How to use ChatGPT Slides: build, edit and export a deck fast

ChatGPT Slides is a tool for creating, editing and presenting slide decks inside ChatGPT. OpenAI started rolling it out on October 16. It lives inside Space, the shared team workspace OpenAI introduced in late September at its DevDay event, and it follows OpenAI’s purchase of presentation startup NextSlide in August.

Access is limited for now:

• Plans: Pro, Business and Enterprise accounts that have Space access.
• Not included: Plus and free plans can’t use it yet.
• Where: the web version and the desktop app.
• Gradual rollout: even on an eligible plan, you may not see it right away.

Don’t confuse it with the ChatGPT for PowerPoint add-in. That add-in runs as a sidebar inside PowerPoint and works on a wider range of plans. Slides is different: it builds and keeps the deck inside ChatGPT, and you don’t need PowerPoint open at all.

The fastest way to start is from a normal ChatGPT conversation. Here’s the process:

1. Ask for a presentation. In ChatGPT, type a request to create a deck. You can attach files such as a report, notes or a spreadsheet, or build on a conversation you’ve already had.
2. Give it real direction. Say who the audience is, what the deck is for, how many slides you want and any rules it must follow. More on this below.
3. Open the deck in Space. ChatGPT creates an editable presentation that opens in Space, where you can see every slide.
4. Or start from scratch in Space. Choose Create, then Slide, and pick a blank presentation or a template.
5. Match your house style. If your company has a deck you like, give it to ChatGPT as a visual guide and ask it to follow that look and structure.

A vague request gets a vague deck. Asking for “a sales presentation” leaves ChatGPT guessing about everything that matters. Instead, spell out the shape of what you need. A good prompt covers four things:

• Audience: who will see it, for example regional managers, a school board or a client.
• Purpose: the decision or action you want at the end.
• Structure: how many slides, what goes first and last, and how many points per slide.
• Limits: for example, use numbers only from the attached file and don’t add outside facts.

Here’s an example you can adapt: “Using the attached quarterly results, build an eight-slide update for regional managers. Open with revenue and pipeline changes, add one slide on risks, end with next quarter’s priorities, and keep each slide to three points.”

For a quick report to a manager, try: “Turn this memo into three slides. Slide one is the conclusion, slide two the reasons and figures, slide three the next steps. Don’t add anything that isn’t in the memo.”

That last instruction matters. AI tools can fill gaps with confident-sounding facts, so telling it to stick to your material is the simplest way to keep invented numbers out of your deck.

Older AI slide tools made you regenerate a whole deck to fix one problem. Slides doesn’t. You can click straight into a slide and change text, images, shapes, tables and charts yourself.

If you’d rather let ChatGPT do it, select an element, choose Request edits and describe what you want, such as “make this chart a bar chart” or “shorten this to two lines.” For bigger changes across the whole deck, use the prompt bar, for example “make slide three shorter” or “switch every title to sentence case.”

Several people can edit the same presentation at once, and everyone can leave shared comments on slides. That replaces the usual mess of feedback scattered across emails and chat threads.

There’s one gap at launch: comment-only access doesn’t exist yet. People either view the deck or can fully edit it, so think before you hand edit rights to a large group.

Also check who can see your work. Slides sit inside a Space, so they follow that Space’s sharing settings. Before you add confidential figures, make sure nobody outside your team has access, and check your employer’s rules on putting company data into AI tools.

You don’t have to export at all if you just need to present. Slides can run a presentation straight from ChatGPT.

If you need a file, the web version offers three options:

• PowerPoint: a .pptx file you can keep editing in Microsoft PowerPoint.
• PDF: a fixed copy for sharing or review.
• Google Slides: moves the deck into Google’s editor.

In the desktop app, you can open a deck directly in PowerPoint or Keynote if either is installed. OpenAI advises checking both content and formatting after any export, because text positions and layouts can shift. That’s especially true for detailed charts, unusual fonts or strict company templates.

Windows users have extra hurdles. Collaborative Slides on a Windows PC needs a desktop component that Windows 10 doesn’t support at all. Windows 11 may need an update or for your IT team to switch it on. Without that component, local AI creation falls back to plain PowerPoint files instead of collaborative Slides.

The workaround is simple: use ChatGPT on the web, where collaborative Slides works without the local component. If your company is rolling it out, a small test with a real deck, exported to PowerPoint and compared with your normal template, will reveal problems before an important meeting.

If you’re on ChatGPT Plus or the free plan, Slides isn’t available to you yet. Two alternatives are worth a look:

• ChatGPT for PowerPoint: the add-in works inside PowerPoint and supports more ChatGPT plans.
• Gemini Notebook: Google’s tool, formerly called NotebookLM, can create slide decks from documents you upload. A new co-create option lets you pick a topic, format, style, length and language first, then review the slide outline before it builds anything. Google says it’s available to Pro and Ultra subscribers and is reaching all Gemini Notebook users worldwide within about a week.