Claude for PowerPoint: Add-in Setup + Workflows

Claude for PowerPoint is Anthropic's add-in that puts Claude in a sidebar inside PowerPoint, where it builds and edits slides in your own template on the Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans. On the Free plan Claude can still make PowerPoints, because Claude Slides is on every plan: ask for a presentation in a chat, Claude drafts the deck, and you download it as a PowerPoint or PDF file.

This guide covers the four ways to build decks with Claude as of October 2026, a two-question rule for choosing between them, the add-in setup, a pre-flight checklist for working from a brand template, and copy-paste prompts for a 10-slide client deck. It's written for consultants, marketers, founders and operators who build decks every week and don't write code. For the bigger picture of where Claude fits in your work, start with our Claude for business guide.

Can Claude make PowerPoints? Yes, four ways

Yes, as of October 2026 Claude can make PowerPoints four ways: the Claude for PowerPoint add-in, Claude Slides in a chat, Claude Design, and file creation with Anthropic's built-in pptx skill. Three of the four work on the Free plan, and only the add-in needs a paid plan.

1. The Claude for PowerPoint add-in

The add-in runs inside PowerPoint on the web, on Windows and on Mac. Anthropic's documentation says it builds new slides from your existing client or corporate templates, makes pinpoint edits to specific slides without regenerating the whole deck, turns bullets into diagrams and native PowerPoint charts, and pulls in outside context through connectors. Claude reads the slide master, layouts, fonts and color scheme of the deck you have open, and Anthropic says it aims to keep slides template-compliant without adding off-brand elements.

It's generally available on Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise. One Microsoft listing, Claude for Microsoft 365, covers Excel, PowerPoint and Word, and the add-ins can work across apps in one conversation, so Claude can pull numbers from an open Excel model onto a slide.

2. Claude Slides in a chat

Claude Slides builds the deck inside a Claude conversation instead of inside PowerPoint. Anthropic launched Slides on September 16, 2026: you ask for a presentation, Claude drafts the slides, and you edit them directly, present straight from Claude, or download the deck as PowerPoint or PDF. You can also leave a comment for Claude on a specific slide, and the deck lives at a shareable link you can open on your phone.

On October 8, 2026, Anthropic took Docs, Slides and Design out of beta on every plan, including Free. The same announcement says PowerPoint and PDF downloads look like what you made in the editor, and decks go straight to Google Slides as editable files. On Team and Enterprise, an owner controls whether members can create slide decks. Keep the two products straight: Slides makes a new deck in Claude, and the add-in works on a deck that's already open in PowerPoint.

3. Claude Design

Claude Design suits pieces that are more visual than verbal, such as a one-pager, a pitch visual or a prototype. Anthropic introduced it on April 17, 2026 for "designs, prototypes, slides, one-pagers, and more," and the launch post listed export to Canva, PDF, PPTX and standalone HTML. Since September 16 it works inside your Claude conversations, it's available on every plan, including Free, and the old standalone site at claude.ai/design closes on December 14, 2026.

4. File creation with the pptx skill

File creation gets you a real .pptx file that Claude builds by writing and running code in a private computing environment. Anthropic's help center says Claude can create PowerPoint presentations (.pptx) on every plan, including Free. It needs the Code execution and file creation setting under Settings > Capabilities, which is on by default on Free, Pro, Max and Team. Under the hood the work runs on pptx, one of what Anthropic's public skills repository calls "the document creation & editing skills that power Claude's document capabilities."

The pptx skill's instructions cover building decks, editing existing presentations, and working with templates (.potx), layouts, speaker notes and comments, which makes it the Free-plan way to fill in a template you already have. Claude switches it on by itself when a task involves a PowerPoint file, and it earned a spot in our roundup of the best Claude skills.

Here's a quick-start prompt for Claude Slides that works on any plan. Paste your notes or attach the source file, then fill in the brackets:

Make a 6-slide presentation for [audience] about [topic].
After the last slide, they should [decide / approve / understand]
[one thing].

Source material: [paste notes or attach the file]

Rules:
- Every slide title is a full sentence that states the takeaway.
- Keep body text under 30 words per slide.
- Use a chart or diagram wherever a number carries the point.
- Use only facts from my source material. List anything you
  could not find instead of guessing.
- After the deck, give me 2-3 talking points for each slide.

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The two-question rule for picking a route

Pick how to build a deck with Claude by asking two questions: does the finished deck have to live inside an existing PowerPoint template, and are you on a paid Claude plan? The first decides whether Claude must follow someone else's slide master. The second decides whether the add-in is available to you at all, since claude.com/pricing lists Microsoft 365 among the Pro features and leaves it off Free.

If the deck has to sit in a client's or your company's template and you pay for Claude, use the add-in. It edits the actual file and reads the template's layouts, so the result stays in the format your team already works from. On Free, the route runs through a chat instead: attach the template, ask for a .pptx built on it, and let the pptx skill fill it in. Anthropic says file creation lets Claude create and edit PowerPoint slide decks.

If there's no template to honor, start in Claude Slides. It goes straight from a conversation to a deck you can present, which suits work that starts as notes, research or a report rather than as a file. In Anthropic's launch example, Claude writes a report and then puts the highlights into five slides for a leadership meeting in the same conversation, so the slides already match the report. Switch to Claude Design when the piece is closer to a poster than a presentation.

Two situations override the rule. If the numbers already live in an Excel model and you're on a paid plan, use the add-in even for a quick internal deck, because Claude can update a PowerPoint chart with the latest figures from Excel without you copying and pasting anything. Our Claude for Excel guide covers the spreadsheet side. And if your company pays for Microsoft Copilot instead of Claude, the FAQ below explains how Claude shows up inside Copilot.

How do I install Claude for PowerPoint?

Install Claude for PowerPoint from the Claude for Microsoft 365 listing on Microsoft Marketplace: select Get it now, open PowerPoint, activate the add-in and sign in with your Claude account. You need a Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan and a supported version of PowerPoint.

Those steps come from Anthropic's setup guide, which also covers team rollouts. An admin can deploy the add-in from the Microsoft 365 Admin Center under Settings > Integrated apps > Add-ins, search for "Claude for Microsoft 365" and assign it to the whole organization or to specific users and groups. Organizations that have turned off Office Store access can deploy it with a custom manifest file instead. If you're pricing seats for that rollout, our Claude Team plan guide covers costs and admin controls.

Four settings to change before your first deck

Four settings decide how much rework you do later. All four come from Anthropic's add-in docs and its pages on connectors and skills and working across apps.

• Instructions. Open Settings in the add-in sidebar and use the Instructions field for rules that apply to every PowerPoint conversation, such as one-line bullets or which accent color to use for highlights. These apply only in PowerPoint, separate from any instructions you set in Excel or Word.
• Skills.Skills you've turned on in your Claude settings work in the add-in, and Claude applies the relevant ones automatically. Type / in the sidebar to see the skills available in PowerPoint.
• Connectors.Click the + button below the chat input and select Connectors to pull in outside context. Anthropic names S&P Global, LSEG and Daloopa as common picks for financial data.
• Work across files.Turn on "Let Claude work across files" in each add-in's Settings so Claude can read an open Excel workbook or Word document. It's on by default on Pro and Max, off by default on Team and Enterprise, and you set it per device.

Here's a starting point for the Instructions field. Swap in your own rules:

Brand rules for every deck:
- Use only the layouts in this template. Never add free-floating
  text boxes, new fonts or new colors.
- Slide titles: one full sentence that states the takeaway,
  12 words max.
- Bullets: one line each, 5 per slide max.
- Use the accent color only for the one number or phrase that
  matters most on the slide.
- Charts: native PowerPoint charts with a source line underneath.
- If a request would break these rules, tell me before you edit.

Quick note on usage: the add-in runs on your existing Claude account and is subject to the same usage limits, so a long deck session counts against the same allowance as your chats. It also offers a curated subset of Claude models picked for Office work, so the model list can be shorter than the one you see on claude.ai. Our Claude usage limits guide explains how that allowance works.

Working from a brand template without breaking it

To get on-brand slides from Claude, apply the template before you ask for anything, give Claude your brand rules once, and work a few slides at a time. The add-in reads the slide master, layouts, fonts and color scheme of the open deck, so the template carries most of the brand for you, as long as you start from it and keep the file light enough for PowerPoint to handle.

Run this pre-flight checklist before the first prompt:

On the Free plan: attach the template in a chat

Without the add-in, you can still build on a brand template. Check that Code execution and file creation is on under Settings > Capabilities, attach your template as a .pptx, and ask Claude for a new deck built on it. File creation handles files up to 30MB and uses more of your usage limit than a normal chat, so give Claude your full list of changes in one message instead of one change per message.

The pptx skill's template workflow tells you what to expect. Claude maps each section of your content onto a template slide and is told to vary the layouts instead of putting every section on the same title-and-bullets slide. It also handles a classic template headache: if the template shows four team members and you have three, the skill says to delete the fourth member's whole group, image and text boxes included, not just its text.

On a paid plan: save your brand as a design system

In Claude Slides and Claude Design, a design system does the template's job. Anthropic's design system guide says you can ask Claude to build one from your connected apps, uploaded files, Figma files, decks, logos and fonts, and that "even a well-designed PowerPoint or PDF that reflects your brand can work," with Claude extracting the colors, layout patterns and typographic choices. Once it exists, you pick it from the design system menu when you make a slide deck, and you manage it under Settings > Design systems.

Design systems are in beta on Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, so this step needs a paid plan even though Slides itself is free. They're on by default for Pro, Max and Team; on Enterprise, an owner turns them on under Organization settings > Artifacts. If your brand rules also need to follow you into documents and code, pair the design system with a brand-guidelines skill, which our Claude designer skills guide walks through with a full SKILL.md example.

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Prompts for a 10-slide client deck

Build a 10-slide client deck with Claude in four passes, each with its own prompt: storyline, build, visuals and a final check. Anthropic's own example for the add-in is a single line, "Create a 10-slide deck walking through our market entry hypotheses," and Claude will build a draft from that. Splitting the job lets you approve the argument before Claude touches the layout.

The structure below fits most client decks. Swap slides 5 to 7 for whatever evidence your recommendation rests on.

Pass 1: the storyline

Run this with the template open in the add-in, or with the template attached in a chat:

I'm building a 10-slide deck for [client]. The audience is [role].
The decision they need to make: [decision].
My recommendation: [recommendation].
Source material: [paste or attach notes, data, interview summaries]

Before you build any slides, write the storyline:
- 10 slide titles, each a full sentence that states the takeaway
- Under each title: the evidence it needs and where it is
  in my material
- The template layout you would use for each slide
- A flag on any slide where my material doesn't support the claim

Don't create slides yet. Wait for my approval.

Pass 2: build in two batches

The storyline is approved. Build slides 1 to 5 now.
- Use this template's layouts only, matching the plan above.
- Use the titles exactly as approved.
- Body text: 40 words per slide max, one-line bullets.
- Where a slide needs a chart, add a placeholder and tell me
  which data it needs. Charts come in the next pass.
Stop after slide 5 so I can review.

Then run it again for slides 6 to 10. Two batches of five follow Anthropic's advice to ask the add-in to change a few slides at a time, and they give you a checkpoint halfway through.

Pass 3: native charts and diagrams

Slides 5, 6 and 7 need visuals.
- Slide 5: turn the table below into a native bar chart.
- Slide 6: turn the bullets into a process flow diagram.
- Slide 7: compare [4 options] on [3 criteria] in a table.
Use the template's color scheme and add a source line under
each chart.

Data: [paste table]

If the data lives in an Excel workbook, open it, make sure "Let Claude work across files" is on in both add-ins, and replace the last line with "Use the [sheet name] sheet in the open workbook." Anthropic's docs note that Claude can only read and write files that are currently open, and it can't open or switch files by itself.

Pass 4: the final check

Review the whole deck before I send it. Don't change anything yet.
List, slide by slide:
1. Any title that isn't a full-sentence takeaway
2. Any number that doesn't match my source material
3. Leftover placeholder text
4. Text that overflows or crowds its box
5. Anything off-template: new fonts, new colors, moved logos
6. Any slide where the takeaway isn't clear in 5 seconds
Then propose fixes and wait for my go-ahead.

For the analysis behind the deck, our Claude prompts for business include a competitive positioning analysis and a quarterly business review prompt that feed slides 3 to 7 directly. Board decks follow the same storyline-first pattern; they're use case 16 in our list of Claude AI use cases by job function. If you build client decks every week, our guide to AI for consultants covers the research that comes before slide one.

Start with pass 1 on the next real deck on your calendar. If you end up finishing the slides by hand, you still keep an approved storyline with full-sentence titles to build from.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Claude for PowerPoint free?

No, the Claude for PowerPoint add-in needs a paid Claude plan. claude.com/pricing lists Pro at $20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually ($200 up front), Max from $100 a month, and Team Standard seats at $20 per seat per month billed annually or $25 billed monthly. Enterprise is listed at US$20 per seat per month billed annually, with a 20-seat minimum, and a usage cost that scales with model and task. Our Claude Pro vs Max comparison helps if you're choosing between the two individual plans.

Is Claude in PowerPoint the same as Microsoft Copilot?

No. Claude for PowerPoint is Anthropic's add-in and signs in with your Claude account, while Copilot is Microsoft's own assistant. Copilot in PowerPoint has a model switcher that can include Claude from Anthropic, but the switcher needs a commercial Microsoft Copilot subscription, an enterprise admin has to enable Anthropic as a sub-processor in the Microsoft 365 admin center first, and your choice resets to Auto when the session ends. Anthropic also says Microsoft 365 Copilot customers can use Claude models inside PowerPoint and Excel.

Does Claude for PowerPoint work on iPad, Android or PowerPoint 2019?

No. Anthropic lists as unsupported PowerPoint 2016 and 2019 (perpetual or volume license), PowerPoint on iPad, PowerPoint on Android, and older Microsoft 365 builds. On a phone or tablet, you can still change a deck in the Claude mobile app if you made it with Claude Slides.

Can Claude turn a Word document or PDF into slides?

Yes. In a chat on any plan, attach the file and ask for a presentation. Anthropic's file creation guide uses "Convert this Word document to a presentation" as an example, and its launch post gave "Upload a PDF report and get PowerPoint slides" as another. On a paid plan, you can also open the Word document next to your deck with "Let Claude work across files" turned on and ask Claude to summarize the document into slides.

Where does the add-in store my chat history?

On your device. Anthropic says chat history for Claude for PowerPoint is stored locally in your browser rather than on Anthropic's servers, so it doesn't sync to your other computers, and you can clear it from Settings at any time. Inputs and outputs are deleted from Anthropic's backend within 30 days, apart from exceptions Anthropic lists in its privacy center, and the add-in doesn't inherit custom data retention settings your organization may have set.