Lectern AI — Talk tracks for every slide.

What it does

One deck. Every artifact your students need.

Drop in PowerPoint, PDF, Word, Excel, OpenDocument, RTF, EPUB, or CSV. Lectern writes everything that goes around it. You stay in your voice. You keep your slides.

Talk tracks per slide

Two-to-four-minute instructor narration for every slide, written in your subject template's voice with real-world examples and exam tips.

Labs, quizzes, handouts

Hands-on exercises, multi-format quizzes, and student handouts as branded PDFs — generated from the same deck pass.

AI slide diagrams

Auto-detects when a slide needs a flowchart, decision tree, comparison matrix, or pyramid — renders one inline in the PDF.

Turbo 4× + Multi-Provider

Concurrent slide processing across one or many LLM providers. Big decks finish in a fraction of the time of serial generation.

Live web research

Optional concurrent search across Brave, Serper.dev, and Tavily, embedded directly in the per-slide generation prompt.

Multi-display presenter

Assign Presenter, Audience, Confidence, and Editor roles to specific monitors. Hardware slide remotes drive every window.

Markdown editor toolbar

Bold ⌘B, Italic ⌘I, Bullet ⌘⇧8. Markup stays in the file; the PDF and PPTX renderers parse it natively.

Privacy first

Sandboxed, no telemetry, no hardcoded keys. Your slides go only to the LLM you choose with the key you own.

How it works

Seven steps, one cup of coffee.

Lectern is a wizard. Each step does exactly one thing so you always know where you are.

Select file

Drag in a PowerPoint, PDF, Word, Excel, OpenDocument, RTF, EPUB, or CSV file. Word, Excel, OpenDocument, RTF, EPUB, and CSV convert to decks entirely on your Mac. Lectern parses the deck, extracts text via the slide XML or PDF font analysis, OCRs image-only slides.

Configure

Pick organization, subject template, audience, and AI provider. Paste your API key once — it stays in the macOS Keychain.

Select slides

Grid, list, or full-screen viewer. Filter by selected / unselected / has-notes, range-select with `1-5, 8, 12-15`.

Output options

Toggle the artifacts you want — PDF talk tracks, PPTX notes, labs, quizzes, handouts, AI diagrams. Pick speed mode.

Processing

Watch live: progress ring, per-slide preview, optional research inspector, token + cost meter. Pause or cancel any time.

Preview & edit

Markdown toolbar above the editor. Compare original vs refined. Regenerate one slide. Launch the multi-display presenter.

Build & done

Branded PDF, PPTX with embedded speaker notes, plus labs / quizzes / handouts / images as separate PDFs.

Inside the app

Designed to disappear.

The wizard chrome stays out of the way. Dark-mode-aware brand teal, Liquid Glass on macOS 26, every CTA the same shade.

Lectern File Selection step with the wizard chrome and a sample PowerPoint loaded

File Selectionmarketing/screenshots/build-20/01-preview-edit.png

File Selection — open a .pptx or .pdf to begin

Lectern File Selection step with a deck loaded and ready to process

Deck loadedmarketing/screenshots/build-20/02-sidebar.png

Deck loaded — 7-step wizard with state-circle progress

Lectern Output Options step with talk-track, lab, quiz and handout toggles

Output Optionsmarketing/screenshots/build-20/03-paywall.png

Output Options — pick talk tracks, labs, quizzes, handouts

Lectern Preview & Edit screen with markdown toolbar and side-by-side compare

Preview & Editmarketing/screenshots/build-20/04-build-done.png

Preview & Edit — markdown toolbar + side-by-side compare

Pricing

Free to try. Pro to scale.

3 free generations to make sure Lectern fits how you teach. Then $4.99/month or $29.99/year — half off when you go annual.

Free

3 presentations · forever

Talk tracks per slide (Standard speed)
PDF + PPTX speaker notes export
3 Presenter View sessions
Default org / subject / audience
5 built-in audience personas
System-provided LLM providers

Save 50%

Pro · Annual

$29.99 / year

≈ $2.50/mo, billed yearly · monthly $4.99 also available

Unlimited presentations
Turbo 4× + Multi-Provider speed modes
Pass 2 refinement (cohesive narrative)
Live web research per slide
Labs, quizzes, handouts, AI slide images
Custom organizations, audiences, prompts
Add any LLM provider · batch up to 10 files

Common questions

Answers before you ask.

Quick hits. Longer detail lives in the in-app FAQ at Settings → About.

Does Lectern send my slides to a server?

No. Lectern is sandboxed and has no servers. Your slide content goes only to the LLM provider you pick, using the API key you own. The macOS Keychain holds your keys locally; Apple's Vision OCR runs on-device.

Which LLM providers are supported?

Seven out of the box: MiniMax, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, and Grok. Pro users can add any OpenAI-compatible provider — including local endpoints like Ollama, LM Studio, and vLLM.

How much will it cost me per deck?

Token usage and an estimated dollar cost are visible during generation. With MiniMax, a 20–40 slide deck typically runs $0.02–$0.10. Claude / Gemini are roughly 10–20× pricier per token; you trade off cost for output quality.

Will it work on my Intel Mac?

Lectern requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) and is built natively for Apple Silicon. It runs on Intel Macs via Rosetta but you'll get the best experience on M-series hardware, especially for OCR and PPTX rendering.

Can I cancel Pro any time?

Yes. Manage your subscription from Settings → General → Manage Subscription (or System Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions). Cancel before the end of the billing period; you keep Pro until the period ends.