Add a voiceover to PowerPoint and Google Slides
To add a voiceover to a presentation, you either record your own voice or generate the narration from your script, then attach one audio clip to each slide. PowerPoint can record directly on a slide and export the result as a video. Google Slides only plays audio files that sit in your Google Drive. Both routes are below, step by step, with the settings that make the audio start by itself.
Record it or generate it?
| Record your own voice | Generate an AI voice | |
|---|---|---|
| Sounds like | You | A consistent narrator |
| Needs | A quiet room and a decent microphone | The script as text |
| Fixing one sentence | Re-record the slide | Edit the text, regenerate that clip |
| Another language | Record again, if you speak it | Translate the script, pick a native voice |
| Cost | Free | About 30 to 60 cents for three minutes of narration |
Record yourself when the audience knows you: a lecture, a team update, a pitch. Generate the voice when the deck will be reused, translated or updated often, or when you would rather not hear your own recording forty times.
Either way, write the narration first, one short paragraph per slide. A script written for the ear has shorter sentences than the slide text, and reading it aloud once shows where it drags. A speaking time calculator tells you how long each slide will run.
Voiceover in PowerPoint
Menu names are from PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 on the desktop, checked against Microsoft’s documentation in October 2026.
Record straight onto a slide
- Open the slide and choose Insert > Audio > Record Audio.
- Name the clip, press Record, speak, press Stop. Play it back and re-record until it is right, then confirm.
- A speaker icon appears on the slide. Select it, open the Playback tab and set Start to Automatically, then tick Hide During Show.
- Repeat for each slide.
Use an audio file (your recording or an AI voice)
- Choose Insert > Audio > Audio on My PC and pick the MP3 for that slide.
- Same Playback settings: start automatically, hide during show.
One clip per slide is the setup to aim for. Play in Background on the Playback tab does something else: it makes a single file play across all slides, which suits music, not narration that has to stay in step with the slides.
Record the whole show in one pass
The Record tab records narration and slide timings together while you click through the deck, and you can re-record a single slide without redoing the rest. Your speaker notes appear at the top of the screen as a teleprompter. Pause while a slide changes: PowerPoint does not record narration during the transition. PowerPoint for the web cannot record a slide show, so use the desktop app.
Export a narrated video
Choose File > Export > Create a Video, keep Use Recorded Timings and Narrations selected, and pick Full HD (1080p). Slides without a recorded timing are shown for five seconds by default, so check that every slide has its clip before exporting.
Voiceover in Google Slides
Google Slides cannot record audio onto a slide. It plays files from your Google Drive, and Google’s help page lists two formats: MP3 and WAV.
- Record or generate one audio file per slide and upload them to Google Drive.
- Open the slide and choose Insert > Audio, then pick the file.
- Select the speaker icon. In the format options, set playback to start automatically and tick Hide icon when presenting.
- Share the audio files with the same people as the deck. A viewer without access to the file sees the slide and hears nothing, and this is the most common reason a narrated deck is silent for everyone but its author.
Slides also has a Rec button in the top right that records you presenting the deck and saves the video to a “Slides recordings” folder in Drive. Google notes it works in Chrome and Edge and may only be available on certain work or school accounts. If your account does not have it, the free video recorder records the screen in any desktop browser, with your camera in a corner if you want it, and saves the video to your computer.
Generating the narration with an AI voice
- Paste the script for one slide into Speecho text to speech.
- Pick a voice and preview it. Previews are free, so try a few in your language.
- Generate the clip and download the MP3. Name it after the slide number.
- Repeat per slide, then insert the files as described above.
A full stop or a comma becomes a pause, and typing [pause] adds about a second of silence where a slide needs room to breathe. For the longer walkthrough, including tiers and voice direction, see how to make an AI voiceover.
Recording your own voice well
- Read from a teleprompter, not from the slide. A free browser teleprompter scrolls the script at your pace, so you stop glancing sideways and losing your place.
- One slide, one take, one file. A browser voice recorder is enough. A mistake then costs you thirty seconds, not the whole recording.
- Keep the microphone a hand’s width from your mouth and record in the smallest carpeted room you have.
- Leave half a second of silence at the start and end of each clip, so slide changes do not clip a word.
FAQ
How do I narrate a PowerPoint presentation?
Either record on each slide with Insert > Audio > Record Audio, or use the Record tab to capture narration and timings for the whole deck in one pass. Set each clip to start automatically and hide the icon during the show.
Can I add a voiceover to Google Slides?
Yes, but not by recording inside Slides. Upload an MP3 or WAV file per slide to Google Drive, insert it with Insert > Audio, set it to play automatically, and share the audio files with your viewers.
Why does my audio not play for other people?
In Google Slides, the audio file in Drive is usually not shared with them. In PowerPoint, a clip set to start “When Clicked On” waits for a click that never comes in a self-running show; set it to start automatically.
Can I turn a narrated presentation into a video?
In PowerPoint, yes: File > Export > Create a Video with recorded timings and narrations. In Google Slides, use the Rec button if your account has it, or record the screen while the deck plays.
How long should the narration for one slide be?
Thirty to sixty seconds for most slides, which is roughly 75 to 150 words at a normal speaking pace. A slide that needs two minutes of talking is usually two slides.
