Microsoft Powerpoint and Google Slides are two of the most popular slideshow editing applications, so it’s likely that you will eventually need to use a file from one application in the other one.
Microsoft Powerpoint has long been a favorite application for creating and editing presentations that you might need to give for work or school.
But over time more companies have entered this space, including Google. There is an application called Google Slides that you can use to create similar presentations for free, simply by having a Google account. Those presentations can then be saved to your Google Drive and accessed from any computer with Internet access.
But even if you have already made the switch to Google Slides, you might find that you still have a lot of Powerpoint files, or that people are sharing Powerpoints with you and you would prefer to edit them in Google Slides. Fortunately you can convert Powerpoint files to the Google Slides format and edit them there.
How to Convert Powerpoint to Google Slides
- Sign into Google Drive.
- Click New, then File Upload.
- Select the Powerpoint file and click Open.
If the conversion doesn’t happen automatically then you might need to adjust a Google Drive setting. We discuss this below.
Our article continues below with additional information and pictures for these steps.
How to Convert a Powerpoint File to Google Slides
The steps in this article were performed in the desktop version of the Google Chrome Web browser. This guide assumes that you already have a Powerpoint file that you want to convert to Google Slides. Note that while most files will convert without issue, you may encounter some scenarios where certain slide elements change.
Step 1: Open a browser tab and navigate to your Google Drive at https://drive.google.com.
If you aren’t already signed in you will be prompted to do so.
Step 2: Click the New button at the top-left of the window, then choose the File upload option.

Step 3: Browse to the Powerpoint file that you want to convert, select it, then click the Open button.

If the file is not automatically converted to Google Slides, then you will need to right-click it, select the Open with option, then choose Google Slides.

If the file conversion did not happen automatically after uploading, then you may need to change a Google Drive setting. You can do this by clicking the gear icon at the top-right of the Google Drive window and choosing the Settings option, then checking the box to the left of Convert uploaded files to Google Docs editor format and clicking the Done button.

If you would like to go the other way with the conversion and save your Google Slides file as a Powerpoint file, then this article can show you how to do that.
You can perform a similar action for Microsoft Word documents and Google Docs, as well as Microsoft Excel files and Google Sheets.
See also
- How to add an arrow in Google Slides
- How to add bullet points in Google Slides
- How to convert Google Slides to a PDF
- How to delete a text box in Google Slides
- How to print multiple slides on one page in Google Slides
Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.
After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.
His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.
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