# How Much Does a Pitch Deck Cost?

> Published 2026-11-12 · Canonical: https://goodglyph.com/en/blog/how-much-does-a-pitch-deck-cost

From free AI tools to agency projects past $10,000. Here are the published price ranges, who published them, what actually moves the number, and how to compare two quotes.

A pitch deck costs anywhere from nothing to well past $10,000, depending on who makes it and how much of the thinking they do. AI tools and templates run from free to under $20 a month. A freelancer typically charges $500 to $1,500 for a designed deck and an agency $3,000 to $10,000, according to the B2B directory GoodFirms. Projects that include writing the story and building the financial slides go past $10,000. Most of these numbers are published by companies that sell decks, so read them as the sellers' view of the market.

That last point shapes the whole article. Almost nobody publishes deck prices except the people selling decks. We still use their numbers, because they're the only numbers out there, but for every range below we name the source and say what they sell. All figures are in US dollars, the way the sources publish them.

## What a pitch deck costs, by who makes it

Five ways to get a deck, from cheapest to most expensive.

- **AI tools and templates: free to about $20 a month.** Gamma has a free plan, with Plus at $9 and Pro at $18 a month billed annually ([Gamma pricing](https://gamma.app/pricing)). Pitch has a free plan and paid plans from €10 a month billed yearly ([Pitch pricing](https://pitch.com/pricing)). Canva has a free plan too. Ready-made deck templates usually cost $30 to $100, per Slidebean, which sells deck software and design services.
- **A freelancer, paid per slide: $15 to $100 a slide.** That's SlideModel's range, from its [presentation design pricing guide](https://slidemodel.com/presentation-design-pricing/) (February 2025). SlideModel sells templates and an AI presentation maker. Entry-level designers sit at the bottom of the range.
- **A freelancer, paid per deck: $500 to $1,500.** That's the GoodFirms figure, from its [graphic design cost breakdown](https://www.goodfirms.co/blog/how-much-graphic-design-services-cost), updated July 2026. GoodFirms is a directory and review platform for agencies. Waveup, a London deck consultancy, gives a close range in its [agency vs. freelancer guide](https://waveup.com/blog/pitch-deck-agency-vs-freelancer/): $50 to $150 an hour, with design-only projects landing around $500 to $2,000.
- **An agency: $2,000 to $10,000.** GoodFirms says agency quotes run $3,000 to $10,000. Waveup puts agency builds at $2,000 to $10,000.
- **Strategy, story and design together: $10,000 and up.** Waveup says strategy-heavy engagements start around $10,000, and its own investor decks start at $6,000. Slidebean's [cost article](https://slidebean.com/blog/startups-how-much-does-a-pitch-deck-cost) puts a full deck from scratch at no less than $1,500, rising to $5,000 or $10,000.

The freelance marketplace Twine sorts the market differently, by level in its [pitch deck cost guide](https://www.twine.net/blog/how-much-does-a-pitch-deck-cost) (November 2025). A basic deck of 10 to 15 slides with a clean layout costs $1,000 to $3,000, a standard deck $3,000 to $7,000, and a premium one $7,000 and up. Twine calls these "ballpark figures." So do we.

### Who publishes these numbers

Look at the list of sources again. Waveup and Slidebean sell deck design. SlideModel sells templates and an AI tool. Twine and GoodFirms earn from the freelancers and agencies listed on their platforms. A deck agency has a reason to make agencies look worth it, and a template seller has a reason to make design look expensive. The ranges still agree with each other more than you'd expect, which is why we trust the bands. Trust any single number less.

## What moves the price of a pitch deck

Two decks with the same slide count can get quotes ten times apart, and both quotes can be fair. Six things explain most of the gap.

**Who writes the story.** This is the biggest one. Laying out slides from a narrative the founder already wrote is design work. Working out the narrative itself (the problem, the market, the traction, the ask, and the order they go in) is strategy work, and strategy is billed at strategy rates. Waveup lists strategy consulting at $200 to $500 an hour. A founder who arrives with a written story pays for a designer. A founder who arrives with a folder of notes pays for a strategist too.

**The financial slides.** Charts for revenue, unit economics and the use of funds take longer than any other slide, because the numbers have to be right and readable at a glance. Waveup's [cost guide](https://waveup.com/blog/pitch-deck-cost/) lists financial model integration as an add-on of $500 to $2,000 at agency rates.

**Slide count.** Most designers price in tiers of 10, 15 and 20-plus slides, Twine notes. Past the base tier, extra slides get billed one by one. A Romanian designer we found on Contra charges $100 for each slide beyond the first 15.

**Revision rounds.** Two or three rounds are standard. Waveup's guide collects extra rounds at $200 to $300 each from freelancers and $300 to $500 from agencies.

**The brand underneath.** A deck sits on a visual identity: logo, colors, fonts, image style. If the company has one, the designer applies it. If it doesn't, the designer invents one on the fly, and the founder pays for that invention twice, once now and again when the real brand arrives and the deck has to be redone.

**The deadline.** Rush fees are real. The studios quoted in Waveup's guide charge 25 to 100 percent extra for compressed timelines, depending on how compressed.

## What you get at each level

The price bands buy different things, and the difference shows up in the files you receive, the hours someone spends on your story, and what happens after the meeting.

At the **template or AI level**, you get a layout. The tool fills in structure and styling, and you supply every word and every number. For a first draft, an internal update or an accelerator application, that's often enough.

At the **freelancer level**, you get a designer applying craft to your content. The Romanian Contra listing above is a fair picture of a good package: up to 15 custom slides, charts formatted from your data, three revision rounds, editable Figma files and a high-resolution PDF, delivered in about a week from the day you hand over final content. Note the condition. The clock starts when your content is done, because the designer isn't writing it.

At the **agency level**, you get a team and a process: someone who questions the story, a designer, sometimes a copywriter, and a schedule. Waveup puts agency timelines at two to six weeks.

At the **strategy level**, you get the thinking: the narrative, the investor questions you haven't answered yet, the proof you're missing. It often comes with design, but it doesn't have to. Another Romanian listing on Contra sells only this part, for $699: an audit of the existing deck, a fundraising narrative, slide-by-slide recommendations and a checklist of missing evidence, with visual design explicitly excluded.

One more distinction a good quote should settle is the **reading deck vs. the presenting deck**. A deck you email has to work without you in the room, so it carries more text. A deck you present can be sparse, because you're the one talking. Many founders need both, and some designers quote them as two jobs.

## Pitch deck prices in Romania

We looked for Romanian studios that publish deck prices on their own sites and found none. The local market sits on platforms instead.

On Contra, two Romanian listings mark the ends of the freelance range: $699 for story and structure with no design, and $1,500 for up to 15 designed slides with source files. On the agency directory DesignRush, a Romanian studio that specializes in pitch decks lists a minimum project budget of $1,000 to $10,000 and an average rate of $75 an hour.

That puts Romanian freelancers inside or slightly above the GoodFirms freelance band. If you expected a big local discount, these listings say otherwise: they're priced in dollars, for founders anywhere, and the rates match.

## When a template or an AI tool is enough

Use the free or cheap end when the deck has a small audience that already knows you: an accelerator application, an update for existing investors, a first pass to test whether your story holds together. AI tools are good at the last one. Seeing your argument laid out in ten slides shows you the gaps faster than staring at a document.

Pay for a designer when the deck goes to people who see hundreds of them. An investor reads your deck next to decks made by professionals, and a template everyone has seen signals that the company stopped at good enough. Pay for strategy when you can't yet say your story in a few sentences. Design can't fix a story that isn't written.

A practical test: write the deck's argument as a one-page document first. If the page is clear and you're confident in it, you need a designer. If writing the page is a struggle, the struggle is the part you'd be paying a strategist to solve.

## How to compare two pitch deck quotes

Quotes look incomparable because they describe different jobs. Put them side by side against the same list.

Start with who writes the words. If one quote includes copy and the other assumes you supply it, the price gap is mostly that. Then compare the slide count and what each extra slide costs, the number of revision rounds, and whether the financial charts are included or billed separately. Ask about the files you get at the end: editable source files in Figma, PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides, or only a PDF. A PDF-only deck means paying the designer every time a number changes, and during a raise the numbers change weekly.

Then the timeline, and when it starts: from signing, or from the day your content is final. Last, ownership. The files should be yours, with fonts and images licensed for your use.

A quote that answers all of this in writing is usually from someone who has done it before.

## The GoodGlyph take

The price of a pitch deck follows who does the thinking. Write the story yourself first, even badly, and you'll pay less for every option on the list, because whoever you hire starts from your argument instead of from zero.

Then make sure the deck sits on a brand, and if there isn't one yet, plan for it. We wrote a separate guide to [what a visual identity costs](https://goodglyph.com/en/blog/how-much-does-a-visual-identity-cost). If you're still deciding what to build first, our piece on [what an MVP is](https://goodglyph.com/en/blog/what-is-an-mvp) helps with that conversation, and investors will ask about it.

We make decks as part of our [graphic design service](https://goodglyph.com/en/services/graphic-design), for founders who have the story and need it to look as serious as the company. Every custom project we take on also starts with a deck we build for the client, laying out the scope and the plan. So we know the format from both sides of the table.

## FAQ

### How much should a pitch deck cost?

For a designed deck where you supply the story, budget roughly $500 to $1,500 for a freelancer or $3,000 to $10,000 for an agency, per GoodFirms. If you need help writing the story and the financial slides as well, expect $10,000 and up. AI tools and templates cost from nothing to about $20 a month.

### How much does a professional pitch deck cost?

Professional usually means a designer or an agency. Twine's guide puts a basic professional deck of 10 to 15 slides at $1,000 to $3,000, a standard one at $3,000 to $7,000, and a premium one at $7,000 and up. The higher tiers include strategy and messaging work alongside the design.

### How many slides should a pitch deck have?

Around ten for the main deck. Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 rule says ten slides, twenty minutes, and no font smaller than thirty points. Sequoia's business plan guide also has ten sections, from company purpose to vision. Keep extra detail in an appendix.

### Can I make a pitch deck with AI?

Yes, and for a first draft it's a good idea. Tools like Gamma, Pitch and Canva have free plans and can turn an outline into slides in minutes. For the deck you send to investors, have a person check the story and the numbers, and bring the design up to the level of the decks it will be read next to.

### How long does it take to design a pitch deck?

A freelancer usually takes a few days to two weeks and an agency two to six weeks, per Waveup. A redesign of an existing deck can take three to five business days. Most timelines start when your content is final, so the writing time comes on top.

### Do I need a brand before I make a pitch deck?

It helps a lot. A designer working without a brand has to invent colors, fonts and a logo treatment for the deck, and you pay again when the real identity arrives. If you have no brand yet, do at least the core identity first, or ask the designer to build the deck so it's easy to update later.

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