HeyGen vs Synthesia: AI Avatar Video Tools in 2026

An avatar video outlives the face in it.

That is the part nobody tells you when you pick between these two. You record a manager reading a script, or you pick a friendly stock presenter from a library, and you build a twelve-module onboarding course around them. Two years later the policy in module four changes. You open the project to swap one sentence, and the presenter is gone. Maybe the actor who licensed that stock face opted out. Maybe the manager left and asked you to delete their clone, which is their right, and which nobody planned for.

Every comparison I read before writing this covers avatar realism, price and language counts. Those matter and they are below. None of them explain what happens to the person on screen over the life of a video, so this page does that too.

If you want cinematic clips from a text prompt, that is a different category, and our AI video generator roundup covers Kling, Runway and the rest. This page is about talking-head video: a presenter, real or synthetic, reading your script to camera.

What each one actually is

HeyGen is a creator tool that grew up. Its centre of gravity is the digital twin, a clone of you built from a short piece of footage, and its current model, Avatar IV, is what most people mean when they say HeyGen looks more natural. It also does video translation with lip sync, which is the feature that sells it to marketing teams with audiences in several countries.

Synthesia is a training department's tool and makes no secret of it. The editor is built around scenes, closer to a slide deck with a presenter than to a video timeline, and the features it leads with are the ones a compliance reviewer cares about, brand kits and approval steps above all. Enterprise customers get a library of more than 240 stock avatars.

The short answer

	HeyGen	Synthesia
Free plan	3 videos a month, 1 minute each, watermarked	10 minutes a month, 9 stock avatars, watermarked
Entry paid plan	Creator, $29 a month or $24 billed yearly	Starter, $29 a month or $18 billed yearly
Next tier	Pro, $49 a month, up to 4K	$89 a month or $64 yearly, 5 personal avatars
Teams	Business, $149 a month plus $20 a seat	Enterprise, custom pricing
Billing model	Credits	Credits mapped to video minutes
Consent for a clone	Subject records a webcam statement	Subject records a live consent video, 18 or older
If a stock actor opts out	Not documented	Old videos still play, edits need a new avatar

HeyGen for a face you own and want to look good. Synthesia for a course you will be editing in 2028.

HeyGen, the better-looking clone

The realism gap is real, though it is narrower than it was. Put a HeyGen twin and a Synthesia personal avatar side by side reading the same paragraph and HeyGen's hands, pauses and head movement read as a person more often. For a founder recording weekly product updates, or a sales rep sending a personalised intro to fifty prospects, that difference is the whole purchase.

Translation is the other strong suit. Record once in English and HeyGen produces a version in another language with the mouth movement redone to match. If you have tried dubbing a talking head the old way, you know why people pay for this.

The cost is predictability. HeyGen moved to credit-based plans and retired its legacy unlimited plans, and its help centre states plainly that once you leave a legacy plan you cannot switch back. Some features charge per minute of output and others per generation, so a busy month of translations burns credits faster than a busy month of plain avatar video. Monthly subscribers get unused credits rolled over for one extra billing cycle. That is generous until you pause.

Read the pause terms before you press that button. HeyGen's cancellation guide says that when a pause starts, your credit balance expires entirely and does not return when the subscription resumes. Cancelling does the same to unused credits. Do your last big render before you pause.

Synthesia, the one built for a review cycle

Synthesia asks you to think like an instructional designer, and if you are one, that feels like relief. Scenes, templates and a locked brand kit mean a regional team can make a video that still looks like it came from headquarters. Nobody in legal has to watch a timeline to approve it.

The avatars are good. They are slightly stiffer than HeyGen's best, and for a ten-minute safety module the stiffness disappears by minute two because the viewer is reading the bullet points anyway. For a thirty-second LinkedIn ad, it shows.

Personal avatars come with stricter footage rules. Synthesia's docs ask for one to five minutes of video filmed as a single continuous take, and on Enterprise you can invite a colleague to record their own avatar into your account, which is how a training team clones a subject-matter expert without borrowing their laptop.

What happens to the face over time

This is the section the ranking pages skip, and the one that will cost you real hours.

A stock presenter can quit. Synthesia's knowledge base explains that it retires a stock avatar or voice when the actor behind it opts out of their agreement. Videos you already generated stay in your library and keep working. Any future edit to those videos requires you to pick a new avatar. For a course with forty videos featuring one presenter, an opt-out turns a one-line policy update into a full re-shoot of the series, or a presenter who changes face halfway through. Synthesia's own advice is to use a custom avatar if you need control over availability. I agree, and I would go further: never build a multi-module course on a stock presenter if you expect to maintain it. HeyGen's help centre does not document an equivalent retirement policy, which is not the same as saying it never happens.

A clone needs the person's live consent. Both companies verify that the person in the footage agreed to be cloned. HeyGen sends a consent link to the subject, who records a statement on webcam in any language, under 35 seconds, and the link expires after 24 hours. Synthesia requires a consent video recorded live, not uploaded, by the same person who appears in the footage, and they must be at least 18. In practice this kills the most tempting shortcut, cloning the CEO from a conference keynote. Good.

Deleting is slower than it looks. Synthesia lets you delete a personal avatar yourself at any time, says the deletion cannot be undone, and then takes up to 90 days to remove the avatar, video and voice data from all its systems. If an account is closed without a specific deletion request, the same 90-day clock applies. HeyGen limits the other direction: you can delete and redo a twin once per billing cycle, so a bad first take means waiting a month for a second try.

Cancelling locks things, and deletes nothing. On HeyGen, cancelling drops you to the Free plan and its single avatar slot. Extra avatars become locked, not deleted, until you resubscribe. Rendered videos stay under Projects. That is the right design, and it also means a former employee's twin can sit in a dormant account indefinitely unless somebody removes it.

That last point is a people problem more than a software one. If you clone a staff member, agree in writing, before you record, what happens to the clone when they leave. Our guide to AI tools for HR teams covers where this kind of policy usually lives. The same question applies to voices, and the voice cloning tools roundup is worth reading if you plan to clone audio separately.

Which one to pay for

Pay for HeyGen if the face on screen is yours, the videos are short and disposable (a sales intro, a launch clip), or you need lip-synced translation more than anything else. Start on Creator at $24 a month billed yearly and watch your credit burn for a month before upgrading.

Pay for Synthesia if you are producing training or compliance content that someone will have to update next year, especially when you plan to clone colleagues and need a process HR can sign off on. Start on Starter, and move up only when you need personal avatars.

If you are a training team, I would pick Synthesia and record your own presenters from day one. Better-looking avatars are a nice problem. A course you cannot edit because the presenter left is a terrible one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is HeyGen or Synthesia better?

HeyGen is better for realistic personal digital twins, short marketing videos and lip-synced video translation. Synthesia is better for structured training and compliance content, with a scene-based editor, brand controls and a consent process designed for cloning colleagues. Both have free plans with watermarks.

How much do HeyGen and Synthesia cost?

HeyGen's Creator plan costs $29 a month or $24 a month billed yearly, Pro costs $49 a month, and Business costs $149 a month plus $20 per extra seat. Synthesia's Starter plan costs $29 a month or $18 a month billed yearly, and the next tier costs $89 a month or $64 billed yearly with five personal avatars. Enterprise pricing on both is custom.

What happens to my avatar if I cancel HeyGen?

Your account moves to the Free plan with one avatar slot. Avatars beyond that become locked but are not deleted, and they return if you resubscribe. Previously rendered videos stay in Projects. Unused credits expire when you cancel or pause.

What happens when a Synthesia stock avatar is retired?

Synthesia retires a stock avatar when the actor behind it opts out. Videos already made with it keep working in your library, but any future edit to those videos requires choosing a different avatar. Custom avatars avoid this because you control their availability.

Can I make an AI avatar of someone else?

Only with their live participation. HeyGen requires the subject to record a short consent statement on webcam through a link that expires after 24 hours. Synthesia requires a live-recorded consent video from the same person who appears in the footage, who must be at least 18.