The Free Deck Check – Mathew's Library

01 What Free gives you, and the catch

Since October 8, 2026, Anthropic's Claude Docs, Slides and Design are on every Claude plan, including Free. Zero dollars. What each one does:

Slides builds a deck from your notes, right next to the chat. Ask for changes, or click into a slide and type. You can present it without leaving Claude. Design makes visuals, mockups, one-pagers and even landing pages. You can leave a comment on one element, like a headline that's too small, and Claude changes just that. Docs does the same for written documents, like a proposal.

To try it, ask for a deck in any Claude chat. When it's ready, click Export: decks go to PowerPoint or PDF, or straight to Google Slides as a file you can still edit.

The catch: your competitor has the same free tool. When you skip the brand, reviewers say the style is left to chance. One viewer put it like this: after four or five reviews, all the presentations look literally identical in style.

The tool makes the first version. Somebody still finishes it.

Anthropic says the same thing in its own words: Claude makes the first version, and you decide what gets shared. The three checks below are that finishing.

02 What Free leaves out

Piece On Free?

Slides, Design, Docs Yes

Dashboards (live company data) No, paid only, in beta

Motion (animated explainers) No, paid only, in beta

Connecting your other apps to what you build No

Anthropic doesn't publish how much Free gets. It depends on how long and complex your conversations are. A quick deck is fine. A weekly deck built from several files, one reviewer says, is not what Free's limits are built for.

Used the old Claude Design site? It closes on December 14, and your chats and comments there won't come with you. Move your design system over before then.

03 Check one: your brand first

Give it your brand before you ask for anything. Every time, unless it's already saved.

"Saved" means a design system: the rules your work is built from, your colors, fonts and components, stored in Claude so new designs and decks pick them up. Claude's help page says you can bring one in from design files or raw uploads. Until you have one, attach the pieces in the chat and paste this first:

Brand brief

Before you make anything, use my brand.
Colors: [YOUR BRAND COLORS]
Fonts: [HEADING FONT] for headings, [BODY FONT] for text
Logo: attached
A piece I'm proud of: attached [OLD FLYER / DECK]. Match its look.
Now make: [THE DECK, ONE-PAGER OR DESIGN] from these notes: [NOTES]

04 Check two: every number comes from you

Nobody has published how often a generated deck gets a figure wrong. If a number on slide four is off, your client doesn't blame Claude. They blame you.

Paste every number from the source. Don't ask it to remember last quarter.

Read prices, dates and totals out loud against the original. Five minutes. The five that matter most.

Open the exported file before you send it. One reviewer got the content right, but two panels on one slide weren't aligned.

Exporting to PowerPoint? Set your fonts and install them first. The same reviewer warns the layout breaks otherwise.

05 Check three: read it as the client

One person reads it as the client before it's sent. Not as the person who made it. As someone who has never heard of you.

Does the first slide say why they should care? If not, that's the first fix.

Does anything sound like every other pitch? Cut it, or replace it with something only you can say.

Is everything on the slide worth keeping? The judgment of what goes on, and what gets cut, is yours.

Remember. Don't confuse a finished-looking deck with a finished deck.

Sources

Anthropic: Build live dashboards and animate explainers with Claude Claude Help Center: What are artifacts and how do I use them? Claude Help Center: Get started with Claude Design Anthropic: Claude Design now stays on brand for daily work Claude Help Center: How do usage and length limits work? MakeUseOf: Claude Design built me the best slides I've ever had Justin McKelvey: Claude Slides (2026), what it does and which plans get it

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