in about 5 seconds and let me style it to match the rest of the infographic. That’s something Canva can do too, but Piktochart makes the data import workflow smoother.
What I liked: The block-based editor. Instead of free-form placement (which usually results in misaligned elements), Piktochart snaps everything into content blocks. Your infographic ends up looking structured whether you have design skills or not.
What bugged me: Free exports include a small Piktochart watermark in the bottom corner. It’s not huge, but it’s there. You need the Pro plan ($14/month) to remove it.
Free tier limits: Up to 5 active projects, Piktochart branding on exports, access to 200+ templates, unlimited PNG downloads at standard resolution.
3. Venngage – When You Need to Look Professional
Venngage targets a more corporate audience, and honestly, it shows. The templates lean toward business reports, HR documents, and marketing materials. If you’re making an infographic for a startup pitch or an internal presentation, this is worth checking out.
The free plan gives you access to around 100 templates. That’s less than Canva, but the quality of those templates is consistently high. No “made by an intern in 2018” vibes here.
Step-by-step process:
- Create a free account at venngage.com
- Browse templates by category (statistical, informational, timeline, comparison, geographic)
- Customize using their widget system – drag in charts, icons, maps, and text blocks
- Use Smart Diagrams for automatic flowcharts and process visualizations
- Download as PNG on the free tier
What I liked: The categorization of templates by purpose. Looking for a comparison infographic? There’s a whole section for that. Need a timeline? Same thing. It saves browsing time.
What bugged me: Free plan is pretty restrictive. You can only create 5 designs, exports are PNG only (no PDF), and there’s a Venngage watermark. The paid plan starts at $10/month for individuals.
4. Visme – For Interactive Infographics
Here’s where Visme differentiates itself. While every other tool on this list exports static images, Visme lets you create interactive infographics with hover effects, clickable elements, and embedded videos. You share them via a link rather than downloading an image file.
This matters if your infographic lives on a webpage rather than getting printed or attached to an email. An interactive infographic with animated data reveals and clickable sections gets significantly more engagement than a static PNG.
How to build one:
- Sign up at visme.co (free plan available)
- Pick an infographic template – there are 500+ in the library
- Add your content using the drag-and-drop editor
- Enable animations on individual elements (fade in, slide, pop)
- Add interactivity – tooltips on hover, links on click
- Publish online via a Visme link, or download as JPG/PNG for static use
What I liked: The animation presets. Adding a “count up” animation to statistics makes them pop. I used this for a data visualization where numbers counted up as you scrolled, and the engagement was noticeably better than static versions.
What bugged me: The free plan limits you to 3 projects and includes Visme branding on shared links. Also, the editor can feel sluggish with complex designs – I noticed lag after adding 15+ animated elements.
Free tier limits: 3 projects, 100 MB storage, Visme badge on published content, access to limited template library. Premium starts at $12.25/month.
5. Infogram – Best for Data Visualization
If your infographic is mostly charts and data (think annual reports, survey results, market analysis), Infogram does this better than anything else on this list. The charting engine is surprisingly powerful for a free tool.
You get 35+ chart types including treemaps, word clouds, scatter plots, and even geographic heat maps. Most free infographic tools give you basic bar charts and pie charts and call it a day. Infogram goes way beyond that.
Creating a data visualization infographic:
- Go to infogram.com and create a free account
- Choose “Infographic” from the project types
- Select a theme or start blank
- Click “Add chart” and pick your visualization type
- Paste your data directly or upload from Excel/CSV/Google Sheets
- Style the chart (colors, labels, legends) to match your design
- Publish online or download as PNG (paid plans add PDF and GIF)
I threw a dataset with 2,000 rows at it and the chart rendered in under 3 seconds. The resulting visualization was cleaner than what I could produce in Excel with twice the effort.
What I liked: Real-time data connections. Link a Google Sheet and the infographic updates automatically when your data changes. For dashboards and live reports, this is incredibly useful.
What bugged me: The free plan only allows 10 projects and all published content shows Infogram branding. PDF export requires a Pro plan ($19/month), which is the most expensive on this list.
6. Google Slides – The Zero-Cost Option Nobody Talks About
This might surprise you, but Google Slides is a legitimate infographic tool. No watermarks, no sign-up for a new service (you already have a Google account), no limits on exports. And it’s 100% free with no premium tier to upsell you on.
The trade-off? There are no pre-made infographic templates. You’re starting from scratch, or finding a free template from a third party site and importing it.
How to make it work:
- Open Google Slides and create a new presentation
- Change the page setup to a custom size – 800 x 2000 pixels works well for vertical infographics
- Use shapes, text boxes, and the built-in chart tool to build your layout
- Import icons from Flaticon or The Noun Project (both have free options)
- Export as PNG, PDF, or SVG from File > Download
Not gonna lie, this takes more effort than using Canva. But if you need a completely clean export with zero branding and don’t want to create yet another account, it gets the job done. I’ve made probably 15 infographics in Google Slides over the past two years, and they looked fine. Not stunning, but professional enough for blog posts and presentations.
If you’re comparing design tools more broadly, our Canva vs Figma comparison covers the trade-offs between dedicated design platforms.
7. Easel.ly – Quick and Simple
Easel.ly is the lightest tool on this list. The template library is smaller (around 50 templates), the editor is more basic, and the customization options are limited compared to Canva or Piktochart. But that’s actually the point.
If you need a simple infographic in 10 minutes and don’t want to be overwhelmed by options, Easel.ly delivers. The interface strips away complexity – no animation features, no data import wizards, no interactive elements. Just drag, drop, type, export.
Quick start:
- Visit easel.ly and sign up
- Browse the template gallery (organized by topic)
- Click to customize – change text, colors, icons, and images
- Export as PNG or PDF
What I liked: Zero learning curve. I had a finished infographic in 8 minutes on my first try. The templates are clean and modern enough for most uses.
What bugged me: The editor feels dated compared to newer tools. Some drag operations aren’t as smooth, and undo/redo can be inconsistent. Also, the free icon library is limited to about 2,000 options.
Free tier limits: Unlimited designs, no watermark on downloads, access to all free templates. The Pro plan ($4/month) adds premium templates and higher resolution exports.
Tips for Better Infographics (From Making Too Many Bad Ones)
After creating probably 50+ infographics across these tools, here’s what I’ve learned the hard way:
Keep it to one message per infographic. The biggest mistake I see is cramming 8 different points into one graphic. Pick one idea. If you have 8 points, make 8 smaller graphics or a series.
Limit your color palette to 3-4 colors max. Every template will let you use 50 colors. Don’t. Pick a primary color, a secondary, an accent, and maybe a neutral gray. That’s it. You can use our list of free color palette generators to find combinations that work.
White space is your friend. New designers fill every pixel. Experienced ones leave room to breathe. If your infographic feels cluttered, remove elements instead of rearranging them.
Use real numbers. “Sales increased significantly” means nothing as a visual. “Sales grew 47% in Q3” gives readers something to anchor on. Infographics exist to make data digestible – if there’s no data, you might just need a blog post instead.
Test readability on mobile. More than half your viewers will see your infographic on a phone screen. If the text is too small to read at 50% zoom on your laptop, it’s too small for mobile. Most tools let you preview at different screen sizes – use that feature.
Which Tool Should You Pick?
Here’s my honest recommendation based on testing all of them:
For most people: Start with Canva. The template library is massive, exports are clean (no watermark), and you’ll find a template for almost any topic.
For data-heavy content: Piktochart or Infogram. If your infographic is 60%+ charts and statistics, these handle data import and chart generation better than Canva.
For business presentations: Venngage. The templates are polished and corporate-ready. Worth the watermark trade-off if you’re creating internal documents.
For web-only interactive content: Visme. The animation and interactivity features set it apart, but only matter if your infographic lives on a webpage.
For zero-cost, zero-branding: Google Slides. More manual work, but completely free with no strings attached.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free infographic maker with no watermark?
Canva is the best free infographic maker that doesn’t add watermarks to your exports. You get access to 7,000+ templates, a drag-and-drop editor, and can download as PNG, JPG, or PDF without any branding. Google Slides is another watermark-free option, though it requires more manual design work since it doesn’t have built-in infographic templates.
Can I create an infographic without any design skills?
Yes. Tools like Canva, Piktochart, and Easel.ly use template-based editors where you replace placeholder text and images with your own content. The layout, typography, and color scheme are already handled by the template. I’ve seen people with zero design experience produce professional-looking infographics in 15-20 minutes using these tools.
Is Canva really free for infographics?
Canva’s free tier lets you create unlimited infographic designs, access 7,000+ templates, use over 1 million free stock photos, and export without watermarks. The paid Canva Pro plan ($13/month) adds premium templates, background remover, brand kits, and higher resolution exports. For basic infographic creation, the free plan covers everything most people need.
What size should an infographic be?
For web use, 800 x 2000 pixels is a standard vertical infographic size. For social media, Pinterest recommends 1000 x 1500 pixels. For print, use 300 DPI at your target dimensions – an 8.5 x 11 inch print infographic should be set to 2550 x 3300 pixels. Most free tools like Canva and Piktochart have preset sizes for common use cases.
How long does it take to make an infographic?
Using a template in Canva or Piktochart, a simple infographic takes 15-30 minutes. A data-heavy infographic with custom charts takes 30-60 minutes. Building from scratch in Google Slides or a design tool adds another 30-45 minutes on top. The biggest time sink isn’t the design tool – it’s organizing your content before you start.