What does it cost to make a presentation in 2025? The cost can range from a few cents per slide to thousands of dollars. The range is wide, depending on who’s making the presentation. A boutique agency’s cost is nowhere near McKinsey’s, for instance.
In this article, I’ll share how much a slide costs in 2025 from various sources and help you decide which you should pick.
{toc}
The cost of a slide in 2025 from various sources: Quick summary
Here’s a quick summary of how much a slide costs from various sources.
These numbers don’t tell the whole story, though. Continue reading the deep dive to understand where this data comes from and how to use it.
Methodology and assumptions
For the purposes of this article, a “slide” is the final version (and no, not the final V1, V2, or V3_last). It’s ready to be presented to a client—the data is accurate, the design is polished, and the brand standards are met.
To calculate per-slide cost, I crawled data from:
- Publicly available consulting fees of top strategy firms
- Agency pricing pages and guides
- Freelancer marketplace listings
- SaaS pricing pages for AI tools
But, as you might’ve already expected, it’s impossible to get an accurate number of how much a single slide costs. Part of this is because top strategy firms like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG don’t just offer PowerPoint presentations; they also provide consultation. Those costs are confidential and baked into the overall fee. That said, this article aims to provide the most accurate range possible for all types of markets.
What dictates the cost of a slide
Another reason it’s hard to determine the cost of a slide with accuracy is because there are several factors that determine the final price.
- Project complexity and slide counts: Creating an investor pitch deck is very different than creating a short project-specific presentation. And the difference isn’t just in the number of slides. Most consultants, agencies, and freelancers adjust their pricing to reflect the scope of work. The more proprietary research your presentation requires, the higher the cost.
- Seniority: In strategy firms, the cost of the presentation (and overall project) is also dependent on whether you’re working with someone junior or senior. The more senior you go, the higher the costs climb. Similarly, the more experienced a freelancer or the more established an agency, the higher the cost.
- Number of reviews: If you need more stakeholder reviews and approvals, the cost rises. Consultants, agencies, and freelancers usually include a set number of revisions in the base price and layer more edit rounds at an additional cost.
- Custom design: If you desire unique and branded designs, it costs extra. A designer will also create customized charts, icons, etc.
- Deadline: The faster you want your presentation, the more it’s going to cost. Outsourcing means the contractor will take a rush fee. Even if you’re keeping things in-house, urgency would require your employees to deprioritize other projects in favor of the presentation, ultimately adding more cost per slide.
Now, let’s deep dive into the costs for each source to find the cost of a slide in today’s market.
The cost of a slide from McKinsey, BCG, and Bain
Slideworks conducted an in-depth analysis of how top strategy firms price their projects. Collaborating with a firm like McKinsey often means months of working together, rather than a one-off assignment.
It’s worth noting that these firms are big on compliance, legal, and confidentiality, so take these numbers with a fat grain of salt. They are from the publicly available records—you can expect the actual ranges to fall within that spectrum, but there’ll be instances where it can go up or down, too.
The GSA federal supply list shows a senior McKinsey partner charges $1,193.57 per hour while an associate charges $958.13.
With these rates, firms like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain charge a project rate of anywhere between $500,000 to millions of dollars (see some proposal examples). Even at 100 slides at this fee, your cost per slide comes to a minimum of $5,000. Here’s what a McKinsey slide looks like, for reference:
Want to see more such presentation examples from the top strategy firms? Here you go:
That might sound steep, but as we’ve discussed before, slides are the tip of the iceberg when you’re working with top strategy firms. You’re actually paying for their expertise, problem solving capabilities, and competitive intelligence.
The cost of a slide from Big 4 consultants
The Big 4 firms (i.e., Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC) charge lower fees than the top strategy firms, but their costs are still hefty. Think of them as the mid-tier consulting alternative for enterprise companies. Like the big guys, these firms also keep most of their project fees private.
In one proposal example, I saw KPMG charging an overall project fee of $1,690,980. The hourly rate here is lower than that of the top strategy firms—the partner charges $481/hour and the consultant $263/hour. Expect prices to be upward of $250/hour minimum.
Another resource states that the Big 4 firms charge a minimum of $300,000 as their project fee. To apply a similar formula of 100 slides at this rate, your cost per slide would be a minimum of $3,000 for Big 4 firms.
Like before, the majority of the cost of Big 4 firms is not the slide, it’s the consultation itself. You’re paying for access to global expertise, market intelligence, and strategic insights.
The cost of a slide from agencies
Agencies like Do My PowerPoint and 24Slides charge based on the scope of work. For revamping your presentations, the cost is as low as $22/slide (Do My PowerPoint). But the premium packaging—including everything—costs $3,000 per slide.
There are also subscription models beginning at $299/month (24Slides). Your price fluctuates depending on the exact service you require and the turnaround time for the presentation. There are also agencies like SlideGenius that provide design services at $50/slide.
The exact cost you’ll pay for agencies depends on their level of experience, the finishing you require, and how fast you need the PPT. You can expect to pay as low as $50 or as high as $3,000 per slide.
The cost of a slide from freelancer marketplaces
Like agencies, the cost varies widely for freelance presentation designers depending on their experience and skill level. I saw Upwork listings of freelancers charging as low as $32/hour to as high as $250/hour.
The number of hours required for your presentation depends on the project and your design requirements.
Tom Caklos’ analysis translates the varying hourly rates of freelance presentation designers to a rough range of $10 to $125+ per slide. Another resource agrees with the findings, but puts even the lowest rates at $30 per slide. My guess is that at $10/slide rate, your presentation will reflect the lack of skill.
The cost of a slide using Plus AI
A subscription to Plus AI costs you $10/month—using which you can create unlimited slides. The cost per slide comes to pennies; it can be as low as $0.10/slide. But it’s best to pair AI with a human touch. Every tool needs a hand to infuse some warmth in your presentation, fact-check everything, and ensure the branding is up to your standards.
All you have to do is provide a prompt (using an existing doc or from scratch) > choose from various templates > edit your slides. Fast, swift, magical. The combined human and AI workflow will roughly cost you around $5–$50 per slide (depending on your process and manpower). Either way, both of those hourly rates provide much higher ROI than any other method.
How AI is shifting the cost of a slide
The future is not AI-driven—and I say this on an AI company blog. It’s AI-assisted. You need a hybrid flow of the human hand and the AI speed to produce phenomenal presentations at scale.
To compare a Bain presentation with a presentation generated using Plus AI, take a look at the visual below. Pretty cool, right? Visually, the quality of both is phenomenal.
Now of course, this is just comparing the presentations visually without weighing the strategic insights of the ideas themselves. But if you’ve already got the points you want to explain, Plus AI can do a fantastic job of auto-generating the slide content. After that, it’s just about fine-tuning the presentation.
I’m not the only one who thinks that way: McKinsey has been using their generative AI platform (called Lilli) to create proposals and draft PowerPoint slides since 2023. 75% of their organization uses AI on a monthly basis to finish their slides and other operational tasks.
Even the big tech companies are riding the AI wave, so why shouldn’t you? Don’t think of it as competition, think of it like a collaboration. Use AI tools like Plus to augment your processes and make the tedious tasks faster and smoother. Try Plus AI for free and you can see the magic yourself.
