Pick by the kind of video, because the five tools sell three different things. For a talking avatar, Synthesia states its allowance in minutes (about 10 on Starter, $29 monthly), HeyGen in credits (its help centre states credits per minute; see Synthesia against HeyGen). For generated clips, invideo sells credits (400 for $20). For turning articles or long recordings into short videos, Pictory (200 video minutes for $29 monthly) and Descript (10 media hours for $24 monthly) are the priced-by-volume options. Cost per finished minute can be worked out for only some of them.
Three ways vendors charge
| Type of video | Tool | Charged in | Cost per finished minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talking avatar from a script | Synthesia | Credits, with a stated minute equivalent | $2.90 to $2.97 monthly billing; about $1.80 to $2.13 annual (table below) |
| Talking avatar, translation | HeyGen | Credits; the help centre states credits per minute by avatar type | About $0.77 (Avatar IV photo look) to $2.32 (Avatar V) on Creator monthly billing |
| Generated clips | invideo AI | Credits per model and clip | About $7.20 to $18 a minute of one example model (below) |
| Article or script to stock-style video | Pictory | Video minutes | $0.145 monthly billing (Starter) down to about $0.06 on annual Professional |
| Edit recordings by transcript | Descript | Media hours, AI credits | Not applicable: it prices input hours, not output |
Worked out from the pricing pages
Synthesia’s Starter page says 1,200 credits a month is up to about 10 minutes of video, and Creator’s 3,600 credits is about 30 minutes. Our division:
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing (per month) | Minutes stated | Per minute, monthly | Per minute, annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synthesia Starter | $29 | $18 | 10 a month (120 a year on annual) | $2.90 | $1.80 |
| Synthesia Creator | $89 | $64 | 30 a month (360 a year on annual) | $2.97 | $2.13 |
| Pictory Starter | $29 | $25 | 200 | $0.145 | $0.125 |
| Pictory Professional | $59 | $35 | 600 | $0.098 | $0.058 |
| Pictory Team | $199 | $119 | 1,800 | $0.111 | $0.066 |
Two things to keep straight. First, these are per minute of allowance if you use all of it; a project with retries costs more per finished minute. Second, a Pictory video minute and a Synthesia avatar minute are different products: Pictory assembles stock-style scenes, Synthesia renders a presenter.
For invideo, the page gives one example: about 30 credits for a 5-second clip on Seedance 2.0 Fast. Annual credit prices are $0.05 (Starter), $0.025 (Plus) and $0.02 (Max) per credit, so a minute of that model is 360 credits, or $18 on Starter, $9 on Plus and $7.20 on Max. Other models cost more or less; the invideo review has the full converter.
HeyGen, priced from its help centre
HeyGen lists Free (3 videos a month, up to 1 minute each), Creator at $29 monthly or $24 annual (600 credits, up to 30 minutes a video, 1080p), Pro at $49 (1,000 credits, 4K) and Business at $149 plus $20 a seat (1,500 credits, up to 60 minutes a video). Its pricing page does not convert credits to minutes, but its help centre does: 16 credits a minute for an Avatar IV photo look, 31 for a video look and 48 for Avatar V, which is about $0.77, $1.50 and $2.32 a minute at Creator’s monthly price (our division). The HeyGen review has the full table and Synthesia against HeyGen sets it beside Synthesia.
Which one, by job
- Training or explainer video with a presenter, budgeted per minute: Synthesia, since its minutes are stated. Annual billing is much cheaper per minute than monthly.
- The same spoken video in several languages: compare Synthesia and HeyGen on dubbing minutes; Synthesia states 48 dubbing minutes on Starter.
- Short generated clips for ads: invideo, with the caveat that credits, not minutes, are the unit and they do not roll over.
- Repurposing blog posts into short videos: Pictory, where price per minute is the lowest listed.
- Cleaning up your own recordings: Descript; it is an editor, not a generator.
The full plan tables, with check dates, are in the pricing tracker. For voice and transcription tools see the audio hub.
Method
Researched from the five vendors’ pricing pages, read 29 Sep 2026. Prices are USD list prices, per seat where the vendor says so. Per-minute figures are our division of a stated allowance by the stated price and assume you use the whole allowance. Synthesia’s page has conflicting numbers between plan cards and FAQ ($18 against $22 a month for Starter annual); the plan card is used. We have not assessed output quality, and nothing here is from using the tools.
Pricing generated video clips: cost per second and per finished clip, and what to use after Sora.