Fourth FeedHeyGen vs Synthesia (and is HeyGen free?): pricing, free limits & avatar tests
Data as of 2026-11-13. Rechecked every quarter.
Both HeyGen and Synthesia have real free plans, and both put a watermark on every free export so you cannot publish client or ad videos without paying. On HeyGen’s $0/month Free plan (checked against heygen.com/pricing), you get 3 watermarked videos a month of up to 1 minute each, access to Avatar IV and Video Agent, 1 Custom Video Avatar, 500+ stock presenters and 30+ languages; removing the watermark and exporting at 1080p starts on Creator at $29/month (600 credits, videos up to 30 minutes on Pro, 175+ languages and dialects, 1-month credit rollover), while 4K export and Seedance 2.5 / Veo 3.1 access require Pro at $49/month (1,000 credits). Synthesia’s Free plan gives 1 watermarked video plus 10 minutes of AI dubbing a month across 70+ languages; paid Starter begins lower than HeyGen at $19/month ($9 first month promo) for roughly 2 unwatermarked 1080p videos and up to 16 minutes of dubbing a month, scaling to ~7 videos/month on the next tier (note that enabling lip-sync on Synthesia dubbing consumes 2x credits). In plain terms: Synthesia is built around structured business training decks, SCORM LMS exports, PowerPoint imports and team brand kits, whereas HeyGen is faster for creator-style talking avatars, UGC ads and expressive single-photo animation. When we ran HeyGen’s Avatar IV API on 2026-11-08 against Kling AI Avatar v2 and VEED Fabric on the same 5-second vocal track and portrait, HeyGen finished in 33–35 seconds at the lowest per-clip API cost of our six-model test — just watch your input photo’s resting expression, because a half-smiling photo made Avatar IV smile before the first word until we swapped in a neutral closed-mouth image.
1. The facts side by side
| Tool | Pricing | Free tier | Visits/month | Revenue (30 days) | Agent-ready | Free credits | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HeyGen heygen.com | freemium, from $29/month | 3 watermarked videos/month up to 1 min | 8.7M (2026-09) | — | llms.txt | — | Avatar IV via HeyGen’s API with one portrait and a 5-second vocal track (2026-11-08): finished in ~35 seconds, cheapest of six models tested, clean mouth shapes close to Kling’s. Resting expression follows the input photo — use a neutral closed-mouth portrait when you do not want an early smile. (2026-11-08) |
| Synthesia synthesia.io | freemium, from $19/month ($9 first month) | 1 watermarked video, 10 min dubbing/month | 1.7M (2026-09) | — | llms.txt | — | — |
| Kling AI kling.ai | freemium, from $10/month ($6.99 first month, $8.80/month renewal) | Basic free account (evaluation only, no monthly credit renewal) | 11.9M (2026-09) | — | llms.txt | 10% bonus credits on your first individual monthly, quarterly or annual plan, up to 1,500 credits. The 7-day trial does not count. | Kling AI Avatar v2 Standard on the same 5-second portrait test (2026-11-08): ~3.5 minutes render, sharpest lip shapes and steadiest face identity; text prompt controls facial expression. (2026-11-08) |
| VEED veed.io | freemium, from $10/user/month billed yearly | — | 7.9M (2026-09) | — | llms.txt, MCP | 50% off your first 3 months on a Lite or Pro plan after you create a free account through the link. Not available in India. | VEED Fabric 1.0 at 480p on the same 5-second track (2026-11-08): fastest render at 26 seconds, though mouth opening was subtle on sung lines. (2026-11-08) |
“—” means we have not looked or the site does not say. Prices are as the tool’s own page states them.