Beautiful.ai vs Chronicle

Beautiful.ai

• People without design skills who want slides that format themselves
• Teams that need every deck to follow the same colors, fonts and logos
• Students: a verified .edu email gets Pro free for the first year

Chronicle

• Sales, consulting and startup teams turning notes or documents into client-facing decks
• People who want AI-drafted slides they can still rearrange by hand
• Automating recurring decks from a CRM or workflow tool through the API or MCP

Beautiful.ai

• There is no permanent free plan; the 14-day trial needs a credit card, which is charged unless the trial is canceled in time.
• Paying monthly costs far more for one person: Pro is $45 a month billed monthly against $14.50 a month billed annually.
• The pricing page is inconsistent on Team: the plan card shows $40 a month including 3 users, while its FAQ states $40 per user per month.
• It is a browser-based app; for offline use Beautiful.ai points to exporting a deck as a PDF or PowerPoint file.

Chronicle

• The Free plan is capped at 10 decks and has no AI features; AI generation needs a paid plan with a monthly token allowance.
• PowerPoint export, saved templates and the Muse agent start at Plus, and custom fonts and advanced branding need Max.
• AI tokens are counted per user, are not shared across a workspace and expire at the end of each month.
• Chronicle is a web app; its site does not list desktop or mobile apps.

Beautiful.ai

Smart Slides

More than 300 layouts for data, comparisons, quotes, timelines and image grids that keep spacing, alignment and hierarchy in order as content changes.

AI deck generation

Start from a topic, a pasted outline or source files and links, refine the slide-by-slide outline, then choose a theme and image style before the slides are generated.

Brand controls

Brand colors, fonts and logos are defined once in a custom theme and applied to every slide. Enterprise adds configurable brand guardrails.

Team workspace

The Team plan adds real-time collaborative editing, a central slide and template library, a shared asset library, version control and locked slides.

Sharing and viewer analytics

Decks are presented live, shared by secure link or embedded on a website, and analytics show who viewed a deck, which slides they looked at and for how long.

PowerPoint import and export

PowerPoint files can be imported, and any deck can be exported as an editable .pptx or a PDF. A PowerPoint add-in brings the layout engine into PowerPoint itself.

Chronicle

AI deck generation

Pasted notes, outlines, meeting docs or existing decks are turned into a structured presentation. Generating a deck uses about 10 tokens plus 1 per chapter from the plan's monthly allowance.

Freeform canvas and Muse agent

Generated slides remain editable on a freeform canvas, with control over layout, content, animation and media. From the Plus plan, the Muse agent makes edits from written instructions.

Brand themes and templates

Brand fonts, colors and visual rules are set once and applied to every deck. Custom themes start at Pro, saving and generating from templates at Plus, and custom fonts at Max.

Sharing and export

Decks can be presented, published as a website or exported to PDF on every plan. PowerPoint export starts at the Plus plan.

Embeds

Slides can embed live content from other tools, including Loom and YouTube videos, Google Sheets and Airtable data, Calendly booking pages and Typeform or Tally forms.

API and MCP

A REST API with workspace-scoped keys lists templates and generates presentations, and an MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT and other clients create decks. Zapier, Make and n8n can trigger generation.

Beautiful.ai

• Pro$14.50

  per month, billed annually ($45 billed monthly)

  For 1 person: unlimited AI content generation, over 300 Smart Slide layouts, custom themes, viewer analytics and PowerPoint import and export.

• Team$40

  per month, billed annually ($50 billed monthly)

  For 2 to 20 members, with live co-editing and shared libraries. The plan card says the price includes 3 users; the FAQ on the same page quotes it per user.

• SMB 50$6,000

  per year, flat rate

  Full access for every user at a company of up to 50 employees, with dedicated onboarding and priority support.

• SMB 100$12,000

  per year, flat rate

  Full access for every user at a company of up to 100 employees, with dedicated onboarding and priority support.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Adds single sign-on, SCIM user provisioning, audit logs, configurable brand guardrails, advanced permissions and team training.

Chronicle

• Free$0

  Up to 10 decks with the editing tools, basic preset themes, web publishing, PDF and social export, and 3 guest editors. No AI features.

• Pro$12

  per user / month, billed annually ($15 billed monthly)

  500 AI tokens per seat a month, unlimited decks, no Chronicle watermark, custom themes, a shared workspace and up to 10 guest editors.

• Plus$25

  per user / month, billed annually ($30 billed monthly)

  1,000 tokens per seat a month, the Muse agent for AI edits, higher-quality AI image models, saved templates, PowerPoint export and unlimited guest editors.

• Max$45

  per user / month, billed annually ($59 billed monthly)

  2,000 tokens per user a month, advanced custom branding, custom fonts and priority support.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Quoted by sales: private workspaces, admin controls and permissions, and approved templates with locked brand styles.

Beautiful.ai

• Annual discount

  Lower rates on annual billing

  Pro is $14.50 a month billed annually against $45 billed monthly, and Team is $40 a month billed annually against $50 billed monthly.

• Education

  One year of Pro free for students

  Students with a verified .edu email address can get a free annual Pro subscription. The offer is for new student subscribers only and lasts 12 months from activation.

Chronicle

• Annual discount

  Save up to 20% with annual billing

  The pricing toggle reads "Pay annually (save 20%)": Pro is $12 instead of $15, Plus $25 instead of $30 and Max $45 instead of $59 per user a month.