The best PowerPoint add-ins: free and paid, for Windows and Mac

There are two kinds of PowerPoint add-ins. Office Add-ins come from Microsoft’s store (AppSource), run on Windows, Mac and PowerPoint for the web, and appear as a pane on the right or as buttons on a ribbon tab. COM and VSTO add-ins are classic programs you install on a Windows computer; many professional toolkits are of this kind and do not run on a Mac or the web. The difference matters when half your team works on a Mac.

The list below describes each add-in as its maker presents it. Features, prices and platform support change often; check the store listing and the maker’s site before you buy, and ask your IT department whether add-ins are allowed on company computers — many organisations restrict them.

How to install a PowerPoint add-in

For classic Windows add-ins, run the installer from the maker’s site, then manage them in File → Options → Add-ins: choose COM Add-ins in the Manage list at the bottom and click Go… to switch them on or off. If PowerPoint becomes slow or crashes on start, this is the place to switch add-ins off one by one.

Add-ins by the job they do

Pictures and icons

Check what PowerPoint already has first: Microsoft 365 includes Insert → Pictures → Stock Images with licensed photos, icons, cut-out people and stickers, and Insert → Icons. Beyond that, add-ins such as Pexels (free stock photos in a side pane) put a photo library inside PowerPoint. Whatever you use, keep the licence in mind when a deck is published or sold.

Charts for analysts and consultants

think-cell is the long-standing standard in consulting for waterfall, Mekko, Gantt and charts with difference arrows and totals that PowerPoint’s own charts make tedious. It is a paid Windows and Mac product licensed per user. Teams that build many data-heavy decks often find it pays for itself; occasional users usually manage with PowerPoint’s built-in waterfall and combo charts.

Diagrams and timelines

Lucidchart and draw.io-based add-ins insert flowcharts and diagrams drawn in those tools. Office Timeline builds timelines and Gantt charts from a list of dates and keeps them editable as PowerPoint shapes. For simpler needs, SmartArt and shapes do the job — see our guide to timelines in PowerPoint.

Live polls, quizzes and Q&A

Mentimeter, Slido and Poll Everywhere let the audience answer on their phones while results appear on the slide; each offers a PowerPoint add-in or integration and a free tier with limits on the number of questions or participants. ClassPoint focuses on teaching, with quizzes and annotation inside PowerPoint on Windows.

Productivity toolkits

Toolkits such as PowerUser and similar ribbon add-ins add buttons for things PowerPoint makes slow: matching sizes, swapping positions, aligning to a grid, inserting standard elements, checking a deck for fonts and inconsistent formatting. They are mostly Windows-only and suit people who build decks daily.

Other useful ones

• QR codes: add-ins such as QR4Office insert a QR code for a link. Newer versions of PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 can also make a QR code without an add-in in some regions.
• Translation: built in under Review → Translate, no add-in needed.
• Accessibility: built in under Review → Check Accessibility.
• Video and screen recording: built in under Insert → Screen Recording and Record.

Overview: which add-in for which need

What to check before you rely on an add-in

1. Data access. The store listing says what an add-in can read: the current slide, the whole document, or data sent to the maker’s servers. Do not use unknown add-ins on confidential decks.
2. Recipients without it. Content made by an add-in usually becomes plain shapes or pictures; live elements (polls, linked charts) may only work on computers that have the add-in. Send a test file.
3. Mac and web. If anyone on the team uses a Mac or the browser, choose Office Add-ins or tools that list those platforms.
4. Company policy. Admins can block or deploy add-ins centrally; ask before you build a workflow around one.
5. Cost per seat. Paid add-ins are usually per user and per year. Multiply before you standardise.

Try the built-in tools first

Many searches for a PowerPoint plugin are for something PowerPoint has learned to do itself in recent versions. Before you install anything, check whether one of these covers the job:

Fewer add-ins mean fewer things to install on a new laptop, fewer surprises for recipients and fewer security questions. Keep add-ins for the jobs where the built-in tool really falls short — and write down which ones your team relies on, so a new colleague can set up the same toolkit in an afternoon.

ExpertSlides beside your add-ins

ExpertSlides is not an add-in — there is no ExpertSlides add-in for PowerPoint today. It works in the browser and hands PowerPoint a finished deck: you describe the presentation or attach your documents, the AI writes the slides in a design of your choice, and you edit them with plain-language instructions as well as by hand. Many add-in jobs are part of the editor: more than 14,000 icons (every style of them on Pro and Business), generated and uploaded pictures, nine kinds of charts with their data, timelines and process slides from the library.

Polls, quizzes, ratings and timers are interactive elements in the Insert tab (on Pro and Business) and work live when you present from ExpertSlides; in a PowerPoint file they arrive as a picture of their state. The export (Pro and Business) writes native PowerPoint objects — editable texts, shapes, tables, charts with Edit Data, transitions and animations — so your PowerPoint add-ins work on the result as on any deck.

Read about the AI in PowerPoint itself on our PowerPoint AI page, compare plans on Pricing, and see the editor’s shapes and symbols and fonts guides. Product names are trademarks of their owners.