HeyGen vs Synthesia (2026): Which Is Better for Professionals?

Pick HeyGen Creator at $29/mo when a cheaper avatar model can stretch 600 credits and you want unused credits to roll. Pick Synthesia when the bill has to be a published minute cap, and when dubbing matters. Since a price cut in late October 2026, Synthesia Starter is $19/mo, $10 below Creator, and its credits add up to about 12 minutes of video a month on top of the 10 minutes every plan includes.

An avatar studio turns a script into a person speaking on camera, without a shoot. Toolradar data: the AI video ranking we publish evaluated 130 tools, updated September 2026, and that page names HeyGen the overall pick. The records are HeyGen and Synthesia, the product verdict is our HeyGen review, the full credit ladder is HeyGen pricing, and the wider desk is best AI avatar generators.

Prices below were verified on 23 September 2026 on HeyGen's pricing page, HeyGen's credit guide, HeyGen's API article (updated 16 September 2026), and Synthesia's avatar page. Synthesia changed its plans on October 1 and again in late October 2026, so its prices and allowances below were re-read on Synthesia's pricing page on 5 November 2026.

At a glance

Question	HeyGen	Synthesia	Who wins
Job this page is buying	A talking avatar from a script, photo, or filmed twin	The same job, plus dubbing and acting scenes	Split by the meter
First paid plan	Creator credits, 1080p, watermark off	Starter credits, logo off, downloads	Split: minutes vs model choice
What that plan adds over free	Credits, 1080p, 175+ languages, voice cloning	Logo removal, downloads, guests, up to ~12 more video minutes a month	Split: HeyGen for model choice, Synthesia for a lower sticker
How a minute is priced	4 to 48 credits, by model and look	A published "up to" minute line on the same credit pool	Synthesia, if finance wants a minute forecast
Unused balance	Rolls one extra month, or until annual renewal	Does not roll	HeyGen
Course package and SSO	SCORM, quizzes, and SAML SSO on Business	SCORM and SAML SSO on the Enterprise card	HeyGen, because Business has a list price
Second person who can edit	A seat only on Business	One editor on Starter and Pro, plus guests	HeyGen, once you need two editors
API	Separate pay-as-you-go wallet	Listed on Pro, spent from the plan's usage limits	Split: extra wallet vs shared cap

Both products call the meter credits, and the shared word hides two bills. A HeyGen credit buys fewer minutes on an expensive model, and Synthesia prints how many minutes its credits buy.

What you actually pay

Plan	Price (USD; HeyGen 23 September, Synthesia 5 November 2026)	What the cap allows
HeyGen Free	Free, no card	Up to 3 videos a month on the pricing card, 1 minute each, no credits
HeyGen Creator	$29/mo, or $24/mo if you pay annually	600 credits, 1080p, videos up to 30 minutes, watermark off
HeyGen Pro	From $49/mo to $4,300/mo	1,000 to 100,000 credits, same features, 4K
HeyGen Business	$149/mo plus $20/seat	1,500 credits, 60-minute videos, SCORM, SAML SSO
HeyGen Enterprise	Custom quote	No standard duration max, SCIM, invoice billing
Synthesia Basic	Free, no card	10 minutes of video or dubbing plus 500 credits a month, watermark
Synthesia Starter	$19/mo, or $14/mo billed yearly ($168 a year)	1,250 extra credits a month, up to ~12 more video minutes
Synthesia Pro	$89/mo, or $59/mo billed yearly ($708 a year)	6,000 extra credits a month, up to ~60 more video minutes
Synthesia Enterprise	Custom quote	Unlimited video minutes, SCORM, SAML SSO

Synthesia's first paid step is now $10 a month below HeyGen's, and the runtime meter is different. HeyGen's pricing FAQ is where the annual Creator rate in the table comes from. Every HeyGen Pro tier has the same features, and only the credit allotment changes, up to 100,000 credits, so a larger Pro bill is more of the same studio. A colleague still needs a second subscription until Business.

Synthesia renamed Creator to Pro on October 1, 2026, per its plan-change note, and put video, dubbing and surveys on one credit pool. It then cut prices between October 24 and 26, per archived copies of its pricing page (October 24, October 26): Starter went from $29 to $19 a month, or from $18 to $14 billed yearly, and yearly Pro from $64 to $59 a month, while monthly Pro stayed at $89. New monthly subscribers also see a first-month price of $9 on Starter and $49 on Pro. Twelve months of monthly Starter come to $228 against $168 on the yearly plan, our arithmetic.

Starter now buys more avatar video. On top of the 10 minutes every plan includes, its 1,250 extra credits a month cover up to about 12 more minutes of video, or up to 16 more minutes of dubbing, from one pool. The card also adds downloads, the AI Video Assistant, logo removal, and three guests on one editor. Pro raises the pool to 6,000 extra credits, up to about 60 more video minutes, with five guests, five personal avatars, interactive video and API access.

HeyGen Free has no credit balance, so a quiet week cannot be banked for later. The help center says free accounts get 1 to 3 videos depending on region, against the pricing card's "up to 3," so some buyers get a shorter test than the card shows. If the shortlist is wider than these two, start with best AI video generators.

Credits are not minutes, except when Synthesia prints the minutes

HeyGen's credit guide prices a minute by model and by whether the look is a photo or a video, so two buyers on the same plan can get very different months.

Output	Credits per minute	What 600 Creator credits cover
Avatar III, video look	4	150 minutes
Avatar III, photo look	7	About 86 minutes
Avatar IV, photo look	16	37.5 minutes
Avatar IV, video look	31	About 19 minutes
Avatar V, photo or video	48	12.5 minutes

Avatar V is how a Creator month disappears. At that row, the Creator allotment is 12.5 minutes, one hero clip and a revision, which will not carry a weekly habit. At the Avatar III photo rate, the same allotment is about 86 minutes if you skip the expensive model. Pro's entry pool is about 21 minutes of Avatar V, or about 143 minutes of that cheaper photo look. The Business pool is 31.25 minutes of Avatar V, shared by the whole company.

Creator and Pro allow a long single video, but a 30-minute Avatar V scene is 1,440 credits, past Creator and past Pro's entry tier. The same length on Avatar III photo is 210 credits, so it fits a solo publisher who defaults to that cheaper look.

Synthesia prints a ceiling instead of a rate card. Every plan, Basic included, gets 10 minutes of video or dubbing and 500 credits a month. Starter's extra credits cover up to about 12 more video minutes or 16 more dubbing minutes, and Pro's up to about 60 more video minutes or 78 dubbing minutes. The "or" is one pool, not stacked allowances, so finance can quote a minute and a heavy presenter schedule cannot.

Custom expressive motion is Avatar IV only and adds 40 credits a minute on top of generation. HeyGen's example is 20 extra credits on a 30-second scene. Synthesia charges 230 credits for each b-roll asset with action, so a cutaway is its own debit.

Free is a listening test, not a production plan

HeyGen Free is a few one-minute videos, enough to hear a twin and not enough to send a client. You get one custom video avatar, up to three photo avatars, 500+ stock avatars, 30+ languages, and one voice clone. Watermark removal, the higher export resolution, unlimited photo avatars, and the wider language set start on the first paid plan, and stock avatars move to 700+.

Synthesia Basic is more runtime and a smaller cast, so the free test is a different question. The compare table gives free users 9 AI avatars, then 125+ on Starter, 180+ on Pro, and 240+ on Enterprise. The avatar page leads with 240+, and that figure is the Enterprise library, so a buyer who came for the big cast is shopping a quote. Logo removal and downloads start on Starter, so a client file is a paid export. HeyGen wins that test for hearing your own twin, and Synthesia wins it for a longer stock sample on a small cast.

Dubbing is a second bill on HeyGen and a longer line on Synthesia

HeyGen translation spends the same pool as a new render, so a dubbed minute replaces a fresh avatar. Speed lip-sync is 6 credits a minute, precision is 10, and no lip-sync is 4, and the precise mouth match is the one that eats the month. Paid plans list 175+ languages and dialects, and script proofreading starts on Pro, so a checked script is already past the first paid card.

Synthesia Starter adds up to 16 dubbing minutes a month on top of the free allowance, and Pro up to 78, from the same pool as video, and lip-sync uses twice the credits, which can halve the line you thought you bought. Dubbing languages are 70+ until Enterprise, where the table says 140+, so a rare language is a sales conversation. Languages and voices are listed at 140+ on every plan, including free.

Pick the dubbing plan by the source you already have. HeyGen is the clearer quote when the face and the translation share one balance, and Synthesia is the clearer quote when the source video already exists. A wider dubbing list is best AI dubbing tools, a voice with no picture is priced on AI voice generators, the ElevenLabs review, and ElevenLabs pricing, and text without a face belongs with best AI translation tools.

Synthesia's FAQ charges only the new seconds, so a three-second fix costs three seconds, and unused minutes do not roll. HeyGen monthly credits roll one extra cycle if you stay paid, and annual credits arrive monthly and stack until renewal. Cancel onto free and the paid balance expires, and a legacy unlimited HeyGen plan cannot be restored afterward.

Avatars, twins, and scenes that have to act

HeyGen's paid plan is a likeness you can rerun, which suits someone who records once and publishes every week. One custom video avatar is on free and Creator, Business lists five, and Enterprise lists 10+, so a bench of spokespeople is not a Creator feature. Extra video avatars are an add-on, and photo avatars stop at three until you pay, then they are unlimited. Avatar IV is on the free plan, while Avatar V is the expensive rate in the credit guide rather than its own subscription.

Synthesia splits stock, personal, and studio. The comparison table lists 3 personal avatars on Starter, 5 on Pro, and unlimited personal avatars on Enterprise, subject to reasonable consumption. A personal avatar needs a live consent recording, and the person has to be at least 18, so a minor or an unwilling colleague is out.

Studio Express-1 is $1,000/year, annual plans only, and processing can take up to 10 days, which is a filmed executive rather than a same-week photo. HeyGen's version is the custom video avatar plus the model the pool can stand every week, so the wait becomes a credit choice instead. A scene with no presenter belongs in Kling vs Runway vs Luma.

Synthesia's avatar page is the acting bet: you can prompt an outfit and a scene, including scenes it attributes to Veo 3, which suits a stock presenter who has to move. HeyGen prices Generate Looks at 1 credit, model training at 60 credits, and Video Agent at 40 credits a minute, or 120 in Seedance mode, so an agent scene can cost several cheap minutes. HeyGen wins the weekly photo twin, and Synthesia wins the stock presenter who has to act, on the library that plan actually unlocks.

Teams, courses, and a separate API wallet

HeyGen puts courses on a readable price. Business adds interactive video, quizzes, branching, SCORM, LMS integrations, and SAML SSO, so a learning team can buy the package without a call. Connectors for n8n, Make, HubSpot, and Zapier spend studio credits, not API credits, and a video on that plan can run to the long duration in the pricing table. Enterprise is the quote for no standard duration cap, SCIM, and invoices when that cap blocks the course.

Seats do not grow the pool. The Business credit allotment stays fixed, then each extra seat is $20/mo, a login rather than more minutes. Five people are $229/mo and still share that pool. Only Business can buy a pack, at $5 for 100 credits ($0.05 each), with auto-reload, and the expensive model hits that pack before the seat fee does.

Synthesia self-serve stays at one editor, so a second person who must change the timeline cannot share those plans. Starter adds three guests and Pro adds five, which is room to comment, not a second publisher. Interactive videos appear on the Pro card, earlier than HeyGen's Business gate, so a quiz in the video does not need a sales call. SCORM and SAML SSO sit on the Enterprise card, beside unlimited minutes, so a course that must ship this week is HeyGen's listed plan and a Synthesia quote.

The API is a second budget on HeyGen and the same minute budget on Synthesia. HeyGen's API article, updated 16 September 2026, says pay-as-you-go credits are standalone, free API credits stopped in February 2026, and those credits expire after 12 months, so an idle wallet disappears. Older API Pro and Scale credits expire after 30 days. The API runs 10 videos at a time, and LiveAvatar is a separate product, outside the studio plan. Synthesia lists API access on Pro, up to 360 minutes of video a year deducted from the plan's usage limits, with more as a paid add-on on Enterprise, so an integration spends the editors' minutes. The wider stack is best AI tools for business.

Who should pick which

Pick HeyGen Creator if you publish alone, you will stay off Avatar V except for a hero shot, and you want a clean export without a watermark plus credits that roll. Move to Pro when the monthly pool runs out.

Pick Synthesia Starter if the work is dubbing and a logo-free download, and about 22 minutes of presenter video a month is enough (10 included plus up to about 12 from credits, our arithmetic). Pick Synthesia Pro if you need the longer video ceiling, the larger stock library, interactive video, or API calls inside that minute cap, still with one editor.

Pick HeyGen Business if the list says SSO, SCORM, or two editors, and you will budget seats apart from credits. Pick Synthesia Enterprise if you need unlimited minutes or SCORM and you can wait on a quote, because that package has no public price.

Pick both only when the jobs differ: a weekly photo twin on HeyGen, and dubbing an existing library on Synthesia. Two first paid plans for one job is two invoices.

How we compared

We read HeyGen's pricing page, credit guide, and API article, plus Synthesia's avatar page, on 23 September 2026, and re-read Synthesia's pricing page on 5 November 2026 after its October changes. Minute totals such as 12.5 and 31.25 are arithmetic from HeyGen's published per-minute rates and the plan's credit allotment, not a second price list. The 130-tool count is Toolradar's AI video ranking, updated September 2026. On that page, 7 of the 10 listed tools publish a paid price, and the median cheapest paid plan is $18 a month.

AIpresso data: the audience file refreshed November 8, 2026 shows 29,000+ active subscribers and a 31% average open rate. The comparison was edited by Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple, for readers who have to pick one avatar studio. How Toolradar sets ranks is on its editorial policy, and how this site publishes is on the AIpresso about page.

FAQ

Which is better in 2026, HeyGen or Synthesia?

HeyGen is the better buy when you can choose a cheaper avatar model and you want credits that roll, plus SCORM or a second editor at a list price. Synthesia is the better buy when you need a published minute cap, longer dubbing than video, or a stock presenter who acts in a generated scene. Synthesia Starter, at $19/mo, is the cheaper first paid plan and adds up to about 12 video minutes a month over free.

How much do HeyGen and Synthesia cost in 2026?

HeyGen Creator is $29/mo, or $24/mo billed annually, for 600 credits. Pro starts at $49/mo and scales by credit tier, up to 100,000 credits, on the same studio. Business is $149/mo plus a per-seat fee, so headcount and runtime are separate bills. HeyGen prices were verified 23 September 2026. Synthesia Basic is free, Starter is $19/mo or $14/mo billed yearly, and Pro is $89/mo or $59/mo billed yearly for 6,000 extra credits a month, per Synthesia's pricing page on 5 November 2026. Enterprise is a quote on both.

Is there a free HeyGen or Synthesia plan?

Yes, both, and neither asks for a card. HeyGen's pricing card lists up to 3 videos a month, one minute each, and the credit guide says the quota is 1 to 3 videos by region, with no credits, so the test can be shorter than the card. Synthesia Basic includes 10 minutes of video or dubbing and 500 credits a month, with a watermark, and the compare table limits that plan to 9 AI avatars. Watermark or logo removal starts on the first paid plan of each product.

Which is better for dubbing and translation?

Synthesia, if the source already exists: every plan includes 10 minutes of video or dubbing a month, Starter adds up to 16 dubbing minutes and Pro up to 78. HeyGen, if you generate the face and the translation together: lip-sync is 6 credits a minute in speed mode and 10 in precision, and a version without lip-sync is 4, so the precise mouth is the expensive translation. Synthesia lip-sync uses twice the credits and can cut that dubbed line in half. Dubbing languages stay at 70+ until Synthesia Enterprise, where the table says 140+.

Which plan includes SCORM, SSO, and a second editor?

HeyGen Business, at the list price in the table, includes SCORM, SAML SSO, interactive video, and extra seats at $20/mo that do not add credits, so a second editor is only a login. Synthesia lists interactive videos on Pro and keeps SCORM and SAML SSO on the Enterprise card, which makes that course package a quote. Starter and Pro stay at one editor, with three or five guests. A learning team that cannot take a sales call can buy the HeyGen plan this week.

Do unused minutes or credits roll over?

HeyGen monthly credits roll for one more cycle if you stay paid, and annual credits accumulate until renewal, arriving monthly rather than all at once, so a skipped week survives only while you stay paid. Synthesia's credits guide says unused credits do not roll, and when they run out you top up from Billing or upgrade. Creator and Pro on HeyGen cannot buy a one-time pack, while Business can, in blocks of 100 credits. A cancelled paid balance does not survive on either free plan.

Cite this: AIpresso, "HeyGen vs Synthesia (2026): Which Is Better for Professionals?", September 2026.

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