Synthesia vs HeyGen (2026): Pricing, Features and Which to Choose

Synthesia is built for companies making training, onboarding and internal videos, with team controls, SCORM export and interactive roleplay sessions. HeyGen leans towards creators and marketers who want a realistic avatar of themselves, more languages and video models built into the paid plans. Both have a free plan with watermarked videos, so you can test each before paying.

By PowerfulAI.tools Editorial Team · Checked against each official site on 15 November 2026

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Quick comparison

Synthesia: what it is and what it costs

Synthesia describes itself as an AI video and avatar platform for business. You write a script or a prompt, or drop in a document, PowerPoint or link, and its AI Video Assistant turns it into a video with an AI presenter, voiceover and motion graphics. Its homepage lists AI avatars, an AI video generator, video dubbing and translation, an AI screen recorder and AI motion graphics as the main products.

Much of the site is aimed at company use. Synthesia lists teams such as learning and development, HR, sales enablement, marketing and IT, and use cases such as compliance training, SOP videos and product videos. It says you can lock in a company Brand Kit, assign roles and permissions, and require approval before videos go live. Finished videos can be shared as a link, embedded on a website or exported as SCORM for a learning management system, and edits update everywhere the video is shared. Built-in analytics show views, clicks and how many people watch to the end.

Two newer products set it apart. Roleplay Sessions let staff practise conversations, such as sales calls or customer complaints, with an interactive avatar. Survey Sessions run conversational interviews with an avatar that asks follow-up questions and summarises the key themes. There is also an API for creating videos, dubbing and real-time interactive avatars.

Synthesia pricing

Synthesia now uses credits as a shared currency across video, dubbing, surveys and its Syren feature. Prices below are the regular monthly prices on its pricing page.

• Basic ($0 per month): 10 minutes of Studio video creation or dubbing, 3 survey responses and 500 credits a month. Includes 9 AI avatars, 140+ languages and voices, sharing by link and pre-built templates, roleplays and surveys. Videos carry a Synthesia watermark.
• Starter ($19 per month): 1,250 credits a month on top of the free allowance, which Synthesia says is up to about 12 extra minutes of video or 16 minutes of dubbing. Adds downloads, removes the Synthesia logo, and includes the AI Video Assistant, survey analytics, 125+ AI avatars, 1 editor and 3 guests, and chat or email support.
• Pro ($89 per month): 6,000 credits a month, or up to about 60 extra minutes of video. Adds 5 personal avatars, branded video pages, interactive videos, 180+ AI avatars, 5 guests and priority support. Pro can be raised to 12,000, 24,000, 36,000 or 48,000 credits a month, with the top tier listed at $676 per month.
• Enterprise (custom pricing): unlimited video minutes, one-click translation into 140+ languages, 240+ stock avatars, unlimited personal avatars, SAML/SSO, live collaboration, Brand Kits, SCORM export and a dedicated customer success manager.

When we checked, the pricing page was showing a reduced first-month price on Starter and Pro. That is a limited offer, so we have used the regular prices above. Synthesia also says yearly billing can save up to 4 months. A Studio Express-1 avatar is a paid add-on at $1,000 a year for annual plan users only.

Try Synthesia · See Synthesia alternatives

HeyGen: what it is and what it costs

HeyGen's homepage headline is "AI videos starring you, made in minutes". Its focus is on Personal Avatars: an AI version of your face and voice that can present videos so you do not have to film each one. HeyGen says its Avatar V engine keeps the same identity across angles, expressions and videos, learns how you talk and gesture, and offers wide, medium and close-up framing from one recording. It also says every custom avatar requires on-camera identity verification from the person shown.

Beyond avatars, HeyGen offers Video Agent, which turns a typed idea into a finished, editable video; AI Studio, a text-based editor where you control tone, delivery, gestures and emotion from the script; and Video Translation, which translates uploaded files or YouTube links with lip-sync and voice cloning in 175+ languages and dialects. Its AI tools also cover text to video, image to video, audio to video and PPT or PDF to video. HeyGen says it is now available as a plugin in ChatGPT, and it has an API for developers.

HeyGen pricing

HeyGen splits its plans into options for individuals and for businesses. Yearly billing gives two months free, according to the pricing page.

• Free ($0 per month): 3 videos a month, watermarked, up to 1 minute each. Access to Avatar 6 and Video Agent, one Custom Video Avatar plus 500+ ready-made presenters, and 30+ languages.
• Creator ($29 per month): 600 credits, 1080p export, no HeyGen branding, a Custom Video Avatar with your own voice and likeness, 175+ languages and dialects, videos up to 30 minutes, and up to 10 hours of text to speech with HeyGen Voice. Credits roll over for one month.
• Pro ($49 per month): 1,000 credits, Avatar 6 Pro, 4K export, Cinematic Avatars placed in text-prompted scenes, access to Seedance 2.5, VEO 3.1 and Nano Banana for video and image generation, 16+ hours of text to speech, faster processing and one Professional Voice Clone. You can raise monthly credits at any time.
• Business ($149 per month): 1,500 credits, videos up to 60 minutes, 5 Custom Video Avatars with Avatar 6 Pro, a shared workspace with central billing, SAML/SSO, SCORM export and LMS integrations, and integrations with n8n, Make, HubSpot and Zapier. Extra team members are $20 per seat per month.
• Enterprise (contact sales): no maximum video length, credit volume set to your usage, multi-workspace control, SCIM provisioning, a dedicated customer success manager and invoice billing.

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Which one suits you?

• You run training or compliance content for a company: Synthesia is the closer fit. Its site is built around L&D and HR teams, with approval workflows, Brand Kits, built-in analytics and Roleplay Sessions for practice conversations. Check which of these sit on Enterprise before you commit, as SCORM export, Brand Kits and SAML/SSO are listed there.
• You want a realistic avatar of yourself for social or marketing videos: HeyGen puts Personal Avatars front and centre, and its Creator plan includes a Custom Video Avatar with your own voice and likeness, 1080p export and no branding for $29 a month.
• You are on a tight budget: Synthesia Starter is the cheaper paid entry point at $19 a month, compared with $29 for HeyGen Creator. Compare what each includes, though: HeyGen Creator allows videos up to 30 minutes, while Synthesia Starter adds about 12 minutes of video a month on top of the free allowance.
• You need many languages: HeyGen lists 175+ languages and dialects on paid plans. Synthesia lists 140+ languages and voices, available on every plan including the free one.
• You want other AI video models in the same subscription: HeyGen Pro includes access to Seedance 2.5, VEO 3.1 and Nano Banana. Synthesia does not list outside models on the pages we checked.
• You are a developer building avatar features: both have APIs. Synthesia lists real-time interactive avatars, dubbing and video creation; HeyGen links to separate API pricing from its pricing page.

How we compared them

We used only each company's official website, as saved by our server and checked on 15 November 2026: the Synthesia homepage (https://www.synthesia.io/) and pricing page (https://www.synthesia.io/pricing), and the HeyGen homepage (https://www.heygen.com/) and pricing page (https://www.heygen.com/pricing). Prices are the regular monthly prices shown in dollars on those pages; we did not treat first-month offers as normal prices. We have not included ratings, user counts or claims we could not find on the official sites. Plans and prices change often, so check both pricing pages before you sign up.

Frequently asked questions

Is Synthesia free?

Yes. Synthesia's Basic plan costs $0 per month and needs no credit card. It includes 10 minutes of video creation or dubbing, 3 survey responses and 500 credits a month, but videos carry a Synthesia watermark and you cannot download them until you move to Starter.

Is HeyGen free?

Yes. HeyGen's Free plan gives you 3 watermarked videos a month, each up to 1 minute, with access to Avatar 6, Video Agent and one Custom Video Avatar. Removing the branding and exporting in 1080p starts with the Creator plan at $29 per month.

Is Synthesia better than HeyGen for corporate training?

For most training teams, Synthesia's feature set is more directly aimed at the job: SCORM export, approval workflows, analytics, Roleplay Sessions and an AI Video Assistant that converts documents and PowerPoints into video. HeyGen also offers SCORM export and LMS integrations, but on its Business plan at $149 per month. Trying both free plans with one of your own scripts is the best test.

Which has more AI avatars?

HeyGen lists 500+ ready-made presenters on its Free plan and 700+ on Creator and Pro. Synthesia lists 9 AI avatars on Basic, 125+ on Starter, 180+ on Pro and 240+ on Enterprise. Both let you create a personal avatar of yourself.