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Presentation software · head to head

Canva vs Gamma

Sebastiaan Smits Editor Sebastiaan Smits · Published October 20, 2026 · Updated October 20, 2026

Gamma wins when the job is turning a prompt or a document into a first draft of a deck quickly. Canva wins when the deck has to sit inside a branded library of templates, social posts and one-pagers made by the same people. A team that lives in marketing assets picks Canva; a team that writes more than it designs picks Gamma.

Side by side

CanvaGamma
What it isDesign suite whose editor also makes slidesAI deck generator with editable pages
Best forMarketing teams mixing decks and graphicsFast first drafts from a prompt
HeadquartersAustraliaUnited States
Pricing modelPer user / monthPer user / month
PricingFree plan, then Pro for one person and Business per person; the pricing page blocked automated fetching, so plan prices are not quoted here.Free plan with a one-off 400 credits; Plus, Pro and Ultra are per user with monthly credits; Business is $40 per member per month billed annually.
Free optionFree planFree plan
List price
as listed on October 20, 2026		Not stated in the pages we could read: Canva's pricing page blocked automated access, so check the Pro and Teams plan prices with Canva before buyingBusiness $40 per member per month billed annually; Free plan with credits that do not refresh; Plus, Pro and Ultra prices were not in the pages we fetched
Place in our presentation software ranking#6 of 12#1 of 12
Websitecanva.comgamma.app

Both are reviewed in full in Best Presentation Software in 2026. Position in that ranking can be paid for; the wording of a review or of this comparison cannot. Placement disclosure.

Which one to choose

Choose Canva if

the same people make decks, social posts and print material, and you want brand templates that others can reuse and fill with data.

Canva, #6 in the ranking · Visit Canva →

Choose Gamma if

you want a structured deck generated from a prompt or pasted text that you then edit card by card, and you can work within a credit allowance.

Gamma, #1 in the ranking · Visit Gamma →

Where they differ

Getting to a first draft

Gamma's free plan includes its AI agent and lets one prompt generate up to 10 slides; Plus and Pro allow up to 100 slides per prompt. The output is a structured deck made of cards, so the starting point is already organized. Canva has AI design tools and a large template library, but you begin from a layout and fill it. For speed from a blank page, Gamma is ahead.

Edge: Gamma

Brand control across a team

Canva's developer documentation describes brand templates that a team publishes and that other people or programs then fill in, a feature that needs Pro, Teams or Enterprise. Gamma has custom themes covering colors, fonts and logos, shared with the whole workspace. Both give a team a house look, but Canva's template system reaches further across formats, so Canva wins for a marketing group.

Edge: Canva

What the bill is measured in

Gamma bills per user and meters AI use in credits: Plus gets 1,000 a month, Pro 4,000 and Business 6,000 per member, with rollover up to twice the monthly amount. Business costs $40 per member per month billed annually. Canva's pricing page blocked our automated fetch, so we cannot quote its plan prices and decline to call this round.

Edge: even

Automating decks from data

Canva documents REST APIs with an autofill job that fills a published brand template from a dataset, useful for producing many near-identical decks, and the feature needs a Pro, Teams or Enterprise account. Gamma offers API access too, but only from the Pro plan up. Since Canva's route starts from a template you control, it suits repeatable reports better.

Edge: Canva

Taking the file out

Gamma exports to PDF, PNG and PowerPoint, and its help page says exports match Present Mode; on the Free plan they carry a Made with Gamma badge. Canva's export API lists PDF, PowerPoint, PNG, JPG, GIF, MP4 and HTML formats. Both can reach PowerPoint, and neither vendor page promises the layout survives intact, so we call it level.

Edge: even

Tally: Canva 2, Gamma 1, even 2.

When neither fits

A presenter who spends the day on stage and needs strong speaker notes should look at Microsoft PowerPoint. A team that wants a polished design-first deck tool without a credit meter should look at Pitch.

See Microsoft PowerPoint, Pitch and Beautiful.ai among the 12 products in Best Presentation Software in 2026.

Questions and answers

Is Gamma free to use?

Yes, with limits. Gamma's free plan includes access to its AI agent and basic image models, but its credits do not refresh and exports carry a Made with Gamma badge. Paid plans remove the badge and add monthly credits.

Can Canva export to PowerPoint?

Yes. Canva's export API lists Microsoft PowerPoint among its formats, alongside PDF, PNG, JPG, GIF, MP4 and HTML. The documentation does not promise that fonts and effects carry over identically, so check a test deck before relying on it.

Does Gamma train its AI on my decks?

For individual workspaces, by default, yes, unless you opt out in the Data Controls settings. Gamma's help center says Business and Enterprise workspaces are excluded and locked, so a company account is protected without any action by its members.

Can I get a refund on Gamma?

Only briefly. Gamma's refund policy offers refunds within the first three days of subscribing, on request, and only if credit use stays under a plan threshold. After three days none are issued, apart from cases the law requires.

Sources

Prices, plan limits and product facts on this page were checked against the vendors' own pages on October 20, 2026. Vendors change both without notice, so treat the figures as of that date.