HeyGen Pricing in 2026: Every Plan, Real Costs and Hidden Fees

HeyGen Creator is $29 a month, or $24 a month billed annually, for 600 credits, verified on HeyGen's pricing page in September 2026. Pro starts at $49 a month for 1,000 credits, and Business is $149 a month plus $20 per extra seat. Extra seats do not add credits, so a larger team still shares one credit pool.

The sticker is the smaller decision, because Avatar III photo spends 7 credits a minute and Avatar V spends 48, so the same Creator allotment is a long month or a short one depending on the model you render. Free is a video quota with no credits at all, and the API is a separate wallet.

Toolradar data: the AI video ranking we publish evaluated 130 tools, updated September 2026, and on its top 10 the median cheapest paid plan is $18 a month, which puts Creator above that median. The product record is on HeyGen's Toolradar page, the product verdict is our HeyGen review, and the wider desk is AI avatar generators.

Plan	Price	Best for	Limit that changes the decision
Free	$0	A no-card test	1 to 3 videos, up to 1 minute, no credits
Creator	$29/mo, or $24 annual	One person publishing	600 credits, 1080p, watermark off
Pro	From $49/mo	More of the same features	1,000 to 100,000 credits, 4K
Business	$149/mo plus $20/seat	SSO, SCORM, a shared pool	1,500 credits, seats add none
Enterprise	Custom quote	No duration cap, SCIM	Credits and seats are negotiated
API	Pay as you go	Video from your own app	Separate from every plan above

Free is a quota, and the pricing card is the optimistic version

Free will not carry a video you send to a client. The plan does not use credits, and the pricing card lists 3 videos a month, up to 1 minute each, with no card required. The help center is stricter: free accounts get 1 to 3 videos depending on region, plus 3 Video Agent videos a month. Nothing rolls over and nothing can be topped up.

Treat that quota as a listening test, not a file you can ship. You get 1 custom video avatar, up to 3 photo avatars, 500+ stock avatars, 30+ languages, and 1 voice clone, enough to judge the face and the voice. The share link exports at 720p, and watermark removal starts on a paid plan, so a client-facing cut does not belong here. If you are still choosing a studio, compare the field in AI video generators.

Creator is the commercial plan most people should buy first

Creator is the first plan whose file can leave the building: 1080p, watermark removal, videos up to 30 minutes, fast processing, and unlimited photo avatars. The help center adds a brand kit, up to 40 voice clones, and 175+ languages and dialects, against 30+ on free. Stock avatars move from 500+ to 700+, and you still get one seat, which already puts multilingual work past Free.

Buy it when you will stay on a cheaper model on purpose. Avatar III photo turns the monthly allotment into about 86 minutes, enough for a posting calendar. Avatar V turns the same pool into 12.5 minutes, one hero clip before a retake. Annual billing is the $24 rate, charged once for the year, but the credits still arrive monthly and only stack until renewal, not as a year of runtime on day one.

Creator cannot buy a credit pack, so when the pool is gone you upgrade or you wait out the month. A second person is a second subscription until Business.

Pro buys runtime, not a new toolset

Pro is a larger pool on one login, not a seat you can share. It starts at 1,000 credits and, at checkout, scales to 100,000 credits. HeyGen's pricing FAQ puts that top tier at $4,300 a month, and every Pro tier includes the same features, so paying more does not add a different product. What changes versus Creator is 4K export, faster processing, and proofreading a translation script. You also get the advanced models, including Seedance 2.0 inside cinematic mode, avatar shots, Video Agent, and B-roll, plus voice cloning up to 70 clones.

Move here when Creator runs out mid-month, not because a teammate needs a login. Pro is still one seat, and it still has no one-time credit pack. A higher tier is the only refill, billed as the price difference if you upgrade mid-cycle, with the extra credits added immediately. HeyGen does not print an annual Pro rate, so do not copy the Creator discount onto this card.

At the entry tier, that pool is about 21 minutes of Avatar V, or about 143 minutes of Avatar III photo. The jump from Creator is real on the cheap model and still a short month on the expensive one.

Business is two bills that do not move together

Business is the first shared workspace: 1,500 credits, videos up to 60 minutes, 4K, and twice the concurrency of Pro. A training team buys it for SAML SSO, centralized billing, SCORM export, LMS integrations, and interactive video with quizzes and branching. A stack of solo logins cannot host a company course. Connectors for n8n, Make, HubSpot, and Zapier spend the same studio credits as a click in the editor, not the API wallet.

The seat line is not the credit line, because the first seat is the plan price and each extra seat is $20 a month with zero credits added. Five people are $229 a month, and twenty people are $529 a month. Both bills share one pool, which is 31.25 minutes of Avatar V for the whole company.

Refills exist only here, at $0.05 a credit, sold in blocks of 100 for $5, with optional auto-reload. A top-up the size of one Creator month is $30, and Creator and Pro cannot buy that block.

The pricing page lists 5 custom video avatars on Business. The help center says 10 slots by default, and new Business purchases in certain regions on or after August 6, 2026 receive 5. Confirm the slot count in checkout before you plan a roster of twins.

AIpresso is the short daily brief on which AI prices moved. Get it here.

One credit is not one minute

HeyGen's credit guide, checked September 2026, prices a minute by model and by whether the look is a photo or a video. Generate Looks is 1 credit per look, training a custom model is 60 credits, and an image is 2 credits. A Seedance 2 clip is 60 credits at 720p or 150 at 1080p per video rather than per minute, and Veo 3 is 90 credits per video. Training a twin or cutting cinematic B-roll hits those charges, while a plain talking head can ignore them.

Output	Credits per minute	What 600 Creator credits cover	What 1,500 Business credits cover
Avatar III, video look	4	150 minutes	375 minutes
Avatar III, photo look	7	About 86 minutes	About 214 minutes
Avatar IV, photo look	16	37.5 minutes	About 94 minutes
Avatar IV, video look	31	About 19 minutes	About 48 minutes
Avatar V, photo or video	48	12.5 minutes	31.25 minutes
Translation, no lip-sync	4	150 minutes	375 minutes
Translation, speed, with lip-sync	6	100 minutes	250 minutes
Translation, precision	10	60 minutes	150 minutes

Avatar V is how a Creator month disappears, because that row is one hero clip plus a short revision, not a content calendar. Custom expressive motion, available on Avatar IV only, adds 40 credits a minute on top of the generation cost. HeyGen's own example is 20 extra credits for a 30-second scene.

Video Agent is another meter on the same pool: 40 credits a minute in standard mode and 120 in Seedance mode, so an agent draft can burn the month faster than a normal take. A dubbed course should be priced on the translation row, then compared with AI dubbing tools. Voice-only work belongs in AI voice generators, and a speech bill is a different product, which is why ElevenLabs pricing is the wrong tab for a talking head.

HeyGen also charges the seconds the avatar is actually generating, not a silent gap. The Avatar IV guide gives the example of a 30-second video that might consume 20 or 25 seconds of credits. Trust the in-product estimate before you click generate, because the help center says the rate can vary by feature and duration.

The API is a second price list

A Creator, Pro, or Business subscription does not include API usage, so a product that renders in your app needs a second budget. HeyGen's API help article, last updated September 16, 2026, says pay-as-you-go credits are a standalone purchase, including for free accounts. Free API credits stopped in February 2026, and those pay-as-you-go credits expire after 12 months. Older API Pro and Scale credits expire after 30 days, and those plans no longer auto-renew the balance.

The same article's rule of thumb is one dollar per minute of standard avatar video at 720p or 1080p. Avatar IV is the exception it names: $4 a minute at 1080p, and the Avatar IV guide puts 4K at $5 a minute. Video translation is generally $2 a minute, Video Agent on the API is $2 a minute, and the API processes 10 videos at a time. LiveAvatar streaming is a third product, and a LiveAvatar slot add-on is $49 a month on that platform only, so the studio bill does not cover a live session.

Budget a product from this rate card and a studio habit from the credit table, because mixing the two balances is how a forecast doubles.

What the same job costs at Synthesia, Colossyan, and Elai

These studios meter different things, so a lower sticker can still be the shorter month. The prices below were checked on each vendor's pricing page in September 2026. HeyGen sells a shared credit pool, Synthesia and Elai sell finished minutes, and Colossyan sells two minute pools, NEO and NEO2.

Buyer	HeyGen	Synthesia	Colossyan	Elai
One person, light use	Creator plan	Starter, 10 minutes a month, same monthly rate as Creator	Free Starter, 20 NEO minutes	Creator, 15 minutes, same monthly sticker as HeyGen Creator
A shared team	Business, one pool, seats extra	Still one editor until Enterprise	Professional, up to 3 editors	Team, 3 editors and 3 guests, 50 minutes
Course export	SCORM on Business	SCORM on Enterprise	5 SCORM exports a month on Professional	SCORM on Enterprise
A filmed custom avatar	Video-avatar slot add-on	Studio Express-1, $1,000 a year, annual plans only	Studio avatar, $1,000 a year	Selfie avatar is an add-on until Team

Synthesia's pricing page gives the free Basic plan and paid Starter the same 10 video minutes a month, so Starter money buys the logo removal, guests, and the editor tools, not more runtime. The FAQ says Starter is $29 a month or $264 for the year, and Creator is $89 a month or $804 for the year, with 30 minutes a month. The yearly toggle on that same page shows $18 a month and $64 a month, and those pairs do not match. Read the checkout total rather than one of the two labels. Minutes do not roll over, and an edit charges only the new seconds. One personal avatar is included on annual Starter and Creator, and the live record is on Synthesia on Toolradar.

Colossyan's pricing page prices Professional at $59 a month on the annual plan, or $89 paid monthly, with 30 NEO minutes and 10 NEO2 minutes. The monthly card is the same minutes at a higher rate. A second editor is $30 a month on the annual plan and $45 on monthly. Two annual editors cost $89 a month, the same total as one monthly seat, and three annual editors are $119 a month. The free plan includes 20 NEO minutes and 0.5 NEO2 minutes. Annual minutes arrive up front, which HeyGen's annual credits do not, and you can pause for up to 2 months. A 600-minute NEO2 pack is $1,500 a year on the yearly Professional plan, and the live record is on Colossyan on Toolradar.

Elai's pricing page lists Creator at the same monthly sticker as HeyGen Creator, or $276 for the year, for 15 minutes. The card prints $1.93 a minute, a count you can forecast. Team is $125 a month or $1,200 for the year, for 50 minutes, 3 editors, and 3 guests, with the card showing $2.50 a minute. An extra minute is $2, and a re-render spends minutes again even on the same file, so a revision is a new charge. Voice clone and a selfie avatar are add-ons until Team, which includes one of each. The comparison table also lists 100 and 150 minute Team options without a second public price, so do not assume the $125 card covers them, and the live record is on Elai on Toolradar.

D-ID's March 16, 2026 announcement says studio plans start at $5.90 a month, the lowest floor in this set. That price still suits a cheap talking head more than a clean export. Its FAQ puts a logo watermark on Trial and Lite, a generic AI watermark on Pro and Advanced, and a restyle-only option on Enterprise. Minutes round up to the next 15 seconds and do not roll over, so a short clip is billed as a longer one. The product record is on D-ID on Toolradar, and cinematic clips, rather than a talking head, are the comparison in Kling vs Runway vs Luma.

Fees that never appear on the plan card

The plan price is the floor, and taxes are not itemized on the public cards. A video-avatar slot matches the monthly Creator price, or $288 a year, which is also what a year of Creator costs at the annual rate, so an extra twin can equal the software. Monthly credits roll for one extra cycle, about 60 days, and only while you stay paid. Cancel onto Free and the balance expires, and a legacy unlimited plan cannot be restored once you leave it, which makes that downgrade a one-way door.

HeyGen's billing FAQ says a pause postpones the next charge by 30 days from the last billing date. Avatars and projects remain available, and the credit meter keeps running, so a pause does not bank a quiet month. Downgrades take effect at the end of the cycle, and going over the pool stops generation until you upgrade, or until you buy a block on Business.

Annual self-serve plans still drip credits each month, so if you needed the whole year in January, Colossyan's annual minute grant is the other shape of bill. A wider stack choice sits in AI tools for business.

Which plan is worth paying for

For one person publishing avatar video, start on Creator, annual if you will still be rendering next quarter. Stay on Avatar III or Avatar IV photo unless the shot has to be Avatar V. Pro is the refill when that pool is what stalls the week, and it will not seat a colleague.

For a team, buy Business when the requirement list says SSO, SCORM, or one shared workspace, and budget seats separately from credits, because empty seats are pure overhead. If finance wants a minute count it can forecast without a model table, Synthesia, Colossyan, or Elai is the cleaner invoice, with the SCORM difference in the comparison above.

For a product that generates video on its own, price the API, not the Creator plan. Standard avatar minutes and Avatar IV minutes are different rates, and a studio subscription does not pay either of them.

How we checked these prices

Louis Corneloup, founder of Dupple and Toolradar, prepared this price breakdown for people choosing a HeyGen plan. We checked HeyGen's pricing page, the credit-plan article, the credit-rate guide, the API pricing article, and the Avatar IV guide on September 23, 2026. Synthesia, Colossyan, and Elai figures come from each vendor's pricing page the same day. The D-ID floor comes from D-ID's March 16, 2026 announcement, and the watermark and rounding rules come from D-ID's studio pricing FAQ. The 130 tool count and the $18 median are from Toolradar's live AI video ranking that month. No vendor paid for placement. Publishing rules for this site sit on the AIpresso about page.

FAQ

How much does HeyGen cost in 2026?

Free is $0, with a short video quota and no credits. Creator is $29 a month, or $24 a month when you pay annually, for 600 credits. Pro starts at $49 a month for 1,000 credits and scales, with the same features, to 100,000 credits at $4,300 a month. Business is $149 a month for the first seat, and extra seats are billed on top of a shared pool of 1,500 credits that those seats do not grow. Enterprise is a custom quote, and the API is a separate pay-as-you-go wallet. These are the list prices on HeyGen's pricing page in September 2026.

Is HeyGen free?

Yes, with no card: the pricing card says 3 videos a month, up to 1 minute. The help center says the quota is 1 to 3 videos depending on region, plus 3 Video Agent videos. Free accounts do not use credits, so there is nothing to roll or top up. You get one custom video avatar, 500+ stock avatars, and 30+ languages. Watermark removal, 1080p export, and the 175-language set start on Creator.

How much is HeyGen per seat?

Creator and Pro are one seat, and a colleague needs a separate subscription, so two people pay two stickers. Business includes one seat at $149 a month, then $20 a month for each extra seat, and those seats do not increase the shared pool. Five people cost $229 a month and twenty people cost $529 a month, and both share the same pool, which is 31.25 minutes of Avatar V for the whole company. Enterprise is the quote for more seats, SCIM, and invoice billing.

What is a HeyGen credit worth?

The credit's value depends on which model you render. Avatar III photo is 7 credits a minute, so the Creator allotment is about 86 minutes, enough for a month of posts. Avatar V is 48 credits a minute, so that same allotment is 12.5 minutes, one hero clip rather than a calendar. Avatar IV photo is 16 credits a minute and Avatar IV video is 31. Lip-sync translation is 6 credits a minute in speed mode and 10 in precision mode. Video Agent is 40 credits a minute, or 120 in Seedance mode, on the same pool. HeyGen shows an estimate before you generate, and silent gaps may cost less than the full timeline.

Does the HeyGen API cost extra on top of a subscription?

Yes. Pay-as-you-go API credits are a separate purchase, and HeyGen stopped including free API credits in February 2026, so a studio plan does not seed a developer wallet. The published rule of thumb is one dollar a minute for standard avatar video at 720p or 1080p. Avatar IV is $4 a minute at 1080p and $5 a minute at 4K. Translation and Video Agent on the API are each generally $2 a minute. Pay-as-you-go credits last 12 months, and a studio plan's credits are a different balance.

Is HeyGen cheaper than Synthesia, Colossyan, or Elai?

At the first paid step, HeyGen Creator matches Synthesia Starter and Elai Creator on the monthly sticker. It is cheaper than Colossyan Professional at $89 a month or $59 a month on the annual plan. The meters differ: HeyGen's Creator pool might be a short Avatar V cut or a long Avatar III month, Synthesia Starter is 10 minutes, and Elai Creator is 15. Colossyan Professional is 30 NEO minutes plus 10 NEO2 minutes. HeyGen puts SCORM on Business, Synthesia and Elai put it on Enterprise, and Colossyan includes 5 SCORM exports a month on the self-serve plan.

Do unused HeyGen credits roll over?

On a monthly paid plan, unused credits roll for one more cycle, so a balance can last about 60 days if you stay paid. On an annual plan, credits arrive each month and accumulate until renewal, so the year you paid for does not arrive on day one. If you cancel and move to Free, unused credits expire at the end of the cycle. Creator and Pro cannot buy a one-time pack, while Business can, at $5 for 100 credits.

If you want the price changes without rechecking the vendor pages, get the AIpresso brief.

Cite this: AIpresso, "HeyGen Pricing in 2026: Every Plan, Real Costs and Hidden Fees", September 2026.