Agenticum · Thoughts · 6 min read

Free AI presentation makers in 2026: Gamma, Canva and Gemini compared for the UAE and Saudi Arabia

You can make a slide deck from a prompt without paying, but each free tier has different limits. Here is what Gamma, Canva and Google Gemini give you for free, according to their own pages. The local prices below were observed on 30 October 2026.

Nikolay Zuykov · Agenticum · 30 October 2026

Short answer: the best free AI presentation makers in 2026

Need a deck from a prompt or a file, at no cost? Start with Canvas in the Google Gemini app. Google lists slide generation as available without a Google AI plan. You can export the deck to Google Slides or as a PDF.

Need the deck in Arabic? Look at Gamma. It says it supports right-to-left languages, including Arabic. It will build the deck in Arabic if you write your prompt in Arabic or name the language.

Need a PowerPoint file? You can download Canva presentations as PPTX files. Canva warns that the file may look different when you open it in PowerPoint. Gamma's Free plan also exports to PPTX.

Copilot in PowerPoint is not on this list. The free PowerPoint for the web does not include it, and Copilot needs a paid Microsoft 365 subscription.

Gamma, Canva and Gemini: free plans compared

Every cell comes from the vendor pages listed under Sources. "Not stated" means we found no first-party wording, so we do not guess.

Field	Gamma (Free)	Canva (Free)	Google Gemini (no AI plan)
How AI use is counted	Credits, metered per slide and per image. Rates can change	Shared monthly AI allowance that varies by plan	Compute-based limits
How you get more without paying	200 credits per referral (Free users only)	Not stated	Limits refresh every 5 hours, up to a weekly limit
Source size limit	Not stated	Not stated	32k-token context window
Export formats	PDF, PPTX, PNG and Google Slides	PPTX (presentations only; may look different in PowerPoint)	Google Slides or PDF
Arabic	Right-to-left support, including Arabic	Not stated	Gemini web app offered in Arabic, in the UAE and Saudi Arabia
Your content and AI training	Used for training by default on individual plans; you can opt out	Only as your Privacy Settings allow	Human reviewers may read some data; reviewed chats kept up to 3 years
Listed paid plan	Plus: $108 per seat per year, billed annually (≈ AED 396.63 / SAR 405.00)	Pro: AED 440/year for one person (UAE local price)	AI Plus: AED 36.99/month (UAE local price)

About currency: Canva and Google show the dirham prices above to visitors from the UAE. The Gamma and Microsoft prices are US dollar list prices converted at the fixed pegs (USD × 3.6725 for AED, USD × 3.75 for SAR).

Gamma free plan: credits metered per slide, with Arabic support

Gamma uses credits. It does not publish a fixed credit cost per deck. Creating a presentation with Create with AI is metered per slide and per image, and Gamma says the rates can change. A longer deck with more generated images therefore uses more of your balance than a short one.

On the Free plan you can earn 200 credits for each person you refer. Referrals are only available to Free users.

Gamma also documents language support. It supports right-to-left languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu. If you write the prompt in Arabic, or tell Gamma which language you want, it can generate the deck in Arabic.

On the Free plan you can export a deck to PDF, PPTX, PNG or Google Slides. Billed annually, Gamma Plus costs $108 per seat per year ($9/month; ≈ AED 396.63 / SAR 405.00) and Pro costs $216 per seat per year ($18/month; ≈ AED 793.26 / SAR 810.00).

Canva free: a shared AI allowance and PPTX download

Canva sorts its AI features into tiers. "Generate designs, elements and videos with Canva AI" is a Premium AI tool. It draws on a monthly AI allowance that is shared across tools and varies by plan. Conversational design with Canva AI is an Ultra AI tool and is not part of the Free plan.

You can download a Canva presentation as a PPTX file. Other design types cannot be exported as PPTX. Canva also warns that a PPTX download may look different in Microsoft PowerPoint and may need edits or font installs. If a client will open your deck in PowerPoint, check the file before you send it.

For UAE visitors, Canva lists its Free plan at no charge and Pro at AED 440 per year for one person. We could not confirm Canva AI's Arabic support on a Canva page, so try an Arabic prompt before you rely on it.

Google Gemini Canvas: slides from a prompt or a file, then export to Google Slides

Google added presentation generation to the Gemini app through Canvas. You give it an idea or upload a source, and it produces a set of slides with a theme and relevant images. The steps are:

Open the Gemini app and select Canvas in the toolbar.
Ask Gemini to "create a presentation". You can name a topic or upload your own source with the prompt.
Click Export to Slides to open the deck in Google Slides, or export it as a PDF.

On Google's feature table, slide generation and Canvas are marked as available without a Google AI plan. Free use comes with standard limits. These limits depend on how complex your prompt is, which models and features you use, and how long the chat is. They refresh every 5 hours until you reach a weekly limit.

The free tier has a 32k-token context window, which limits how large a document you can turn into slides. Google AI Plus raises this to 128k tokens and AI Pro to 1 million. Usage limits rise as well: AI Plus is 2x the standard limits and AI Pro is 4x. A UAE visitor sees Google AI Plus (2 TB) at AED 36.99/month and Google AI Pro (5 TB) at AED 76.99/month. Google AI plans are for users aged 18 and over, and other restrictions may apply.

The Gemini web app is available in more than 230 countries and territories, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It runs in more than 70 languages, Arabic among them.

Already paying for Microsoft 365? Copilot in PowerPoint

The free PowerPoint for the web does not include Copilot. Microsoft's free tier lists basic features and 5 GB of storage. Copilot in PowerPoint needs a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription. AI features are available only to the subscription owner, cannot be shared and have usage limits. With Copilot you describe the changes you want, and it rewrites, reorganises and adds slides in your existing presentation.

Microsoft's US list prices, converted at the fixed pegs:

Microsoft 365 Personal: $99.99/year (≈ AED 367.21 / SAR 374.96)
Microsoft 365 Family: $129.99/year (≈ AED 477.39 / SAR 487.46)

The same page lists Premium at $199.99/year (≈ AED 734.46 / SAR 749.96). All three prices come from Microsoft's US page.

Before you upload company files: data and privacy on free tiers

Each vendor handles your content differently:

Gamma: on the individual plans (Free, Plus, Pro and Ultra), your data may be used to train AI models by default, and you can opt out at any time. On organisation plans (Enterprise, Business and Teams) training is always off.
Canva: your content is used to improve AI features only as your Privacy Settings allow, and you can change those settings at any time.
Gemini personal accounts: human reviewers, including service providers, read some data. Google asks you not to enter confidential information. Chats that reviewers have seen are not deleted when you delete your activity; Google keeps them for up to three years.

Practical rules for UAE and KSA teams:

Do not put client data, financials or anything under NDA into a free personal account.
If you use Gamma on an individual plan, turn off AI training in your settings before your first upload.
Check your Canva Privacy Settings once and record the choice your team made.
If your team uses Gamma, note that its organisation plans (Enterprise, Business and Teams) never use your data for AI training.
Upload a cleaned version of the document, not the original file.

Which one to pick: a decision guide by scenario

A quick pitch deck from a short brief: Gemini Canvas. Free slide generation, then export to Google Slides to edit.
A deck in Arabic: Gamma, since its right-to-left support for Arabic is documented. Prompt in Arabic or name the language.
A client who wants a PowerPoint file: Canva's PPTX download, checked in PowerPoint before you send it. Gamma's Free plan also exports to PPTX. If you already pay for Microsoft 365 Personal or Family, Copilot works inside PowerPoint itself.
Turning a long report into slides: Gemini, keeping the 32k-token free limit in mind. For longer reports, AI Plus offers a 128k-token context window and AI Pro offers 1 million tokens.
A team working with company material: Gamma's organisation plans, where AI training is always off.

A free tier stops being enough when you run out of credits or allowance mid-project, when your source documents are too long for the context limit, or when the content is confidential. Any of these is a reason to pay for the plan that fixes that specific limit.