Pencil vs Celtra (2026): which should marketers use?

Celtra starts at production. Pencil starts at the strategy and runs to results.

Meta description: Pencil vs Celtra compared for 2026: workflow coverage, AI models, published tests, performance prediction and indemnity, side by side, with sources.

Last checked: 30 September 2026

The short answer

Celtra is a creative automation platform. It generates, adapts, reviews and distributes ads across social, programmatic display, retail media and CTV, and Celtra Score predicts performance before launch.

Choose Celtra if production and distribution at scale are the whole job. Choose Pencil if you also want agents for ideas and planning before the brief, named model vendors and published tests.

Pencil works with the design tools you already use. Photoshop files import directly and export back as layered PSDs. After Effects projects import in beta. Figma designs import from a link, with no plugin, in open beta.

Workflow coverage

Celtra, from public documentation checked 30 September 2026.

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How we compared

Pencil wrote this comparison. Pencil is part of The Brandtech Group.

We compared public documentation from Celtra and from Pencil, checked on 30 September 2026. 

Please note: “Not found” means we searched Celtra's public product pages, documentation, press releases and legal pages and found no description of that feature. It does not mean the feature does not exist.

Products change often, so check with each vendor before you buy. If you think we have something wrong, tell us through trypencil.com/contact and we will review it.

Pencil starts before the brief

Celtra's workflow starts from an approved concept. Designers build it in Photoshop or Figma, and Celtra's AI Agent adapts it by placement, audience and market. We did not find a strategy or briefing tool in Celtra's public documentation.

Pencil starts earlier. The Campaign Idea Agent drafts concepts, the Media Planner Agent builds plans, and the Brand Strategy Agent outlines positioning where GWI is connected. Brief Mode structures the work, and Workflows chain the steps through to export.

Pencil names its models and publishes tests

Celtra generates images, graphics, video, music and voiceover inside its platform. The pages we checked do not name the models behind it.

Pencil lists its model vendors, including OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Adobe, Runway and Bria, and you choose which ones each workspace uses. AdEvals publishes worked tests by use case, with the model, prompt, criteria and verdict. Failures are included.

Both predict performance before launch

Celtra Score is a predictive pre-flight model that helps you launch the creatives with the most potential. Pencil's Media Performance Score predicts how a new ad will do against your own past ads.

Pencil also connects to Share of Model, a separate Jellyfish platform that tracks how AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini describe your brand. It needs its own workspace. We did not find an equivalent in Celtra's public documentation.

Choose Celtra if

• Production, versioning and distribution at scale are the whole job.
• You serve ads across social, programmatic display, retail media and CTV from one place.
• Your designers build in Photoshop or Figma and hand concepts over through plugins.
• You want round-the-clock support and a Creative Services team.

Choose Pencil if

• You want AI across the workflow, from ideas and planning to results.
• You want to know which vendors' models make your work, and see published tests.
• You want an output indemnity in published terms.
• You want to connect AI visibility tracking through Share of Model.