How to Make Slides With Claude (2026): Every Way, Compared

You can make slides with Claude in five ways, and the right one depends on where the finished deck has to live. Anthropic gives you four: ask for a deck in any Claude chat, work inside PowerPoint with an add-in, have Claude create a .pptx file, or have Claude Code write one. The fifth is ours, and it comes last.

Every fact about Anthropic below comes from its own pages, checked October 27, 2026. The names are a mess, so start here. The Anthropic tutorial that ranks for this search has “claude-design” in its address, but the page is titled “Making slides and presentations with Claude” and calls the feature Claude Slides. Claude Design is a different thing, and its standalone version is shutting down.

The fifth way is Context Board, a web app where you and your agent write a deck on a board you also run your work from. It is the right pick for some readers and the wrong one for others, and the last sections say which.

Every way to make slides with Claude, side by side

This table is the whole guide in one place. Plans are as Anthropic states them on the pages linked in each row.

On price, Anthropic’s Slides pages name no separate charge and no separate allowance. What they do is share your plan. Anthropic’s usage limits article says claude.ai, Claude Code and Claude Desktop draw from the same pool. Pro is $20 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly, and Max starts at $100 a month, per Anthropic’s pricing page. Our guide to Claude’s usage limits covers how fast a plan drains.

Ask for a deck in any chat with Claude Slides

This is the default route, and the one most people want. Anthropic’s tutorial says that with Claude Slides you can ask for a deck in any conversation, on the web, in the desktop app, in the mobile app or in Claude Code. The deck opens beside the conversation.

Anthropic’s tutorial gives the order that works.

1. Say what the deck is for and who reads it. Then attach what Claude should know: a memo, meeting notes, or the name of a connected tool that holds the numbers. To set the look, attach a past deck you like or pick a design system.
2. No files yet? Paste rough notes or dictate them, ask Claude for an outline, correct it, then ask for the deck.
3. Read what Claude builds. Check its assumptions and its figures against your sources. If a number is missing, the tutorial says Claude is designed to ask for it or leave a visible placeholder and tell you.
4. Change it your way. Retype and drag by hand, leave a comment on one chart or line, or ask in the chat. Changes save as you go, so there is no Save button.
5. Add speaker notes and present. With notes you get a presenter view with a clock and the current and next slides.

Charts hold the data from when Claude built them, says Anthropic, so ask Claude to update a chart if the numbers change.

Sharing. Nobody can open your deck until you share it. You choose who gets access and whether they can view, comment or edit, and people you invite need a Claude account. Teammates with edit access can work in the deck at the same time.

Getting it out. Download as a PDF, a web page that keeps transitions, the current slide as an image, or PowerPoint. The PowerPoint comes in two flavors, current fonts or basic fonts that every computer has. Here is the catch Anthropic spells out: in the PowerPoint, you can keep editing text boxes, tables, pictures, backgrounds and speaker notes, but charts, icons and shapes become pictures, and transitions and skipped slides are left out. If you have connected Google Drive, you can send the deck to Google Slides as an editable copy.

Slides is on by default. On Team and Enterprise, an owner can switch it on or off under Organization settings > Artifacts.

Work inside PowerPoint with Claude for PowerPoint

If the deck is already a .pptx, or a company template governs how it looks, go to the other side of the building. Anthropic’s tutorial itself says that when your deck is already a PowerPoint file, Claude can work inside PowerPoint.

Claude for PowerPoint (search results often call it Claude in PowerPoint) is an add-in. Anthropic’s docs list what it does:

• Build new slides using your existing client or corporate templates.
• Make pinpoint edits to specific slides without regenerating the whole deck.
• Generate a full deck structure from a description.
• Turn bullets into diagrams and native PowerPoint charts, which you can edit directly.
• Pull outside context through connectors, and apply reusable Skills.

It reads the slide master, layouts, fonts and color scheme and uses them. That is the job it is built for, and it is the reason to pick it over the other routes.

What it needs. The docs say it is generally available on Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise. It runs on PowerPoint for the web, PowerPoint on Windows with a Microsoft 365 subscription (build 16.0.13127.20296 or later), and PowerPoint on Mac (version 16.46 or later). It does not run on PowerPoint 2016 or 2019 perpetual or volume licenses, PowerPoint on iPad, or PowerPoint on Android. We have left Microsoft’s own pricing out, because it is not Anthropic’s to state.

How to install. Open the Claude for Microsoft 365 listing on Microsoft AppSource, select Get it now, open PowerPoint, activate the add-in and sign in with your Claude account. Organization admins can deploy it through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

What it costs. Anthropic says use of Claude for PowerPoint is tied to your existing Claude account and is subject to the same usage limits.

What to watch. Anthropic does not recommend it for final client deliverables without human review, and warns to use it only with trusted files, since files from outside can carry hidden instructions that try to manipulate the add-in. It asks you to confirm risky operations, so read those prompts. Anthropic says chat history is kept in your browser, not on its servers, though inputs and outputs are deleted from its backend within 30 days.

Make a .pptx file with file creation and Skills

Sometimes you want a file and nothing to edit in a browser. Anthropic’s tutorial covers this: if you got a deck in Claude and wanted a PowerPoint, ask for a .pptx by name or use Download.

The feature behind it is file creation. Claude runs code to make Excel, PowerPoint, Word and PDF files in your conversation, and you download them or save them to Google Drive. Anthropic’s help article says it is available on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, across web, desktop and mobile.

• Turn it on. On Free, Pro and Max it is on by default. The switch is Settings > Capabilities, under “Code execution and file creation”. On Team and Enterprise, owners manage it in Organization settings.
• Mind the cap. Files are limited to 30 MB for both upload and download.
• Mind the usage. The article says it draws from your plan’s usage limits and that creating files uses more of your limit than normal chats.

Under the hood, Anthropic’s Agent Skills include a pre-built PowerPoint skill. On claude.ai those skills are active when you create documents, with no setup. You can add your own Skills as zip files under Settings > Features on Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise. Developers can call the same skill through the API with the code execution tool. This guide does not price that route.

One gap worth knowing. The same docs page says the pre-built document Skills are not available in Claude Code. They live in claude.ai and the API.

Have Claude Code write a deck

Claude Code is Anthropic’s coding agent, and it reads files, runs commands and edits whatever is in a project. Two things are true about it and slides.

It can use Claude Slides. Anthropic’s tutorial lists Claude Code as a place to ask for a deck, and its artifacts article says artifacts are available in Claude Code on every plan that includes Claude Code. Anthropic’s note on the terminal names docs and designs: there, Claude gives you a link to open on the web.

It can also write the deck as a file in your project. This is the route developers reach for. Ask Claude Code to write a Markdown deck, and a tool turns it into slides. Marp CLI converts Markdown to HTML, PDF, PowerPoint and images. The trade is in its README: a converted PPTX usually consists of pre-rendered background images, so you cannot easily edit it in PowerPoint. An experimental editable option exists, and it needs a browser and LibreOffice Impress and does not support presenter notes.

That route is good when the deck belongs in a repository, gets versioned like code, and is rebuilt by a script. It is a poor fit if the person receiving the deck wants to tweak a bullet in PowerPoint on Friday afternoon.

Most Claude Code surfaces need a Claude subscription or a Console account, says its overview. Our Claude Max vs Pro guide covers which plan fits heavy use.

Where Claude Design fits, and why it is leaving

If you searched “Claude Design presentations”, this is the section for you. Anthropic’s Claude Design article describes it as a way to create designs, interactive prototypes, one-pagers and other visual work by chatting with Claude. Decks have their own template now, Slides, which sits beside Design and Docs in the Artifacts tab.

Three facts from that article matter if you used Design before.

• It moved. Design is now in a conversation (pick Output, then Design), in the Artifacts tab, in Claude Code with /design, and in the mobile apps. It is on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise.
• It has no separate meter. Anthropic says Design counts toward the same usage limits as the rest of Claude, including Claude Code. If you reach your limits it is unavailable until they reset, unless you have turned on usage credits.
• The standalone version ends. The standalone version at claude.ai/design closes on December 14, 2026. Anthropic says to move your design systems to Claude before then.

Design can export to PowerPoint, PDF, Google Slides, standalone HTML and a zip, per the same article. If the thing you need is a deck, though, ask for Slides and you skip the detour.

Write the deck on a board with Context Board

Everything above makes a deck in a place built for decks. Context Board makes it somewhere else: on a board that is also your dashboard. It is a web app at board.contextbolt.com, a live board your agents keep current, and Slides is one of its board types. Context Board is ours, so weigh the bias.

A Slides board is a deck you and your agents write together. Your agent reads and writes it through the board’s MCP tools. You type into any slide in place. Here is what is on it:

• Ten layouts: title, section, title and text, two columns, big number, quote, picture with text, full picture, widget and blank. Any slide can also be designed freely, with text boxes, shapes, lines, pictures, tables, charts and diagrams placed where you want them.
• Five deck styles, a theme editor for your own, and five starter decks: pitch, weekly update, project kickoff, sales deck and lesson.
• Speaker notes on every slide, and a presenter window with the notes, the next slide and a timer.
• Live widgets on a slide. A widget from your board stays live in present mode and on a shared link, so a big-number slide can show a figure that is current when you present.
• Out: download as PDF, as a PowerPoint (.pptx) with titles, text, notes and pictures in place, or as Markdown. Share a link, which opens a viewer that never shows your notes.
• In: import a .pptx, or paste or drop Markdown in Marp’s or Slidev’s format. Anything that could not come over is listed by slide, and video, sound and embedded fonts are among the things that do not.

Here is how a deck gets made, in the order you do it.

1. Make the board. Choose New board, then Slides. A new deck opens on a title slide.
2. Connect your agent. If you use Claude Code or Codex, link your computer once with the one line from Connect. For the Claude app, ChatGPT, Cursor or VS Code, add the board’s address and click Allow. Both routes are set up once.
3. Ask for the deck. For example: “Write a 10-slide deck for Thursday’s investor update on my Slides board. Start from the pitch template, put speaker notes on every slide, and use only numbers I give you.” The agent writes the whole deck, and each slide it writes glows once with the agent’s name on it.
4. Edit and add. Retype any slide, move boxes, or ask for a chart or a diagram. Charts take numbers you give them, or follow a range in one of your Sheet boards.
5. Present. Press P to go full screen. Arrows, Space, a click or a swipe move through it, and the presenter’s window has the notes and a timer.
6. Share or send. Share a link, or export PDF, .pptx or Markdown. Viewing is free for the person you share with, and someone you let edit needs their own Context Board subscription.

Only names, states and percentages leave your computer when you link it, never what was said in a session. If you build with the board’s own chat, that runs on your own Claude Code or Codex plan, which means a deck you build draws on your Claude limits like any other work. How Claude’s limits work is worth a read before a big build.

What you give up. Context Board is not inside PowerPoint, so it does not edit your company’s .pptx in place the way Claude for PowerPoint does. Your deck leaves as a .pptx or PDF when someone else needs a file. And it is one more app, with a 3-day free trial and then $12 a month, covering every board type. If you make one deck a quarter from a chat, Claude Slides is the lighter choice.

Who it fits. Solo founders, and anyone who works with Claude Code or Codex all day. The deck sits next to the rest of your work, your agent can edit it across sessions, and a slide can hold a live number. Our roundup of AI productivity tools shows where it sits among the others.

Which way to pick

Pick by the job, not by the brand.

• A quick deck from notes, once in a while: Claude Slides. It is on every plan, and you do it all in the chat.
• A deck that must follow a corporate template inside PowerPoint: Claude for PowerPoint. This is the job it was built for.
• A .pptx in your hands in a minute: ask Claude for a .pptx by name with file creation on.
• A deck that lives in a repo and rebuilds from Markdown: Claude Code with a tool like Marp.
• A deck your agent updates alongside the rest of your work, with live numbers: Context Board Slides.

The choice mostly comes down to where the file ends up and who has to edit it after you.

Habits that make a better deck, whichever route you pick

These come from Anthropic’s own tutorial, and they hold for any of the routes.

• Give Claude your material. The tutorial says the more context Claude has, the better the deck. A generic deck usually means Claude had little to work from.
• Outline first. Ask for an outline, fix it, then ask for the slides. Correcting ten bullets is faster than correcting twenty slides.
• Check every figure. Read each number against its source before the deck leaves your hands. Anthropic tells you to do so, and it is the step people skip.
• Say who reads it. A deck for a board meeting and a deck for a classroom want different slides.
• Re-ask for charts. A chart holds the data from when it was built. If the numbers moved, say so.

Running a lot of this? Decks eat into the same limits as everything else you do with Claude, so Claude’s usage limits is worth knowing before a deadline week.