On the vendors’ own numbers, HeyGen’s cheaper avatar types cost less per finished minute than Synthesia, but its newest cost about the same. HeyGen’s help centre lists 16 credits a minute for an Avatar IV photo look and 31 for a video look, and 48 for Avatar V. At Creator’s $29 for 600 credits that is about $0.77, $1.50 and $2.32 a minute on monthly billing, against Synthesia Starter’s $29 for about 10 minutes ($2.90). The two tools make different avatars, so this compares price, not quality.
What a month buys
Per-minute figures are our division, monthly billing, and assume the whole allowance goes on that one output type. HeyGen’s credit price is plan price divided by credits: Creator $29 for 600 credits ($0.048 each), Pro 1,500-credit tier $74 ($0.049 each).
| Budget | Option | Minutes of finished video |
|---|---|---|
| $29 a month | Synthesia Starter, 1,200 credits | About 10 (the page’s figure) |
| $29 | HeyGen Creator, Avatar IV photo look (16 credits a minute) | 37.5 |
| $29 | HeyGen Creator, Avatar IV video look (31) | 19.4 |
| $29 | HeyGen Creator, Avatar V (48) | 12.5 |
| $29 | HeyGen Creator, Avatar III photo look (7) | 85.7 |
| $89 a month | Synthesia Creator, 3,600 credits | About 30 |
| $74 | HeyGen Pro, 1,500 credits, Avatar IV photo look | 93.8 |
| $74 | HeyGen Pro, 1,500 credits, Avatar IV video look | 48.4 |
| $74 | HeyGen Pro, 1,500 credits, Avatar V | 31.3 |
Annual billing lowers both: Synthesia Starter $18 and Creator $64 a month, HeyGen Creator $24 and Pro (1,500 credits) $62.
The prices and the currency
| Attribute | Synthesia | HeyGen |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid plan | Starter $29 monthly, $18 billed yearly | Creator $29 monthly, $24 billed yearly |
| Allowance | 1,200 credits, “up to about 10 minutes” a month; annual plans get a yearly pool of 14,500 credits (120 minutes) | 600 credits a month; minutes depend on the avatar type |
| Next tier | Creator $89 ($64 yearly), 3,600 credits, 30 minutes, API access | Pro from $49 for 1,000 credits, up to 100,000 credits |
| Team | Enterprise, custom | Business $149 plus $20 a seat, 1,500 credits, extra credits $0.05 each |
Synthesia’s prices are regional. Fetched from a US-style request the page showed dollars ($29 and $18 for Starter, $89 and $64 for Creator). Read in a browser session from Europe it showed euros, at different numbers: Starter €19 monthly and €12 yearly, Creator €79 and €49. These are not currency conversions of the dollar prices, so check the figure shown at checkout in your country.
Where credits go on HeyGen
HeyGen’s help centre lists what a credit is spent on, and the rates matter more than the plan price:
| Feature | Credits |
|---|---|
| Avatar III photo / video look | 7 / 4 a minute |
| Avatar IV photo / video look | 16 / 31 a minute |
| Avatar V | 48 a minute |
| Custom expressive motion (Avatar IV) | 40 a minute on top |
| Video translation with lip-sync, speed / precision | 6 / 10 a minute |
| Video translation without lip-sync | 4 a minute |
| Video Agent, standard / Seedance mode | 40 / 120 a minute |
So a translated minute is far cheaper than a newly generated Avatar V minute. Synthesia keeps one pool: its dubbing allowance is separate (48 minutes on monthly Starter, 140 on Creator).
Pick by what you make
| You make | Look first at | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Training or explainer videos with fixed avatars and scenes | Synthesia | Allowance is stated in finished minutes; 120 to 360 minutes a year on annual plans |
| Lots of short avatar clips or translations | HeyGen | Per-minute credit rates are low for photo looks and translation |
| Video from an API or automation | Either | Synthesia lists API on Creator; HeyGen lets integrations spend the same credits |
| The newest realism | Compare on your own script | The price of HeyGen’s newest avatar is close to Synthesia’s per-minute cost |
What this page cannot tell you
Avatar realism, voice quality, lip-sync and language accuracy are not on pricing pages, and we have not assessed them. Neither vendor states commercial-use terms on its pricing page; read the terms before publishing ads. For each vendor alone, see the Synthesia and HeyGen reviews, and for other tools priced by the minute the video tools hub.
Method
Researched from Synthesia’s pricing page (read twice, from a US-style fetch and from a European browser session), HeyGen’s pricing page and its help-centre credits article, all 29 Sep 2026. List prices; minute figures are our division. HeyGen’s credit table says usage may vary by feature, model, duration or generation type, so treat them as the vendor’s stated rates, not guarantees. Nothing here comes from using either product.