Pear Deck Chrome Extension: What It Does, Setup and Add-ons Worth Pairing

Is there a Pear Deck Chrome extension, or is it an add-on?

Most teachers searching for the Pear Deck extension actually need the Pear Deck add-on for Google Slides, which installs from the Google Workspace Marketplace and lives inside the Slides menu bar. It is not a toolbar icon in Chrome. Pear Deck also publishes a separate Chrome extension, the Power-Up, which only matters if your slides contain videos, animations or GIFs.

The confusion is understandable. Slides lists add-ons under an Extensions menu, so the path reads like a browser extension even though it is a Workspace add-on tied to your Google account. That difference matters: an add-on follows your Google account, while a Chrome extension is tied to one browser profile.

How do you install the Pear Deck add-on for Google Slides?

Install it once from inside any Slides presentation, grant the Google account permissions it asks for, and it appears under the Extensions menu in every deck after that. The whole process takes a couple of minutes on a desktop or Chromebook.

1. Open Google Slides in Chrome on a computer.
2. Open or create a presentation.
3. Click Extensions > Add-ons > Get add-ons.
4. Search the Marketplace for Pear Deck and open the listing named Pear Deck for Google Slides.
5. Click Install, choose your school account, and review the permissions screen before clicking Allow.
6. Back in the deck, go to Extensions > Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on > Open Pear Deck Add-on. The sidebar opens on the right.
7. If the menu item is missing, reload the tab with Ctrl+R (Windows, ChromeOS) or Cmd+R (Mac).

On a school-managed account, the Install button may be greyed out or replaced by a request option. That means your Google Workspace admin controls which add-ons are allowed; many districts install Pear Deck for every teacher from the Admin console, in which case it is already in your Extensions menu.

How do you start a Pear Deck session and get students in?

Click the Start Lesson button in the Pear Deck sidebar and share the join code or link that appears. In Instructor-Paced mode, Pear Deck opens a Projector View for the class; Student-Paced mode requires a Premium account.

1. With the sidebar open, click Start Lesson.
2. Choose Instructor-Paced to control which slide everyone sees. Student-Paced lets students move on their own but requires a Premium account.
3. A new tab opens with the join code and link. Show it on the projector.
4. Students open joinpd.com, enter the code (or use the join link), and sign in if prompted.
5. Keep the Teacher Dashboard on your own screen so you can see responses privately.
6. Move through the slides in the presenter view; responses collect per slide.
7. When you finish, end the session so nobody keeps submitting to it.

The dashboard and the projector view are separate tabs, which is why so many teachers struggle on a single laptop screen. Mirroring your display shows students everything, including names next to answers. Extend the display instead, or put the dashboard and the presenter view in side-by-side windows on your own screen and project only the student-facing one.

Which interactive slide types does Pear Deck add?

Pear Deck turns a normal slide into a question students answer on their own device. Its own guidance mentions response formats such as drag, draw, multiple choice and text, plus Website slides. Some features, such as Student-Paced mode, need a Premium account, so check the current plan page before planning a lesson around them.

Text

Open-ended written answers. Good for exit tickets and short explanations.

Multiple choice

Pick-an-answer questions. A quick way to check understanding mid-lesson.

Draggable

Students drag a dot or icon onto the slide, such as a point on a map or a position on a scale.

Drawing

Students sketch or annotate on the slide; works best with a touchscreen or stylus.

Website

Shows a web page students can view. Pear Deck's own guidance suggests Website slides for videos students should watch independently.

Pear Deck says installing its extension gives you access to its template library. A template adds a slide you can edit like any other Slides page.

Some sites block embedding and may show a blank frame in a Website slide. If that happens, paste the link into a Text slide instead and ask students to open it in a new tab.

What does the Pear Deck Power-Up Chrome extension do?

The Pear Deck Power-Up is the one genuine Pear Deck Chrome extension in our catalogue. Its listing says it makes your slides play at full resolution, enabling videos, animations and GIFs on the projector and student devices. Its Chrome Web Store page names peardeck.com as the publisher's site.

You do not need it to build or run a normal session. GoGuardian's Pear Deck documentation says regular Pear Deck functionality stays the same with or without the Power-Up, and that without it, videos, animations and GIFs appear as static images.

• Who installs it: only the teacher or presenter. Students do not need it.
• Where it works: Google Chrome only, and only in Instructor-Paced sessions.
• What it shows: animations and GIFs appear on the Projector View and Student View; videos inserted with Insert > Video play on the Projector View.
• Limit: it works on one presentation at a time.
• Install: open the Chrome Web Store listing, click Add to Chrome, then Add Extension.

Our review methodology covers how we judge publisher trust and permission scope, which applies to education extensions exactly as it does to shopping or privacy tools. On a managed Chromebook, only admin-approved extensions install, so a blocked install is policy, not a bug.

Does Pear Deck work on Chromebooks, Macs, iPads and PowerPoint?

Students join with a join code or link, so any device with a modern browser can take part. Teachers build decks inside Google Slides or PowerPoint for the web on a computer, and check Pear Deck's help centre if they want to build from another device.

If you teach on a Mac and use Safari, remember that Chrome extensions, including the Power-Up, will not run there. See how to add extensions to Safari on Mac and iPhone for Safari equivalents.

For PowerPoint users, Pear Deck offers an add-in for PowerPoint for the web. Per Pear Deck's guide, you install it from File > Get Add-ins > More Add-ins, open it from Home > More Options > Pear Deck, and start with Present with Pear Deck.

Why is Pear Deck not working in Chrome?

According to GoGuardian's Pear Deck troubleshooting guide, the usual causes are blocked cookies, Google Workspace restrictions set by your admin, authorization blocks, a stale browser cache or a network firewall. Work through the checks below in order before reinstalling anything.

• Sidebar blank or stuck loading: blocked third-party cookies are the first thing to fix (steps below).
• Add-on missing from the Extensions menu: it may not be installed or allowed by your Google Workspace admin. Reload the deck, reinstall from Extensions > Add-ons > Get add-ons, or ask your admin to install it for all users or allow it in the Marketplace.
• Authorization error or the add-on closes immediately: an admin may need to authorize Pear Deck's client IDs in the Google Admin console; the current IDs are listed in Pear Deck's troubleshooting guide.
• Stale behaviour: clear cached images and files under Settings > Privacy and security > Clear browsing data.
• School network: Pear Deck offers a network test at app.peardeck.com/networktest your IT team can run.
• Blank Website slide: the embedded site may refuse framing; share the link instead.

Cookie problems deserve their own steps, because Pear Deck needs cookies from several domains and Chrome may block them.

1. Open Settings > Privacy and security > Third-party cookies.
2. Under Allowed to use third-party cookies, click Add and enter [*.]peardeck.com.
3. Repeat for [*.]google.com and [*.]youtube.com; Microsoft users also need sign-in.microsoftonline.com.
4. Reload the Slides tab and reopen the add-on.
5. If it still fails, open chrome://extensions and toggle off ad blockers or script blockers one at a time to find a conflict.

On a school Chromebook, some of these settings may be locked by policy, and only your admin can add the exception.

Which Chrome extensions pair well with Pear Deck?

Start with the Power-Up if your slides use video or animation, then add tools that fix friction around the lesson: managing windows, collecting material, tracking follow-ups and inspecting cookies during a sign-in problem. Only the Power-Up is made for Pear Deck; the others are general tools, so test them before class.

For planning rather than presenting, our roundup of AI tools for teachers covers quiz generators and feedback helpers, and the teacher extension hub groups classroom tools by task.

Should you use the add-on, a Chrome extension, or both?

Use the Google Slides add-on for everything Pear Deck itself does, and add Chrome extensions only to smooth the work around it. That split keeps your sessions portable across computers while still fixing the everyday annoyances of a single Chrome profile.

A practical setup for a teacher on a Chromebook or laptop: the Pear Deck add-on installed on the school account, the Power-Up if you present videos or GIFs, a dedicated Chrome profile for that account, Split Screen for the dashboard layout, and one note or task tool for follow-ups.

Before any class, open a test session and join it yourself at joinpd.com from another device or a guest window. Two minutes of rehearsal catches account mix-ups, blocked cookies and embed failures before thirty students are waiting on a code.

Plans, question types and the Microsoft add-in change over time, so check Pear Deck's own site for current pricing and features, and Google's help page on installing and managing Chrome extensions if a companion extension misbehaves. More walkthroughs live on the Find Extensions blog.