Gamma Review: Is the AI Presentation Tool Worth $8/Month?

I've spent the last few weeks putting Gamma through its paces, and I have opinions. If you've seen those slick AI-generated presentations floating around LinkedIn and wondered whether Gamma is the real deal or just another demo-ware darling, here's the honest breakdown.

What Gamma Actually Is

Gamma is an AI-powered presentation and document creation tool. You describe what you want — a pitch deck, a project update, a course module — and it generates a full, designed presentation in about 60 seconds. No dragging text boxes around. No fighting with PowerPoint templates from 2014.

The output isn't slides in the traditional sense. Gamma uses a card-based format that's more like a scrollable web page than a slide deck. Each card can contain text, images, charts, embedded videos, polls, and interactive elements. You share it as a link, and people scroll through it like a mini-website.

This is either brilliant or a dealbreaker, depending on your workflow. More on that in a second.

The Good Stuff

Speed Is Genuinely Impressive

I typed "Q4 marketing results summary for a SaaS startup" and had a polished, 12-card presentation in under a minute. The AI picked reasonable section headers, suggested chart placements, and even wrote decent placeholder copy. For a first draft, it's legitimately fast.

If you're someone who spends 3 hours fiddling with slide layouts before you even start writing content, Gamma will change your life. It removes the blank-page problem entirely.

The Designs Actually Look Good

This isn't Canva-template-with-AI-slapped-on territory. Gamma's default designs are clean, modern, and surprisingly tasteful. The typography choices are solid. The color schemes work. The layouts feel intentional rather than algorithmic.

I've seen AI tools that generate technically complete presentations that look like a fever dream. Gamma doesn't have that problem. The output is something you could actually show to a client without cringing.

The AI Editing Is Smart

After generation, you can chat with Gamma's AI to refine things. "Make this section more concise." "Add a comparison table here." "Change the tone to be more formal." It handles these requests well, and the changes happen inline without breaking the layout.

This is where Gamma feels most like the future. Instead of manually selecting text and reformatting, you just describe what you want. It's the presentation equivalent of talking to your designer instead of opening Photoshop yourself.

Collaboration Works

Multiple people can edit simultaneously, leave comments, and suggest changes. It's basically Google Slides-level collaboration built into an AI-first tool. For teams that work on presentations together, this is a significant advantage over tools that are single-player only.

The Not-So-Good Stuff

The PowerPoint Export Problem

Here's the elephant in the room. Most of the professional world still runs on PowerPoint. Your boss wants a .pptx file. Your client's legal team needs slides they can edit. The conference organizer requires a specific format.

Gamma can export to PowerPoint, but the results are... inconsistent. Fonts get substituted. Layouts shift. Custom styling doesn't always translate. In my testing, I spent anywhere from 10 minutes to over an hour cleaning up exported files, depending on complexity.

If your workflow ends with "share a link," this doesn't matter. If your workflow ends with "email a PowerPoint file," this is a real problem. And for a lot of professionals, it's the latter.

It's a Creation Tool, Not an Editing Tool

Gamma is fantastic at generating presentations from scratch. It's much less useful when you need to update an existing deck, modify a client's template, or iterate on a document over weeks.

If someone sends you a PowerPoint with comments and revision requests, Gamma can't help you. You're back in PowerPoint anyway. This means Gamma works best as a first-draft machine, not a complete PowerPoint replacement.

The Card Format Is Polarizing

Gamma's native format is beautiful on screen, but it's not slides. It's a scrollable web document. Some audiences love this — it feels modern and interactive. Others find it confusing. I've had people ask me "how do I advance to the next slide?" when I shared a Gamma link.

For internal team updates and marketing materials, the card format works great. For formal board presentations or client deliverables where people expect traditional slides, it can be a tough sell.

Free Tier Limitations

The free plan gives you 400 AI credits (roughly enough for a handful of presentations) and slaps Gamma branding on everything. It's enough to test the tool, but not enough to actually use it for work. You'll hit the paywall fast.

Pricing Breakdown

Free: 400 AI credits, Gamma branding on everything, basic analytics
Plus ($8/month billed annually): Unlimited AI generations, no branding, custom fonts, PDF/PPT export, basic analytics
Pro ($15/month billed annually): Everything in Plus, priority support, advanced analytics, custom domains, longer AI generations

The Plus plan at $8/month is the sweet spot for most people. The jump to Pro at $15/month only makes sense if you need the analytics or custom domain features, which most individual users don't.

Compared to other AI tools, $8/month is reasonable. You're paying less than a single ChatGPT Plus subscription for a specialized tool that's genuinely good at its job.

Who Should Use Gamma

Great fit:

Marketing teams creating campaign decks and internal presentations
Startup founders who need pitch decks fast and share them as links
Educators and trainers building course materials
Sales teams creating prospect-facing materials
Anyone who hates PowerPoint and mostly shares presentations digitally

Not a great fit:

Consultants who live in PowerPoint and edit client decks daily
Anyone whose workflow requires .pptx as the final deliverable
Teams locked into Google Slides or Keynote ecosystems
People who need pixel-perfect control over every element

Gamma vs The Alternatives

Gamma vs Canva Presentations: Canva gives you more design control and better template variety, but Gamma's AI generation is significantly smarter. If you want AI to do the heavy lifting, Gamma wins. If you want to design manually with AI assist, Canva's better.

Gamma vs Beautiful.ai: Both are AI-first presentation tools, but Beautiful.ai is more traditional (actual slides, better PowerPoint export). Gamma is more innovative (card format, better AI editing). Beautiful.ai is the safer choice for corporate environments.

Gamma vs Google Slides + AI: Google recently added AI features to Slides, but they're basic compared to Gamma. If you're already deep in the Google ecosystem, the AI additions might be "good enough." If you want best-in-class AI generation, Gamma is leagues ahead.

Gamma vs just using ChatGPT: You can ask ChatGPT to write presentation content and then paste it into slides manually. It works, but it's slow and you still have to design everything yourself. Gamma handles content AND design simultaneously, which saves real time.

The Bottom Line

Gamma is genuinely good at what it does. It's the best AI presentation generator I've tested, and at $8/month, it's priced fairly. The designs are clean, the AI is smart, and the speed is impressive.

But it's not a PowerPoint replacement. It's a PowerPoint alternative for specific use cases — primarily when you're creating from scratch and sharing digitally. If your world revolves around .pptx files and editing existing decks, Gamma will add friction, not remove it.

My recommendation: try the free tier. Make a presentation for something real, not a test. Share it with someone. If the card format works for your audience and your workflow doesn't require PowerPoint export, the $8/month Plus plan is an easy yes. If you find yourself immediately trying to export to PowerPoint, that's your answer too — just in the other direction.

Gamma earns a solid spot in the AgentRank directory. It's not for everyone, but for the people it IS for, it's a genuine time-saver that produces work you'd actually be proud to share.