Canva vs Gamma: Which Free Plan Works for a Classroom in 2026

Verdict: For a K-12 classroom, Canva is the stronger free choice. Its education terms are written for teachers and students, and the official page says it never trains its models on student data. Gamma is the better pick for a single teacher who wants an AI first draft and is willing to start on a free plan with a fixed credit pool. Both produce a file a school can open. The difference is who is allowed in for free.

Canva and Gamma appear next to each other in almost every search about AI slide tools, and both have free plans. Those free plans look similar on a comparison chart but serve different people. This article scores the two on the same five dimensions the Board uses for all ten entries, then explains where each one earns its points. Here, “presentation maker” means a tool that produces a deck you can edit and present, not a generator for one quick slide.

Who should read this

Read this if you are a classroom teacher, a school technology lead, or a student deciding which tool to use for a class project. If you work in higher education, read the Canva section on eligibility before you rely on the score, because the education page we read covers K-12 only.

Scorecard

Column weights are fixed, and a zero means this review could not confirm the field.

The Canva total of 90 is the highest on the Board’s list. The Gamma total of 40 is lower mostly because Gamma’s official pages do not describe an education path, and because its data statements did not appear in the pages this review read.

Where Canva wins

Canva’s education page says Canva Education is free for K-12 educators, their students and qualified school districts, and that it will remain free for those groups. A teacher verifies with an education email or proof of employment. Students join only when their teacher invites them, which keeps a class roster inside the teacher’s account.

The same page makes three data statements that the Board counts toward the data-terms dimension. Canva says it never uses student data to train AI models. It describes its education offer as compliant with FERPA and COPPA. It also says districts can deploy the product through single sign-on. Those three statements are why Canva scores 15 of 15 on data terms, which ties Google Slides with Gemini for the top mark among the ten entries.

On output, Canva’s help center lists PPTX as a supported download type for presentations, and its presentation page describes converting a design into a PowerPoint file. A teacher who builds a deck in Canva can hand the class a file that opens in PowerPoint. The output is not identical to a native PowerPoint file, and fonts may need to be installed on the receiving machine, so check the result before a class depends on it.

Where Gamma wins

Gamma’s free plan is generous in a narrower way. A new account starts with 400 credits, which do not refresh. Each prompt can produce up to 10 slides on the free plan. The free plan can import PDF and PPTX files and export to PDF, PPTX, PNG and Google Slides. For a teacher who wants to test whether an AI-drafted outline is worth the time, that is a real trial with no card required.

Gamma’s help center explains that the company has no traditional free trial, and that new accounts start on the free plan with no time limit. The credits are the constraint. Every AI action, including generating slides and images, draws from the same pool, so a teacher who plans to build many decks should expect to run out before the end of the term.

Gamma also earns the full 25 on editable output. Its free plan exports PPTX, so the output dimension is not the difference between the two products. The difference is school access and data terms.

Where the points stop

The Board does not score output quality. A good-looking deck from either tool depends on the topic, the prompt and the person editing. Two products with the same editable-output score can produce very different slides.

The Board also did not read Gamma’s paid plan prices from Gamma’s own pricing page in this run, because that page did not load for the capture. A third-party review that says it checked the pricing page on 5 October 2026 lists the Plus plan at about $9 per user per month on annual billing. The Board does not use that figure as a fact. It counts only as a background note, and it earns Gamma 10 of 20 points on price visibility.

Who should choose which

Choose Canva if you teach in a K-12 school, if your students are in K-12, and if you want the school’s data statements in writing on the vendor page before sign-up. Canva’s free path is the one most directly written for a classroom.

Choose Gamma if you are a teacher outside that eligibility, if you want to test an AI-first draft on a free plan, and if you are willing to watch the credit count. Gamma can also be the better tool for a short project where a single share link matters more than a school account.

If you are in a school already running Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, compare both with the suite tools on the main ranking before you add a separate subscription.

Evidence and method

Sources, all read on 17 October 2026: Canva Education, Canva’s download file types guide, Gamma’s pricing summary, and Gamma’s upgrade guide. Gamma’s pricing page did not load when fetched directly, so its summary was read through a search result. The paid-plan figure for Gamma comes only from a third-party review. Rules for each point sit on the methodology page, and the table behind this article is on the results page.

Limits: prices change, education terms can change without notice, and a free-plan limit is only as current as the capture date. Re-check both vendors before you buy anything for a school.

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