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 more than extra talking-head time. Synthesia Starter is the same monthly price, and it leaves the free plan's 10-minute video cap unchanged.

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), Synthesia's pricing page, and Synthesia's avatar page.

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, guests, more dubbing. Video minutes stay at 10	HeyGen, if you needed more avatar video
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 Creator, plus guests	HeyGen, once you need two editors
API	Separate pay-as-you-go wallet	Listed on Creator, spent from the plan's minutes	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's first paid ceiling matches free, so that payment is not more talking-head time.

What you actually pay

Plan	Price (USD, 23 September 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	1,200 credits, up to 10 minutes of video
Synthesia Starter	$29/mo on the monthly card	Same 1,200 credits and the same 10 video minutes
Synthesia Creator	$89/mo on the monthly card	3,600 credits, up to 30 minutes of video
Synthesia Enterprise	Custom quote	Unlimited video minutes, SCORM, SAML SSO

The monthly stickers match at the first paid step, and the runtime does not. HeyGen's pricing FAQ is where the annual Creator rate in the table comes from. Every 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's monthly cards are the quotable half of its price page. The yearly cards show Starter at $18/mo billed yearly and Creator at $64/mo billed yearly, while the FAQ says Starter is $264 for the year and Creator is $804 for the year. Confirm the checkout total, because those pairs do not describe the same bill. Moving an existing monthly plan onto annual billing is a support request, not a toggle you finish alone.

Starter's money is not more avatar video. Basic and Starter list the same credit count and the same video line as free, so skip Starter if you needed a longer presenter. The card adds downloads, the AI Video Assistant, logo removal, one editor and three guests, and a longer dubbing allowance, which is what that payment actually buys. Creator is the first Synthesia plan that raises the video ceiling, with 3,600 credits, five guests, 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. Basic's credit pool covers the free video ceiling, or the same amount of AI dubbing, or 25 generated assets, and those draws share one balance. Starter keeps that credit count and that video line, and raises dubbing to 48 minutes, so the new runtime is localization rather than a longer presenter. Creator's larger pool covers a longer video ceiling, or 140 minutes of dubbing, or 75 assets. The "or" is one pool, not three 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 96 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 Creator, 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's dubbing allowance is the long one, against a video cap that still matches free, so you are buying localization rather than presenter time. The higher plan lists a longer dubbing line against its longer video ceiling, 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. Voices are 160+ languages 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 Creator card prints 5 personal avatars. The comparison table also shows a 3-avatar personal tier and unlimited personal avatars on Enterprise. The FAQ says one custom personal avatar comes with annual Starter and Creator. Those counts do not match, so read checkout before you promise a roster. 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 Creator adds five, which is room to comment, not a second publisher. Interactive videos appear on the Creator 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 Creator, capped at 360 minutes a year and deducted from the plan until an enterprise add-on, 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 the free video cap is enough presenter time. Pick Synthesia Creator 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 pricing page and avatar page, on 23 September 2026. 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 20 September 2026 shows 23,884 active subscribers and a 27.5% average open rate. Neither HeyGen nor Synthesia paid for this matchup. 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. Starter does not increase video minutes above the free plan, so it disappoints anyone who wanted a longer presenter.

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. Synthesia's free plan keeps the free video cap, Starter's monthly card matches that Creator sticker without raising it, and Creator's monthly card is $89/mo for 3,600 credits and the longer video ceiling. Yearly cards and the on-page FAQ disagree, at $18/mo and $64/mo versus $264 and $804 a year, so use checkout. Enterprise is a quote on both, verified 23 September 2026.

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 1,200 credits, usable up to the free video ceiling, 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 Starter, if the source already exists and 48 minutes of dubbing is the allowance you need, against a new-avatar cap that matches the free plan. 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 Creator and keeps SCORM and SAML SSO on the Enterprise card, which makes that course package a quote. Starter and Creator 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 FAQ says unused minutes do not roll, and going over the cap stops you until renewal unless you 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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