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Choose Synthesia if you make structured business video at a steady clip — training, onboarding, product explainers — and want a large stock avatar library with translation built into the workflow. Choose HeyGen if you want a personal digital twin front and center, 4K export, or per-minute credit flexibility for marketing and social content. Both will produce a talking-avatar video from a script in minutes; they differ in who the video is for and how the plans meter your usage.
All prices and limits below are from the official pricing pages of both vendors and are current as of 2026-07-21. Both companies change plans and credit rates often, so confirm the linked official pricing pages before you commit to an annual plan.
HeyGen vs Synthesia: quick comparison
| Decision point | HeyGen | Synthesia |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | $0 — 3 videos/month, up to 1 minute each, 1 custom digital twin | $0 (Basic) — 10 video minutes/month, 9 stock avatars, 3 personal avatars |
| Entry paid plan | Creator $29/month ($24/month billed annually), 600 credits/month | Starter $29/month ($18/month billed annually), 10 video minutes/month (120/year on annual) |
| Mid paid plan | Pro $49/month, 1,000 credits/month, 4K export | Creator $89/month ($64/month billed annually), 30 video minutes/month (360/year on annual) |
| Team plan | Business $149/month plus $20 per extra seat, 1,500 credits/month | Enterprise, custom pricing, unlimited video minutes |
| Usage metering | Credits; cost depends on the avatar model (roughly 3–20 credits per minute) | Video minutes per month or year, plus a separate credit pool for certain assets |
| Stock avatars | 500+ | 125+ on Starter, 180+ on Creator, 240+ on Enterprise |
| Personal / custom avatars | 1 digital twin on Free and Creator, 5+ on Business | 1 on Starter, 5 on Creator, unlimited on Enterprise |
| Languages | 175+ languages and dialects on paid plans | 160+ languages and voices; dubbing on paid plans |
| Max export quality | 1080p on Creator, 4K on Pro and up | Full HD 1080p MP4 downloads |
| Max video length | 30 minutes on Creator/Pro, 60 on Business | Metered by minutes rather than per-video caps |
| Team and compliance features | SAML/SSO, SCORM, LMS integrations on Business | SAML/SSO, SCORM export, brand kits on Enterprise |
| Best fit | Creators and marketing teams building content around a personal likeness | L&D, HR, and product teams producing repeatable corporate video |
The table condenses the official HeyGen pricing page and the official Synthesia pricing page, both checked on 2026-07-21.
The metering models are different, and it matters
The single most practical difference is how you pay for output.
HeyGen meters credits, and the credit price depends on the avatar model. On current published rates, an older Avatar III render costs about 3 credits per minute, while the newer Avatar IV/V models cost about 20 credits per minute. Video translation runs about 2 credits per minute for audio only and 5 with lip-sync. That means the same 600-credit Creator allowance is either hours of legacy-model video or roughly half an hour of the newest model. If you standardize on the flagship look, compute your real monthly minutes before assuming the plan fits.
Synthesia meters video minutes directly. Starter includes 10 minutes per month (or 120 minutes per year if billed annually, which you can use unevenly across the year), and Creator includes 30 per month (or 360 per year). There is also a separate credit pool for certain generated assets, but the headline number you plan around is minutes of finished video. For teams that publish a predictable cadence — say, four 3-minute training modules a month — this is easier to budget than model-dependent credits. For that example, 4 modules at 3 minutes each equal 12 finished minutes per month, or 144 minutes per year.
Neither model is strictly cheaper; they reward different usage shapes. Bursty, model-hopping creators tend to do better on HeyGen’s credits. Steady, scheduled corporate output tends to do better on Synthesia’s minutes, especially on the annual plans where the yearly minute pool absorbs busy months.
Avatars: personal twin versus stock library
HeyGen’s identity is the digital twin. Even the Free plan includes one custom twin, and the product pushes you toward putting your own face and cloned voice in the video. Paid plans add voice cloning and unlimited photo avatars. If the point of your video is you — a founder update, a personal brand, sales outreach — this is the shorter path.
Synthesia leads with its stock avatar library: 125+ ready-made presenters on Starter and 180+ on Creator, with personal avatars as an add-on capability (1 on Starter, 5 on Creator). Corporate teams often prefer a neutral presenter they can swap across departments over any one employee’s likeness, and Synthesia’s library depth serves that. High-end studio-filmed custom avatars exist but are an Enterprise-tier or paid add-on conversation.
Languages and translation
Both tools are strong here, and both quote large numbers: HeyGen advertises 175+ languages and dialects on paid plans; Synthesia advertises 160+ languages and voices, with AI dubbing minutes bundled into paid plans and one-click translation on Creator and above. In practice the deciding factor is workflow rather than the raw count. Synthesia treats translation as part of the video’s lifecycle — duplicate a finished training video into other languages inside the same project. HeyGen treats translation partly as a credit-metered conversion of existing footage, including lip-synced translation of videos you did not make in HeyGen. If localizing external footage is your job, that last capability is a real differentiator.
Team, compliance, and scale
For team deployment the comparison shifts a tier up. HeyGen’s Business plan at $149/month (plus $20 per additional seat) brings SAML/SSO, centralized billing, SCORM export, LMS integrations, and workspace collaboration — notable because you get compliance-grade features at a published self-serve price. Synthesia reserves SSO, SCORM, brand kits, and dedicated success management for its custom-priced Enterprise tier, but that tier also removes the minute caps entirely and extends dubbing to 140+ languages.
A reasonable rule: a small team that needs SCORM today can get it cheaper and faster on HeyGen Business; an organization planning hundreds of training videos a year should price Synthesia Enterprise, because unlimited minutes change the math at volume.
Export quality and video length
HeyGen Pro and Business export 4K; Creator tops out at 1080p, with per-video length caps of 30 minutes (60 on Business). Synthesia’s self-serve plans export Full HD 1080p MP4s and meter by total minutes rather than per-video caps. If 4K masters matter — conference screens, paid ads, YouTube — HeyGen Pro is the only self-serve option here that delivers them. For internal training delivered through an LMS or browser, 1080p is rarely the bottleneck.
Pricing reality check
At the entry level the monthly sticker is nearly identical — HeyGen Creator $29, Synthesia Starter $29 — but annual billing separates them: HeyGen Creator drops to $24/month while Synthesia Starter drops to $18/month, the lowest paid entry point in this comparison. At the mid tier, HeyGen Pro ($49) undercuts Synthesia Creator ($89 monthly, $64 annual) on price, though the two bundles are not equivalent: Pro buys 4K and 1,000 credits, while Synthesia Creator buys 30 monthly minutes, a bigger avatar library, API access, and one-click translation.
Free plans are honest trials on both sides rather than working tiers: 3 one-minute videos a month on HeyGen, 10 minutes on Synthesia’s Basic. Expect to hit the ceiling in the first serious week.
Verdict
Pick Synthesia for scheduled, multilingual, corporate video production — its minute-based plans, avatar library depth, and translation workflow are built for teams that ship training and product video on a calendar. Its annual Starter price is also the cheapest paid entry in this matchup. Pick HeyGen when the video is built around a personal likeness, when you need 4K export at a self-serve price, or when your usage is too irregular for a fixed monthly minute budget.
Whichever you choose, re-check the official pricing pages first — HeyGen and Synthesia — because credit rates, minute allowances, and plan names in this category have changed multiple times in the past year, and the numbers above reflect 2026-07-21.