Synthesia Review

Synthesia is the avatar studio to buy when finance wants a minute count and the team can share one editor. The sticker is the smaller decision: the shared credit pool, and the fact that SCORM is not for sale on the self-serve plans, decide whether the invoice matches the brief.

HeyGen, Colossyan, Elai, and D-ID are priced beside those tiers for the same training job. The category roundup is our best AI avatar generators page, and the two-leader matchup is HeyGen vs Synthesia.

Toolradar data: the September 2026 AI video ranking evaluated 130 tools, and Synthesia is the second name on that list.

How we compared: the prices, credit rates, and minute caps below come from September 2026 checks of each vendor's pricing page and help page, except Synthesia's plans, which were re-read on its pricing page and credits guide on November 5, 2026.

D-ID is the exception, because its floor comes from the company's March 16, 2026 announcement. Vendors did not pay to appear in this review.

Synthesia turns a script, a PowerPoint file, a document, or a prompt into a presenter video, then localizes it. The about page says the company was founded in 2017 and is based in London.

Synthesia says more than 1 million people across 60,000+ businesses use it, including 90% of the Fortune 100, so a corporate course library is a normal brief.

You pick a stock avatar or a personal twin, attach a voice, and export a talking video, unlike the scene tools in best AI video generators or the voice-only tools in AI voice generators.

Every plan lists 140+ languages and voices, so presenter translation is not the paid upgrade. Dubbing output languages stay at 70+ until Enterprise, which lists 140+, and a global catalog can outgrow the self-serve card on that gap.

One editor is the seat on Basic, Starter, and Pro, and guests can comment but cannot render, so a second producer is off those plans. SAML SSO, SCORM, brand kits, and live collaboration sit on Enterprise, so an LMS package cannot stay on a public card.

The full editor is desktop, and a phone only offers a demo or a free clip, so the course is not produced there.

You write a script or import slides, choose an avatar, and generate, and credits move only after that step. A draft and the play button are free, so you can rehearse before the pool drops. Edits are recalculated on the updated version, and duplicating a video costs nothing until you generate the copy.

A typical finished video uses about 100 credits a minute, per the credits guide, so script length is the bill.

Every plan includes 10 minutes of video and 500 credits a month. Starter adds 1,250 credits a month (1,750 in total), and Pro, the plan called Creator until October 1, 2026, adds 6,000 (6,500 in total).

Annual plans receive the full year at once, 21,000 credits on Starter and 78,000 on Pro, so a busy quarter can borrow inside the year. Monthly credits do not roll over, so an unused month is spent.

Dubbing and generated clips spend that same pool, which is how a Starter month vanishes before the avatar work. Dubbing is 40 credits a minute without lip-sync and 80 with it. A Veo 3.1 clip with audio is 460 credits, and FLUX 3 video is 18 credits a second, enough for a few inserts to erase the presenter budget.

When the credits run out you can top up from Billing or move to a bigger plan, and an upgrade mid-cycle resets the balance to the new plan's allocation rather than adding what was left. The old Personal plan is in maintenance, and if it lapses you cannot reopen it.

Synthesia publishes the ladder on its pricing page, read on November 5, 2026. Starter is $19/mo or $14/mo billed yearly, $168 a year, and Pro is $89/mo or $59/mo billed yearly, $708 a year.

Archived copies show Starter at $29 ($18 yearly) and yearly Pro at $64 on October 24, and the new prices by October 26.

New monthly subscribers see a first-month price of $9 on Starter and $49 on Pro. Enterprise is an annual quote with unlimited minutes, so the cap comes off only after a sales call.

A 5-person team cannot buy five Starter seats, because every self-serve plan includes 1 editor. Starter adds 3 guests and Pro adds 5, but guests only comment, so a second renderer needs an Enterprise quote.

Annual credits arrive as one year pool and reset at renewal, so a busy quarter can borrow from a quiet one. API use is 160 credits a minute and, on Pro, comes out of the same limits, up to 360 minutes of API video a year, so the API is not a second pool.

Enterprise includes that block, with more sold as an add-on. Bulk personalization is 180 credits a minute, and an Avatar Builder avatar is 14 credits, and both still hit that meter.

HeyGen meters credits instead of finished minutes, and Creator yearly is $24/mo for 600 credits, so that invoice will not show a minute count. Avatar V is 48 credits a minute, which makes the allotment 12.5 minutes, while Avatar III photo is 7 credits a minute, about 85 minutes. The cheap look can last the month, and the expensive look cannot.

Business is $149/mo plus $20/seat, and seats do not add credits, so five people share 1,500 credits at $229/mo. Pro runs from $49/mo for 1,000 credits to $4,300/mo for 100,000, buying runtime rather than new features.

Extra credits are $0.05, in $5 blocks of 100, on Business only, so Creator cannot top up. The tier math is on HeyGen pricing, and SCORM plus SAML SSO sit on Business, the opposite of Synthesia's Enterprise lock.

Colossyan Professional is $59/mo on the annual plan, the monthly rate matches Pro, and an extra editor is $45/mo or $30/mo yearly, so three annual editors are $119/mo. You get 30 NEO minutes, 10 NEO2 minutes, and 5 SCORM exports a month, the package for an LMS file plus a second renderer.

A filmed studio avatar matches the Synthesia add-on, and 600 extra NEO2 minutes are $1,500/year. Minutes arrive up front, leftovers do not return, and you can pause for up to 2 months, which Synthesia does not offer. A single video caps at 50 minutes on the yearly plan and shorter month to month.

Elai Creator costs $276/year and includes 15 minutes, the $29 monthly sticker is $10 above Synthesia Starter, and the listed rate is $1.93/minute, so a finished minute has a published rate.

Team is $125/mo, or $1,200/year, for 50 minutes with 3 editors, listed at $2.50/minute, the public card when several people must render. A top-up minute is $2, a re-render spends minutes again, and SCORM waits for Enterprise.

The free plan includes 1 minute, 80+ avatars, and 75+ languages, a voice test rather than a module.

D-ID's March 16, 2026 announcement says plans start at $5.90/mo, the low floor if a watermark is acceptable.

The help center names a 14-day unlimited trial, then Lite, Pro, and Advanced, with Enterprise as a quote. Trial and Lite keep a watermark, and the trial mark is full-screen, so the trial file is not client-ready. Minutes round up to the next 15 seconds and do not roll over, which you can forecast, and which costs you on very short clips.

Buy Pro if one editor will make up to about 70 minutes of avatar video a month and keep generated clips and lip-sync dubs out of that budget. Buy yearly Starter when the watermark and missing download are the problem and about 22 minutes a month is enough. Buy Enterprise for SSO, SCORM, or a second editor, and treat the quote as the price.

Skip Synthesia when SCORM has to appear without a sales call, because Colossyan puts 5 exports a month on Professional. Skip it when several people must render, because HeyGen Business sells seats and Elai Team puts editors on the public card.

Skip it for a cheap watermarked test, because D-ID publishes the low floor. Voice-only work belongs in AI dubbing tools, next to ElevenLabs.