Canivet's Emerald is distributed from south-east Mexico to Costa Rica. See the distribution map at Birdlife International. It is found in drier areas including agricultural land and gardens.

Traditionally it has been treated as a sub-species of Blue-tailed Emerald, C. mellisugus, but this whole complex was revised by F. G. Stiles in 1996 and the HBW and Birdlife International Checklist splits the large C. mellisugus complex into 6 species.