How to Use Elai.io to Turn a Slide Deck Into a Video

The short answer: write the script into the deck's speaker notes, import the PPTX into Elai in Editable Mode, pick an avatar and voice, read every slide in the storyboard, preview as often as you like for free, render once, and share a link rather than an MP4 if the video has quizzes or buttons.

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Most of what an Elai video costs is decided before you open Elai. Render minutes are the meter, each render charges the video's full length again, and previews cost nothing (render minutes article). So the work goes into the deck and the preview, and the Render button gets one press. For what the product includes and costs, see the Elai.io glossary entry.

What you need, and one sum:

1. Count the minutes before the slides. For example, a 12-slide deck with 40 seconds of narration per slide runs 480 seconds, which is 8 minutes. Creator includes 15 minutes a month for $29 on monthly billing (pricing page, checked on 24 October 2026), so one render fits and a second full render of the same video runs 1 minute over, at $2 for the extra minute.
2. Use the deck you already present. In Editable Mode, Elai turns speaker notes into the avatar's speech (PowerPoint guide). One idea per slide keeps you inside the limit of 60 seconds of speech per slide for basic avatars (first video guide).
3. Decide what finished means. Elai's preview page reports views, watch time, average percentage watched and completion rate for each video. Pick the one that answers your question, say completion for onboarding, before anyone watches it.

The Free plan is enough to test the workflow on three slides: it renders 1 minute across the account, needs no card, and caps each video at 3 slides (Free plan article).

Step 1: Import the deck in Editable Mode

From My Videos, click Create Video, select Import from file and drop in the PPTX, as the PowerPoint guide describes. On the Select Conversion Mode screen, Editable Mode keeps text boxes and images as separate elements and converts the speaker notes; Image Mode flattens each slide into a background, the way a PDF is handled. The choice is final for that upload, so pick Editable unless the design must stay pixel-for-pixel.

If the deck uses fonts your account does not have, a Missing fonts detected screen offers three ways out: search and upload them to the Brand Kit, swap in defaults, or fall back to Image Mode.

Step 2: Set presenter, brand and AI options

Under Presenter, choose Avatar or Voice Only and a gender; Elai applies a default avatar and voice that you can change later. Apply a Brand Kit if you are on Team or Enterprise. Under AI Enhancements, available from Creator, leave Generate speech with AI switched off when your notes are the script, because it writes new narration from the slides to a target length of 15 to 45, 45 to 120 or 120 to 300 seconds. Quiz generation at this stage is Enterprise only, per the PowerPoint guide.

Step 3: Read the storyboard aloud

Conversion takes several minutes. In Editable Mode you land in the AI Storyboard, which shows every slide's script and text in one view; edit there, or click Open Editor for detailed changes. Read each script aloud once. A line that looks short on a slide often runs long when spoken, and the counter above the speech field shows how much of the slide's allowance it uses (first video guide).

Step 4: Fix voices and names

In the speech panel, choose the language and voice, and use Apply to all slides for a single presenter. Phoneme corrects how a product name or acronym is said, Pause inserts a break, and Mark tags a word so an on-screen element appears with it. For a list of terms that recur across videos, the pronunciation guide covers the phoneme dictionary and SSML tags.

Step 5: Add one check for the viewer, if the video teaches

From the Interactivity tab in the right sidebar, add a quiz question or a button at the end of a section (first video guide). One per section is plenty. Interactive elements only work in Elai's player, which decides how you share the result in step 7.

Step 6: Preview, then render once

Click Preview to play every slide in order, or the play icon under the canvas for one slide. Previews are free and unlimited, but they leave out avatar lip sync and transitions, which Elai generates during rendering (preview article). A silent avatar in preview is normal.

When it is right, click Render, compare Approximate video duration with Minutes left, set subtitles, choose 1080p or 4K and click Start render. Keep a small reserve of minutes, because transitions can make the file run slightly longer than the estimate. A plan sold by the minute is paid the same for a corrective render as for the first one; the free preview is where you protect your side of that.

Step 7: Share it where the quiz still works

Finished videos show a Ready badge in My videos. From the video's preview page you can download an MP4 or MP3, turn on Published and copy a link or embed code, export SCORM, or send it to Panopto (first video guide). Use the link or embed for anything interactive, since the MP4 drops quizzes and buttons. The analytics icon on the same page shows reach, watch time and engagement depth over a period you choose.

Step 8: Let Zapier render the personalised copies

Once one video works, save it as a template and let an automation fill it. In Zapier, create a Zap with a trigger such as a new Google Sheets row or a HubSpot form submission, then add the Elai action Render video from template and connect it with the API token from the API settings at the bottom of My Profile (Zapier article). Only a Workspace Admin can generate that token (API article). Map each sheet column to the matching template field and test with one row.

Keep a person between the render and the recipient. Let the Zap stop at rendering, have the owner of the list watch each new video in My videos, and send the link by hand until a batch has gone out without a wrong name on screen. Every render also spends minutes, so a mapping error costs twice.

Mistakes Elai's own guides warn about

• Rendering to check a typo. Each render deducts the full length again, and deleting a video does not return the minutes (render minutes article).
• Rewriting a tuned script with AI. The magic-wand rewrite removes speech marks, phonemes and pauses on that slide, and synced elements lose their timing (first video guide).
• A PDF at the wrong size. PDF pages become static backgrounds, and pages that do not match the slide size look cropped or stretched (PowerPoint guide).
• Saving monthly minutes for later. On a monthly Team subscription unused minutes expire at the end of each billing cycle (Team plan article).

FAQ

Do speaker notes become the script automatically?

Only in Editable Mode. Image Mode keeps each slide as a background image, and AI-written speech is a separate opt-in from Creator upwards, per the PowerPoint guide.

What happens to minutes I do not use?

Monthly minutes expire at the end of the billing cycle. Annual Team plans hand out the year's minutes up front, 600, 1,200 or 1,800 depending on the tier, according to the Team plan article.

Can I translate the video once it is finished?

Yes. The pricing page lists automatic translation on every plan, Free included. The translated version still has to be rendered, and every render deducts its length from your minutes.