Synthesia vs HeyGen: Pricing, Avatars and Which to Pick (2026)

Which is better, Synthesia or HeyGen?

For most buyers, HeyGen, by a modest margin. It has more stock avatars, 175+ languages and SCORM, LMS and brand-kit features on a self-serve plan. Synthesia is the pick when you run training and want to know exactly how many finished minutes each plan buys, or when your legal team wants the strictest consent policy and the compliance paperwork.

Both tools turn a script into a video with an AI presenter, both offer custom avatars of real people, and both translate videos. The split is in how they sell it. Synthesia sells a minutes budget with enterprise features behind a sales call. HeyGen sells credits, with team features on a $149 plan you can buy yourself.

What do Synthesia and HeyGen cost?

Synthesia is cheaper to enter on annual billing, the two tie month to month, and HeyGen is cheaper at the mid tier, but HeyGen leaves out the number you need to compare them.

Synthesia states its allowance: Starter gives 1,250 credits a month (about 12 minutes of video) and Pro gives 6,000 (about 60 minutes). Credits are used at about 100 per finished minute. That puts Starter at roughly $1.44 a minute billed annually, and Pro at roughly $1.07. New paying customers get a discounted first month on monthly billing: $14 on Starter and $49 on Pro.

HeyGen gives 600 credits on Creator, 1,000 on Pro and 1,500 on Business, but does not say how many credits a minute of avatar video uses. Its help center says some features charge per minute and others a flat amount, and the app shows the cost before you generate. We cannot give you a per-minute price for HeyGen, and you should be wary of any page that does. Test one real script on the free plan to find out what your video costs. Then run the numbers in our true cost calculator.

Credits behave differently too. Synthesia credits reset each billing period, though credit packs you buy separately last 12 months. HeyGen monthly plans roll unused credits over for one extra cycle, and annual plans accumulate them until renewal. Cancel HeyGen and you lose what is left.

Which free plan is better?

Synthesia’s, if you want to test properly. Basic includes 10 minutes of video or dubbing a month, 500 credits and 9 stock avatars, with a Synthesia logo on the output. You can build a real draft of a training module.

HeyGen’s Free plan gives 3 videos a month, capped at 1 minute each, with a watermark. You do get 500+ stock avatars, one custom video avatar, up to three photo avatars and one voice clone, so you can see the avatar quality on your own face. HeyGen’s help center says the free video count is 1 to 3 depending on region, so you may get fewer.

Does Synthesia cost money, and is it worth it?

It costs money once you outgrow Basic, which is free. Starter is $29 a month and Pro is $89 a month, with $14 and $49 first months. Whether that is worth it depends on volume. At about 100 credits per finished minute, Starter’s 1,250 credits buy about 12 minutes and Pro’s 6,000 buy about 60, so a team that publishes a few training modules a month gets a predictable bill. A team that wants dozens of short clips a month will find the minutes run out fast. Because purchases are non-refundable, build one real module on Basic before you pay.

Which has better avatars?

HeyGen offers more choice. Its Free plan lists 500+ stock avatars and paid plans 700+, against Synthesia’s 125+ on Starter, 180+ on Pro and 240+ on Enterprise.

Realism is a different question, and we do not have a neutral answer. We did not run a side-by-side test, and neither vendor publishes one. The pages that rank for this search are mostly written by rival vendors, and each declares its own tool the winner. Judge it yourself: both free plans let you generate a short clip with your own script.

How do custom avatars and consent compare?

Both let you build an avatar of a real person, and both require that person’s participation. Synthesia is stricter. The person depicted must record their own consent video and create the avatar in their own account, and nobody can submit one for them, even with permission. You get 3 personal avatars on Starter and 5 on Pro. A Studio avatar is a separate paid add-on at $1,000 a year on annual plans.

HeyGen’s video avatars also need a consent video from the person depicted. That person can record it on a phone through a QR code, and HeyGen’s biometric notice says it compares face geometry between the consent video and the footage. Photo avatars and prompt-created characters carry no consent step. That is convenient for a creator, and a flag for a company with a deepfake policy. Custom video avatars: 1 on Free and Creator, 5 on Business, 10+ on Enterprise.

Is Synthesia safe to use?

Synthesia’s security site lists SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 42001 and GDPR compliance, and it links a content moderation policy. The consent rule above is the other safeguard: nobody can build a personal avatar of you without your own recorded consent. We have not audited any of these claims, and the page did not show audit dates or scope. If your legal team needs the reports, ask Synthesia for them.

HeyGen is less strict on photo avatars, which carry no consent step, so a company with a deepfake policy should write its own rule for them.

Which handles languages and dubbing better?

HeyGen on count, Synthesia on clarity. Synthesia lists 140+ languages and voices on every plan, with dubbing in 70+ languages on Starter and Pro and 140+ on Enterprise. Dubbing costs 80 credits a minute with lip-sync, 40 without.

HeyGen advertises 175+ languages and dialects on paid plans, and 30+ on Free. Video translation runs up to 30 minutes on Creator and Pro and 60 on Business. HeyGen does not publish the credit cost of translation. German is on HeyGen’s translate page; we did not confirm it on Synthesia’s pages today. If localization is your main job and you need a language outside Synthesia’s dubbing list, check that language in both free trials first.

Which is better for corporate training and L&D?

It depends on whether you need LMS features without a contract.

Synthesia lists SAML SSO, SCORM export and brand kits on Enterprise only. It also lists 60+ templates, interactive videos and branded video pages starting on Pro. Its review on our site covers the compliance documentation (SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 42001, GDPR) in more depth. If you are buying for a large company with a security questionnaire, that paperwork matters.

HeyGen puts SCORM export, LMS integrations and a brand kit on Business at $149 a month for the first seat, plus $20 per extra seat. Enterprise adds SCIM. A five-person training team on Business pays $229 a month, which is a number you can put in a budget request without a sales call. Synthesia gives you no such number for the same features.

Neither tool is built to be your LMS. Both export or embed a video that you then host. Synthesia’s SCORM package, for example, embeds a player hosted by Synthesia rather than including the video file.

Which is better for marketing and creators?

HeyGen has the edge. 1080p export on Creator, 4K on Pro, a larger avatar library, photo avatars, and 175+ languages suit a team making product explainers, ads and social video in several markets. Creator also removes the watermark.

If your marketing video is mostly short vertical clips from existing content, neither is ideal. See Zebracat or MakeUGC below, and our best AI video generators guide for the full field.

How do the APIs compare?

HeyGen lets you start with a $5 pay-as-you-go deposit and no monthly commitment, according to its FAQ. API credits are separate from subscription credits. We could not verify HeyGen’s per-minute API rates from its own pages, so we leave them out.

Synthesia lists an API allowance in its pricing table, but the page layout did not make clear which plans carry it, so confirm with Synthesia before you build on it. Its interactive avatars run 10 credits a minute for the avatar alone and 20 with the full widget.

What about refunds and cancellation?

Neither vendor is generous. Synthesia’s help center says purchases are non-cancelable and non-refundable, even if you forgot to cancel a renewal. You can cancel Starter or Pro in Billing to stop future charges, and keep access until the period ends. Studio avatars cannot be refunded once deployed. There is no time-limited trial, so use Basic.

HeyGen’s refund policy says payments are generally non-refundable, but it accepts requests within 15 days of purchase (14 days via the App Store), reviewed case by case. It can deny a request if you have already used a significant amount of credits. Cancelling stops the next renewal; you keep paid features until the cycle ends and then drop to Free.

How do Synthesia and HeyGen compare with Colossyan, D-ID, ElevenLabs, InVideo and Runway?

Facts below come from each vendor’s own pages, checked on November 8, 2026.

• Colossyan has a free Starter plan with 20 minutes a month on its NEO model, and Professional at $59 a month on an annual plan with 5 SCORM exports a month. Its table says 120+ languages, though another section of the page says 100+. SCORM export is the feature that puts it in the same lane as these two for training.
• D-ID makes avatar video, video translation and avatar agents, with API access sharing the same minute balance. Trial and Lite videos carry a watermark, minutes renew monthly and unused minutes expire. The plan prices sit on separate Studio and API pages that we did not read in full, so we give none.
• ElevenLabs is voice-first. The Free plan has 10,000 credits a month, Starter is $6 a month ($1 for the first month) with an “Image & Video” feature, and Creator is $22 a month. Its pricing page does not describe avatar features, so it is a voice and dubbing tool next to these two, not a swap. See our ElevenLabs review.
• invideo AI sells credits per seat: Basic $9 a month ($4 billed annually), Pro $30 ($15), Ultra $80 ($40). The page lists video counts per model rather than minutes and mentions no free plan.
• Runway is generative video. Free gives 125 one-time credits, Standard is $15 a month ($12 annually), Pro $35 ($28) and Max $95 ($76). We could not confirm avatar features on its pricing page.

If you want a talking presenter for training, Colossyan and D-ID sit in the same lane as Synthesia and HeyGen. ElevenLabs, invideo and Runway solve different jobs.

So which should you pick?

If you are a training or compliance team and a minutes budget matters more than the lowest price, pick Synthesia and test on Basic. If you make marketing or creator video, work in many languages, or need SCORM without an enterprise deal, pick HeyGen and test on Free. Either way, generate the same 60-second script in both before you pay, since the first month of Synthesia is discounted but HeyGen’s refund window is only 15 days.

Neither fits? Our AI video generators guide also covers Elai.io, Zebracat and MakeUGC.