You can make a social story for zero dollars in Google Slides, or pay anywhere from about 8 dollars a month to 399 dollars a year for a dedicated tool. The dollar price is the smaller number that matters. In a 2024 community survey of 16 parents, school SLPs, OTs, and special educators, 94% spent 30 or more minutes on a single story and 25% spent 1 to 2 hours. At a school SLP's hourly value, one "free" story can cost more in time than a year of a paid tool. This is a breakdown of both costs, the dollars and the hours.
What does each social story tool actually cost?
Here are the tools school SLPs name most often, with both the sticker price and where the hidden time goes. Prices are approximate and change, so confirm before you buy.
| Tool | Dollar cost | Hidden time cost |
|---|---|---|
| Google Slides / PowerPoint + free images | Free (or ~$70/yr for M365) | High. 30 min to 2 hr per story, mostly image hunting |
| ChatGPT or Claude (free tier) | Free | Medium. Fast text, but you still format and find pictures |
| MagicSchool | Free plan, or ~$8 to $13/user/mo | Medium. Text only, no illustrations or layout |
| Pictello (iOS) | ~$19.99 one-time | Medium. Clean builder, but you supply every photo, no AI |
| ChatGPT Plus / custom GPTs | ~$20/mo | Medium. Better drafts, still text only |
| Boardmaker (Tobii Dynavox) | ~$99 to $199/yr, or ~$399 one-time | High for narratives. Built for AAC boards, steep learning curve |
| TPT / Etsy premade stories | ~$1 to $8 each | Low to make, but not personalized to your student |
| Etsy custom-order stories | ~$20 to $50 each | Low for you, but 1 to 3 day turnaround, does not scale |
| Emoquest | Credit-based (one story per credit), free credits to start | Low. One sentence in, illustrated story out; private beta |
Why is "free" rarely the cheapest option?
The free path is Google Slides plus a Google Images search, and it is free in dollars and expensive in hours. The survey found the slow part is not the writing. It is finding pictures, formatting pages, and personalizing for one specific student. If you make one story a month, free is genuinely the best deal. If you make several a week across a caseload, the time adds up fast.
Money quote from the same survey: "Getting suitable pictures is 90 percent of the work." That single line explains the whole cost picture. Almost every tool solves the text and does nothing for the pictures, which is where the hours actually go. When you compare tools, compare them on the picture problem, not the writing.
How do you calculate the real cost of a story?
Add the dollar cost and the time cost in the same currency. A quick way to do it:
- Estimate your minutes per story with a given tool. Time yourself once, honestly, including the picture hunt.
- Multiply by stories per month. Five stories a month at 45 minutes each is nearly 4 hours.
- Compare that to the subscription. If a paid tool cuts each story from 45 minutes to 10, you save about 3 hours a month. Most SLPs value 3 hours well above an $8 to $13 subscription.
- Weigh reuse. A tool that lets you reuse a scaffold across students lowers the per-story time the most, which is where the survey's top complaint pointed.
Does a pricier tool make a better story?
No. Effectiveness comes from the methodology and the reading schedule, not the price tag. Social narratives are classified as an evidence-based practice for autistic learners by AFIRM and the National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice, regardless of how the story is built. The 2026 Frontiers in Psychology meta-analysis found effectiveness did not depend significantly on whether the story was digital or printed. A free story that is specific and re-read beats a $50 custom story that sits in a drawer.
Which cost profile fits your caseload?
There is no single best answer. Match the tool to how many stories you actually make.
- One story a month or less: Free Google Slides or free ChatGPT. Do not pay for anything.
- A few stories a week, text-first: A free or low-cost AI drafter to kill the blank page, then your own slide template for layout.
- A full caseload, many similar stories: A tool that generates illustrated, reusable stories so you stop rebuilding the same scaffold. This is where the hours, and therefore the money, are.
- A one-off common scenario: A $1 to $8 premade story from TPT, if personalization is not critical for that student.
Second money quote from the survey: "I wish I had a template I could easily customize to change the pictures of the child or parents quickly but keep the same story." The cheapest workflow over a year is the one that lets you reuse, because reuse is what drives the per-story minutes down.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest way to make a social story?
Google Slides or PowerPoint with free images costs nothing in dollars, so it is the cheapest tool on paper. The catch is time. Most school SLPs spend 30 minutes to 2 hours per story that way, mostly hunting for pictures, which is the real cost.
Are there free AI social story generators?
Yes. ChatGPT and Claude have free tiers that draft story text, and MagicSchool offers a free educator plan. All three give you text only, so you still format the pages and find the pictures yourself. Free AI drafts the words, not the finished story.
How much does Boardmaker cost?
Boardmaker (Tobii Dynavox) runs roughly $99 to $199 a year for a subscription, or about $399 one-time for older desktop versions. It is powerful for AAC symbol boards, but many SLPs find it slow for narrative social stories specifically.
Is it worth paying for a social story tool?
It depends on your caseload. If you make one story a month, free Google Slides is fine. If you make several a week, a paid tool that cuts the picture-and-formatting time can pay for itself in hours saved, because your time is the expensive resource, not the subscription.
How much does MagicSchool cost for SLPs?
MagicSchool has a free plan and a paid plan around $8 to $13 per user per month depending on billing. The social story tool is text-only inside a larger suite of teacher tools, so you get fast drafts but no illustrations or page layout.
Are premade social stories from Teachers Pay Teachers cheaper?
Premade stories on TPT or Etsy run about $1 to $8 each, and custom-ordered stories run $20 to $50 each. They are cheap per story but cannot be personalized to your specific student or scenario, which is the whole point of a Carol Gray methodology story.
Does a more expensive tool make a more effective social story?
No. Effectiveness comes from the methodology and the reading schedule, not the price of the tool. AFIRM and NCAEP classify social narratives as evidence-based regardless of how you build them. A free story that is specific and re-read on schedule beats an expensive one that is generic.
One approach for school SLPs short on time is to keep a 5-tool stack: a methodology checklist, a slide template you reuse, a folder of stock photos sorted by scenario, an AI text drafter (ChatGPT, Claude, MagicSchool, or Emoquest for one-sentence-in story output), and a delivery format your district already uses (Google Slides or PDF). Price the tool in dollars and hours together, and remember the hours are the bigger bill.