Synthesia vs HeyGen: The Sales Pitch vs the Pricing Page

Is Synthesia or HeyGen Cheaper at 50+ Videos a Month?

At 50 one-minute videos a month, HeyGen is cheaper on list price: 50 Avatar IV minutes fit exactly inside HeyGen Pro’s 1,000 credits at $49, while Synthesia’s largest self-serve plan stops at 30 minutes. Synthesia comes out cheaper only in the one independent test that priced HeyGen’s premium avatar against a 200-credit allowance HeyGen’s own pricing page does not show.

Start with the ladders as each vendor printed them on September 22, 2026. Synthesia’s Starter costs $29 a month, or $18 a month billed yearly, and its Creator plan $89, or $64 yearly (SH-02). HeyGen’s Creator costs $29 a month for 600 credits, Pro $49 for 1,000, and Business $149 for 1,500 (SH-01). The free plans differ in kind, not only in size: Synthesia’s gives 10 minutes a month with 9 stock avatars and zero personal avatars, while HeyGen’s gives three videos a month capped at one minute each, translating into 30-plus languages rather than the paid plans’ 175 (SH-02, SH-01, SH-09). That zero on Synthesia’s free plan is newly confirmed; the August capture could not pin it down, and the September 22 read shows 0 (S-11, SH-02).

Now scale it to 50 finished one-minute videos a month. HeyGen’s Avatar IV burns 20 credits a minute and Avatar III burns 3 (H-01), so the month needs 1,000 credits on Avatar IV, which is Pro’s whole allowance at $49, or 150 credits on Avatar III, inside Creator’s 600 at $29 (SH-01). By Mimo’s arithmetic on those listed figures, that is about $0.98 per finished minute on Pro, or about $0.58 on Creator with three quarters of the credits unused. Synthesia’s Creator plan includes 30 minutes a month (S-03), and its pricing page lists nothing between that and a custom-quoted Enterprise plan with unlimited minutes (SH-02, S-01). Fifty minutes therefore means an Enterprise quote or two Creator subscriptions, and since self-serve workspaces are limited to one primary user (S-14), the second subscription is really a second account. Two annual Creator plans cost $128 a month, about $2.56 for each of the 50 minutes you need. Retakes move the HeyGen figure fastest: each re-rendered Avatar IV minute costs another 20 credits, and only the Business plan can buy extra credits, at $5 per 100; on Creator or Pro, running dry means waiting for the next cycle or moving up a tier (H-16).

The one hands-on test that bought both products points the other way, and it deserves a careful read. On blogrecode.com, Mia Elvasia rendered one 2-minute product-explainer script 50 times on each tool, 100 finished minutes per platform, and reported totals rather than rates (published March 12, 2026, updated August 17, 2026). Synthesia came to $95 over three months, moving from Starter to Creator partway through. HeyGen came to $72 with Avatar III and $384 with Avatar IV, which one line of the article breaks down as $72 base plus $312 in credit packs (SH-03). On those totals the Avatar IV run cost about four times Synthesia’s, and that multiple rests on the article’s own premise: “At 200 credits/month on the Creator plan, you get 10 minutes of Avatar IV video.” The article names Synthesia its cost winner, yet its own Avatar III total was the cheapest figure in the test.

Read the article’s arithmetic closely before leaning on it. Its $384 HeyGen total is itemized a second way elsewhere in the same piece, three months at $24 plus two $150 credit packs, which adds up to $372, and its Synthesia line, three months at $18 plus a $64 Creator upgrade, adds up to $118 rather than the $95 it reports (SH-03). Mimo cannot reconcile those figures on the author’s behalf, so this page quotes the published totals and treats them as approximate. Divided by the 100 minutes the test produced, they come to roughly $0.95 a minute on Synthesia and $0.72 on HeyGen Avatar III; that is Mimo’s division, since blogrecode prints no per-minute price. The Synthesia figure sits far below Synthesia’s own Creator list range of $2.13 to $2.97 (S-03), one more sign the totals undercount something. The Avatar III figure runs the other way, well above HeyGen’s list math of about $0.15 a minute (3 credits at $29 for 600), because 300 Avatar III credits fit inside a single Creator month and the test paid for three. The Avatar IV total is left undivided, because the next section shows the credit count underneath it no longer holds.

One commitment detail runs the same way on both tools. Cancelling takes effect at the end of the paid period on Synthesia and HeyGen alike, and both treat payments as non-refundable by default, with a narrow access-problem exception at Synthesia and a discretionary 15-day request window at HeyGen for purchases made directly or through Google Play, 14 days through Apple (S-12, S-13, H-12, H-13). Decide before a renewal date, not after it.

How Many Credits Does HeyGen Creator Actually Include?

HeyGen’s Creator plan includes 600 credits a month, according to HeyGen’s own pricing page, re-checked on September 22, 2026 and unchanged since the August 15 capture (SH-01, H-01). The 200-credit figure in circulation comes from third-party reviews, and it is the number underneath the $384 Avatar IV total in the 50-video test.

The dispute has a paper trail. On June 14, 2026, an independent review site, aitoolanalysis.com, printed the Creator allowance as 200 credits, which at 20 credits a minute it counted as about 10 minutes of Avatar IV (H-02). Blogrecode’s test rests on the same 200-credit month, which is why its Avatar IV run needed credit packs on top of the plan (SH-03). HeyGen’s pricing page said 600 on August 15 and 600 again on September 22 (H-01, SH-01). From outside, Mimo cannot tell whether HeyGen once sold a 200-credit Creator plan or whether both third parties misread the page. What the dates settle is the number a buyer faces today.

So here is the same test scenario re-priced at 600 credits. This is Mimo’s arithmetic, not blogrecode’s, and it rests on three stated assumptions: 100 finished Avatar IV minutes, from 50 videos of a 2-minute script; Avatar IV at 20 credits a minute (H-01); and no retakes beyond what the article counted. A hundred minutes at 20 credits is 2,000 credits. HeyGen’s help center says Creator and Pro cannot buy one-time credits and only Business can (H-16), so the article’s route, a Creator plan topped up with packs, is not one HeyGen’s current help pages describe. The table prices the routes they do describe, at monthly list prices.

At today’s credit counts, the cheapest route, two months of Pro at $98, lands within a few dollars of Synthesia’s published $95, and even the priciest, one month of Business, stays under half of blogrecode’s $384. The four-to-one gap belongs to the 200-credit premise, not to HeyGen’s current pricing. HeyGen’s annual prices were not captured from the vendor for this page, and an annual plan commits a buyer to twelve months, so the table sticks to monthly list prices. What survives from the test is the part it got right. Avatar IV burns credits more than six times as fast as Avatar III, 20 a minute against 3 (H-01), so the avatar tier you choose moves a HeyGen bill more than the plan does.

The rollover rule is the other trap. HeyGen’s help center says monthly credits roll over for one additional billing cycle, while annual-plan credits accumulate until the renewal date (H-16), and one Capterra reviewer reported on August 6, 2026 that a rollover-policy change cut more than 3,000 saved credits down to 600 (H-10). That is one account’s experience, not a pattern, but reason enough not to bank more than a cycle’s worth of credits on a monthly plan.

Which Has More Realistic AI Avatars: Synthesia or HeyGen?

HeyGen holds the stronger realism evidence in this record, though not a decisive lead: G2’s avatar-quality category score, as learn.g2.com reported it in April 2026, was 9.2 for HeyGen against 8.2 for Synthesia (SH-07). No realism judgment from a same-script test of both tools passed screening, so read it as a tilt toward HeyGen, not a verdict.

On Synthesia’s side, two independent testers who disclosed their method mark where realism holds. One found clips under about 90 seconds convincing, while pieces of five minutes or more still show tells to an attentive viewer (S-16); the other found occasional uncanny movement in longer videos and weaker AI voices in some non-English languages (S-15). On HeyGen’s side the dated evidence is user-level: a CEO on Capterra in June 2026 praised its high-quality avatars (H-09), and a creator in August 2026 estimated that its Avatar Shots feature lands a great result on the first try about 70% of the time (H-10). US and Japanese marketers should know that an independent review dated May 29, 2026 reports Avatar Shots geoblocked in both countries (H-03). Synthesia’s stock library grows with the plan, from 9 avatars on Free to 125-plus on Starter, 180-plus on Creator, and 240-plus on Enterprise (SH-02). The cheapest realism test is your own script on both free plans before any card comes out.

How Many Languages Do Synthesia and HeyGen Support?

Synthesia lists 160-plus languages and accents for its AI voices and 140-plus languages for AI dubbing, two different features on two different vendor pages (SH-06, SH-05). HeyGen lists 175-plus languages and dialects for translation on paid plans and 30-plus on its free plan (H-17, SH-09).

Compare like with like: the dubbing figures are the closest match, 140-plus for Synthesia against 175-plus for HeyGen. HeyGen also meters translation in credits, 5 a minute for full video translation and 2 for audio-only dubbing (H-01), so Creator’s 600 credits cover about 120 translated minutes, roughly $0.24 each by Mimo’s arithmetic. HeyGen’s count describes languages it translates into; no vendor page in this record confirms how many source languages it can read.

Is Synthesia or HeyGen Better for Corporate Training and Compliance?

Synthesia is the better-documented fit for formal training: its security page lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 42001, and GDPR, and its docs name LMS connectors including Docebo, TalentLMS, and a Workday sync (S-06, S-08). HeyGen matches on SOC 2 Type II, which it applies across the whole platform, but claims no ISO 42001 (H-05).

Every row is the vendor’s own statement, captured and dated, not an audit Mimo obtained. The ISO 27701 row corrects a claim that turns up in third-party lists of Synthesia’s certifications: Synthesia’s own security page does not make it, and the likely source of the mix-up is Synthesia’s ISO 42001 announcement, which notes that its auditor holds ISO 27701 accreditation (S-07).

Team size is where both entry plans break for a training department. Synthesia’s Starter and Creator workspaces are limited to one primary user with guest access (S-14), so a second course author means a second plan or an Enterprise conversation. HeyGen’s Business plan adds seats at $20 each, but its 1,500 credits are pooled, so extra seats buy colleagues, not output (H-01, H-16).

Here is what that seat math looks like for a five-author training team. On HeyGen, one Business workspace at $149 a month plus $20 for each added seat keeps all five people inside a single shared pool of 1,500 credits, and any overflow is bought in blocks of 100 credits for $5 (H-01, H-16). On Synthesia, the same five authors cannot share a Starter or Creator workspace at all, so the realistic paths are five separate single-user plans or an Enterprise quote, and Synthesia publishes no Enterprise price (S-14, SH-02). Neither vendor makes the five-seat total easy to read off a pricing page, which is why Mimo shows the mechanics here instead of an invented team figure.

Does HeyGen Include SCORM and Translation on Every Plan?

No. HeyGen’s own pricing table, captured September 22, 2026, ticks SCORM Export only for Business and Enterprise, and its free plan translates into 30-plus languages rather than the paid plans’ 175 (SH-09).

The claim under check is HeyGen’s own. Its Synthesia-comparison page says Synthesia locks SCORM export and one-click translation behind Enterprise, while HeyGen offers SCORM, translation, branching and quizzes from the free plan with no per-feature charge (SH-08). Translation holds up in part, since the free plan does translate, into fewer languages. SCORM does not: the cheapest HeyGen plan with SCORM export is Business at $149 a month (SH-01, SH-09). Synthesia’s help center confirms SCORM 1.2 and 2004 export on Enterprise only (S-09). The two vendors sit closer on this gate than either comparison page suggests, and HeyGen Business is the only published price in this matchup that includes SCORM.

Does Either Platform Use Your Data to Train Its AI?

HeyGen does, by default, for self-serve accounts: its privacy policy lists training and improving its models, avatar creation models included, as a use of customer data, with an opt-out on request, and its trust page says Enterprise customers’ data is excluded (SH-10, SH-11). Synthesia’s privacy policy and security page say nothing either way about training on customer data (SH-12, SH-13).

The HeyGen answer matters because HeyGen’s comparison page tells a different story: its feature grid marks “data not used for AI training” as explicitly guaranteed for HeyGen and not guaranteed for Synthesia (SH-08). HeyGen’s privacy policy, captured the same day, lists the purpose “to train and enhance the models that power our products and services” and adds: “You may request to opt-out of this training and enhancement by contacting us” (SH-10). HeyGen’s trust and safety page supplies the fair reading: Enterprise customers’ data is not used to train its AI systems, and non-Enterprise data may be, unless the user opts out (SH-11). The comparison page may be speaking to Enterprise buyers, but it does not say so, and a Creator, Pro, or Business customer sits outside that exclusion. On a self-serve HeyGen plan with sensitive scripts or footage, send the opt-out request before the first upload.

Synthesia’s side is silence, and silence is all it is. Synthesia’s privacy policy says it processes information about how you use the service “to improve our Platform and underlying technologies and for our internal research”, without addressing customer content as such (SH-12), and its security practices page, re-read for this question alone, says nothing about model training (SH-13). That is neither a guarantee nor an admission. A procurement team that needs a written answer should get one into the contract, and a HeyGen buyer relying on the Enterprise exclusion should do the same.

How Do Synthesia and HeyGen Handle Custom Avatar Consent?

Synthesia and HeyGen both require the real person behind a custom avatar to record a live, identity-matched consent video before the avatar can be built (S-10, H-06). After that step they differ: HeyGen documents remote consent by QR code, a 24-hour link expiry, and a standing right for the depicted person to have their likeness removed (H-06, H-07), while the Synthesia pages captured document an over-18 check but no matching removal right.

Which flow suits a team depends on where the spokesperson is. HeyGen’s QR route lets a presenter far from the creator’s desk consent from a phone, and the 24-hour expiry stops an old link being reused. Synthesia’s live-only rule and age prompt are strict at the front door, and that strictness is the safeguard, not a flaw. If your spokesperson might leave the company, ask Synthesia before signing what happens to their avatar afterward: HeyGen answers that in its moderation policy, and we did not find Synthesia’s answer in the pages captured for either review.

What Do G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot Actually Say About Synthesia vs HeyGen?

On G2, as learn.g2.com reported it, HeyGen edges Synthesia 4.8 to 4.7 (SH-07). Capterra refused a September 22 re-check and Trustpilot blocked every attempt, so neither contributes an average here.

Two cautions attach to the G2 rows. G2 refused Mimo’s direct requests every time, so these are the figures G2’s own content blog printed, published by the company whose data it cites, from research roughly ten months older than this capture. The same article also misstates both free plans, giving Synthesia three minutes a month and HeyGen three-minute videos, where each vendor’s own page showed 10 minutes and one-minute videos (SH-07, SH-02, SH-01). Treat its category scores as a dated snapshot and nothing firmer.

No blended score appears on this page: a tenth of a point, drawn from different reviewer pools, cannot settle a purchase, and the individually dated reviews say more. For Synthesia, a 1-star reviewer in June 2025 cited slow support and flawed content moderation (S-19), and a 3-star reviewer in March 2025 described an unwanted annual renewal that a support bot called non-refundable (S-20). For HeyGen, a 1-star reviewer in April 2026 reported bugs and ineffective support (H-11), while a 5-star reviewer in June 2026 praised the avatars and the tools but wished the support button were easier to find (H-09). Four people are not a user base, and support comes up on both sides; what differs is the second complaint, moderation and renewal billing for Synthesia, bugs for HeyGen.

Is There an API for Synthesia or HeyGen?

Synthesia and HeyGen both offer an API, but they sell it in two different ways. HeyGen sells its API as a standalone pay-as-you-go product, priced per avatar engine in a table last updated September 16, 2026: $0.99 a minute for an Avatar III studio avatar, $4.83 for an Avatar IV studio avatar or digital twin, and $1.50 a minute for lip-synced precision translation, with no free API credits since February 2026 (H-15). Synthesia bundles API use into the credits of its Creator plan and above, charging 75 credits per generated minute against 120 in the editor, and publishes no separate dollar price (SH-04).

That structural difference is the finding, so a dollar comparison has to be built by hand. On Synthesia’s Creator plan billed yearly, $64 buys 30 editor minutes, which is 3,600 credits, or about $0.018 a credit; at 75 credits, an API minute costs about $1.33, rising to about $1.85 on monthly billing. That is Mimo’s arithmetic on Synthesia’s stated rates, it assumes Creator’s per-credit cost, and Enterprise pricing may not follow it. Synthesia’s two API marketing addresses returned “not found” on capture day and its developer introduction lists no prices (SH-04), which is why no vendor figure sits beside the estimate.

For a developer, shape matters more than rate. HeyGen’s $0.99 Avatar III minute undercuts the Synthesia estimate and needs no subscription, but its $4.83 Avatar IV minute costs more than double that estimate, and pay-as-you-go credits expire 12 months after purchase (H-15). HeyGen’s API table changed between the August 15 capture and this one, so re-check it before budgeting. Synthesia’s API draws on the same credit pool as your editor work, so heavy API use competes with the team’s own videos.

What If Neither Synthesia nor HeyGen Fits Your Use Case?

If the project needs real-time conversation, cinematic b-roll, or narration without a face, neither Synthesia nor HeyGen is the right fit out of the box. Three jobs point elsewhere:

1. Live, two-way avatar conversations. HeyGen covers this only through a separately billed product, described below.
2. Generated scenes, ads, or b-roll. That is clip-generator work, not presenter video.
3. Voice-only narration. A text-to-speech or dubbing tool is cheaper than paying for an avatar nobody sees.

HeyGen’s real-time option, LiveAvatar, is billed apart from Creator, Pro, and Business credits, and its cheapest paid tier is $19 monthly for 200 credits (H-14); none of the Synthesia pages captured for either review describe a real-time avatar product. For the second job, our AI video generator ranking, split into clip and avatar tools sorts those separately. Colossyan, a training-focused avatar tool, and D-ID come up in the same buying conversations; Mimo has not reviewed either under the protocol, so treat them as leads to price against the math above.

If one of the two does fit, the fork is short. Choose Synthesia when the videos live inside formal training: an LMS, an ISO 42001 requirement, a compliance reviewer who wants certifications on file, and a budget that can reach Enterprise for SCORM. Choose HeyGen when output volume, translation into many languages, or avatar realism decides it; pick the avatar tier on purpose, and send the training opt-out if you are on a self-serve plan. Either way, render your own script on the free plan first.

Limitations

Five limits apply to this comparison specifically. First, the cost section leans on one hands-on test, blogrecode’s, whose totals and credit math do not fully reconcile with each other, so Mimo reports its printed totals and flags every derived rate as Mimo’s division. Second, the G2 numbers arrive secondhand through G2’s own blog, from research about ten months older than this capture, and Trustpilot printed no figure for either vendor because both pages refused the request. Third, prices and plan gates are from September 22, 2026, but the consent, certification, and review evidence was captured on August 13 and 15 and could have shifted. Fourth, the four Capterra reviewers quoted here speak for themselves, not for either customer base, and a review site draws buyers with a strong reaction in either direction, so the praise-to-complaint mix is not a satisfaction rate. Fifth, Mimo generated no video on either platform for this page, so nothing here grades output quality at first hand; the next pricing re-check is due by October 29, 2026, and the scenarios will be recomputed if either page has moved by then.