HeyGen vs InVideo for Video Ads: Avatars, an AI Editor and Whose Credits Last

A presenter on camera, or the whole edit around it

The head of growth at a small cold-brew coffee brand has next month's ad tests on one sticky note. Ten talking-head hooks for TikTok. Ten 15-second product cutdowns built from footage her team shot in the spring. Two browser tabs are open, HeyGen and InVideo, and both sell AI video on a monthly credit allowance.

They do not sell the same thing.

HeyGen sells a presenter. You write a script, pick an avatar or build one from your own face, and get a finished take of a person talking to camera. InVideo sells the edit around the shot: an AI agent working on a multitrack timeline, stock footage and your own footage, and a shelf of generative models it calls when the shot you need does not exist yet. The plans differ in a way that matters for a monthly budget, too. HeyGen's Creator plan lists 600 credits for $29 a month on monthly billing, and its pricing FAQ says monthly subscribers' unused credits roll over for one more month. InVideo's Starter plan lists 400 credits per seat for $20 a seat, and the FAQ on its pricing page says unused credits don't roll over to the next month.

This post compares the two for the specific job of making paid social ads: what each one actually produces, how a presenter or a product gets on screen, what the credits pay for, and what a real month of testing costs on each. Every figure comes from HeyGen's and InVideo's own pricing pages, product pages and help centres, read on September 17, 2026. InVideo says it can update credit costs at any time without prior notice, so treat every rate here as dated.

Quick answer: which one fits which ad

Three lines for the reader who has a brief due today.

• Pick HeyGen when the presenter is the ad. Talking-head hooks, testimonials and explainers where a person carries the message. HeyGen's library, digital twins, translation and minute-based meter are all built for that take.
• Pick InVideo when the edit is the ad. Product footage, stock and generated b-roll, cut into many versions for many placements. Its agent builds hooks, variants and cutdowns from one brief, and the cutting itself is not what the credits pay for.
• Budget on a brief, not on a credit count. 600 HeyGen credits and 400 InVideo credits are different units that pay for different work. In the worked example below, a presenter-heavy month costs $29 on HeyGen against $60 on InVideo, and a footage-heavy month costs $20 on InVideo against $49 on HeyGen.

What each product actually makes

Both tools end in an MP4 you can upload to an ad account. The route to that file is where they split.

HeyGen: a script, a presenter, a finished take

HeyGen is built around the avatar. Its UGC video generator is pitched as an app for ads at scale, and the workflow is three moves: write your script, pick a creator-style presenter, and generate. HeyGen says its 1,100+ UGC presenters are designed to look like everyday creators, not corporate spokespeople, and that you can swap presenters, backgrounds, hooks and calls to action to A/B test creative across platforms.

Editing happens in AI Studio, which HeyGen describes as a text-based editor that works like writing a document. You change the words, and tone, delivery and pacing respond to the script. For a presenter ad, that is the right shape of editor: the script is the creative, so the script is what you edit.

InVideo: an editing agent, a timeline and a shelf of models

InVideo is built around the cut. Its homepage calls the product the agentic video editor for serious creatives, and the pitch is direct: describe the edit in plain words, and InVideo's editing agent does it on a real multitrack timeline you can take over at any frame.

Two sources feed that timeline besides your own footage:

• Stock. InVideo's AI video generator page says it writes a script from your prompt, sifts through 16m+ stock images and videos to select relevant content, then adds voiceover and background music.
• Generation. Its performance ads page says the agent has access to 200+ image, video, audio and music models and picks the one that suits each shot.

For ad work, InVideo sells agents rather than templates. Its UGC ads page describes going from a product link to a finished UGC ad in minutes, and its performance ads page lists what the agent builds from one brief: the hooks, the variants, the statics, the cutdowns for every placement.

Where the two already overlap

The positioning is cleaner than the products. Before choosing on the label, know where each one reaches into the other's territory.

• HeyGen also generates from a prompt. Its Video Agent goes from idea to finished video with just a prompt, and HeyGen says every motion element stays fully editable after generation.
• Both run Seedance. HeyGen's homepage dates the announcement that Seedance 2.0 is now inside HeyGen to April 2, 2026, and InVideo's plan cards sell Seedance models from its entry plan up.
• InVideo lists HeyGen models. Its video model rate card includes rows labelled HeyGen Photo Avatar and HeyGen Lipsync, priced per second in InVideo credits.
• InVideo clones faces too. Its AI avatar generator page describes AI twins built by uploading a 60-second video of yourself or sharing a YouTube link.

Presenter ads: a face you pick or a creator an agent casts

In a talking-head ad, the presenter is most of the creative. The face has to match the buyer, the delivery has to sound native to the feed, and the product has to show up early. HeyGen and InVideo take opposite routes to that face.

HeyGen's presenter pool and digital twins

HeyGen gives you a large pool of faces that already exist. Its plan comparison lists 500+ stock video avatars on Free and 700+ on Creator and Pro, on top of the creator-style UGC presenters described above. Creator also lists unlimited photo avatars, the format our D-ID vs HeyGen comparison prices on both meters.

For a founder or a contracted spokesperson, Creator includes 1 custom digital twin, and HeyGen's Avatar V model builds one with just a 15-second video. HeyGen's homepage adds that every custom avatar requires on-camera identity verification from the person depicted. Plan for that before you schedule a partner's face into a campaign: the person in the ad has to take part in the setup.

InVideo's cast-from-a-description route

InVideo's UGC agent works the other way round. Its FAQ says there is no filming, no actors and no stock avatar library to pick from. You upload a reference or describe the age, look, energy, setting and way of talking you want, and InVideo says the agent casts the person you describe, builds them from every angle, and locks the face and voice together.

The production order is where the control sits:

1. Framing, expression and product placement are fixed as images first, and you approve every shot as a still.
2. The approved shots then move in the creator's voice, lip-synced line by line.
3. If you already recorded a voiceover, InVideo says the agent syncs to it instead.

The trade-off is a known face against a designed one. A HeyGen presenter is already in the library when you start. An InVideo creator starts as a casting brief, so the still-approval step is where you catch a wrong face before it becomes a wrong video. If one face has to carry a long run of variations on either tool, our guide to keeping one AI actor consistent across ad variations covers what to check between renders.

Getting the product into the shot

Both vendors promise the product on screen. The mechanisms are different.

• HeyGen runs a dedicated product placement tool. You upload a product photo and a face photo, HeyGen combines them into a presenter video that highlights your product, and you review the composite before the full video render.
• InVideo runs it through the agent's memory. Paste a product link and the agent pulls your product details and imagery into context, and InVideo says the agent locks your product once: same packaging, same label, same proportions.

Both are vendor claims about hard problems. Before a launch, spend a few credits on your real packaging on either tool, and inspect small print, glossy labels and transparent bottles at phone size, because a blurred brand name is not a test worth putting media behind.

Product footage and b-roll: where the edit happens

Plenty of ads never show a presenter at all. A pour shot, a texture close-up and three lines of on-screen copy can carry a product ad on their own. This is InVideo's home ground, and the pricing shows it.

Cutting footage you already own

For a brand with a folder of product footage, the cheapest ad is often an edit, and InVideo prices that path at zero credits. Its pricing page says timeline editing uses no credits, lists your own footage and 4K export from Starter, and its plan helper spells it out: 40 hours of editing costs nothing. Plans are priced per seat, and multiplayer editing lists 5 seats on Starter, 10 on Plus and 20 on Max, so an editor, a copywriter and a founder can work in the same project.

HeyGen's editor is shaped around the presenter rather than the cut. AI Studio edits through the script, and its plan comparison lists 75+ video templates on Free, Creator and Pro. If your ad is mostly a person talking, that editor fits. If it is mostly product footage with a line of voiceover, InVideo's timeline is the more natural place to build it, the same editor-first case our InVideo vs Higgsfield comparison makes.

Stock and generated shots

When a shot does not exist, both tools generate one, on meters with different shapes.

• InVideo lists 100 premium stock footage on Starter, 200 on Plus and 500 on Max, on top of the 16 million+ stock photos and videos its generator draws from. For generated shots, Starter includes Seedance 2.0 Fast and 2.0 Mini, and Seedance 2.5 at 1080p starts on Plus. The plan comparison meters Seedance 2.0 Fast at 720p at about 30 credits per 5 seconds, Seedance 2.0 at 1080p at about 38 and Seedance 2.5 at 1080p at about 50. Stills are cheap: Nano Banana Pro at about 2.5 credits an image.
• HeyGen charges 2 credits per generated image, 60 credits for a Seedance 2.0 clip at 720p and 150 at 1080p regardless of length, and 90 credits for a Veo 3 clip regardless of length. Its help centre lists access to the Seedance 2.0 engine, b-roll creation included, among what Pro adds over Creator, and Pro's plan card lists access to all Advanced AI models.

The shape matters more than the numbers. A per-clip price rewards long shots, because a longer clip costs the same as a short one. A per-second price rewards short ones, and most b-roll inside a 15-second ad is short.

Sizing each cut for its placement

Both tools export for the feeds an ad buyer runs. HeyGen's UGC ads page says finished ads export in vertical 9:16 for TikTok and Instagram and square 1:1 for feed placements, and names Meta Ads Manager and TikTok Ads Manager as destinations. InVideo's performance ads FAQ says you can pick the ratio in settings (9:16, 1:1, or 16:9) and says its ads are cleared for commercial use, including paid social. Each placement still has its own safe zones and length limits, collected in our video ad specs by platform.

Credits: what each meter charges for

Both vendors sell a monthly credit allowance, and both spend it across many features at different rates. The rates themselves show what each product expects you to do most. If credit systems in general are new to you, our explainer on how AI video credits work covers the basics.

HeyGen meters presenter minutes

HeyGen's help centre says credits work as a single balance across video generation and asset creation features, and its rate card reads like a presenter studio's:

• Avatar IV: 16 credits a minute with a Photo Look, 31 with a Video Look.
• Avatar V: 48 credits a minute for either look.
• Lip-synced translation: 6 credits a minute in speed mode, and HeyGen's translator lets you choose up to 10 languages to translate simultaneously.
• Video Agent: 40 credits a minute in standard mode and 120 in Seedance mode.

At the Avatar IV Photo Look rate, Creator's 600 credits buy 37.5 minutes of presenter video, enough for well over a hundred 20-second hooks.

InVideo meters seconds of each model

InVideo's pricing page says credits pay for video creation, generative models and other features, with all models available at their original API pricing. Its help centre publishes the long rate card: the HeyGen Photo Avatar row at 2.40 credits per second, Kling Avatar at 2.20 to 4.50 per second, ElevenLabs text to speech at 4 credits per 1,000 characters, and the Seedance rates above.

Because timeline editing uses no credits, InVideo's allowance goes to what gets generated: shots, stills, voices and agent work. Those rates can also move, since InVideo reserves the right to update credit costs at any time, without prior notice; its help centre adds that current prices are always shown in the app before you confirm a generation.

The plans side by side

The self-serve ladders as of September 17, 2026, at list prices billed monthly unless the row says otherwise. Credits are shown for scale, not for comparison across the two columns.

Factor	HeyGen	InVideo
Built around	Avatar presenters	Agentic timeline editor
Entry paid plan	Creator, $29/mo	Starter, $20/seat/mo
Entry plan, billed yearly	$24/mo	$20/seat/mo
Entry credits	600/mo	400/seat/mo
Middle plan	Pro from $49/mo	Plus, $60/seat/mo
Middle plan credits	1,000/mo	2,000/seat/mo
Upper plan	Business, $149/mo	Max, $150/seat/mo
Unused plan credits	Roll over one cycle	Reset each cycle
Buying credits mid-cycle	Business plan only	Extra Credits, from $5
Seedance access	2.0, listed with Pro	2.0 Fast and Mini from Starter

A few cells need their footnote. HeyGen's Pro tiers run from 1,000 credits a month at $49 to 100,000 at $4,300, and Business is $149 a month plus $20 per seat with 1,500 credits. InVideo's Plus drops to $50 a seat billed annually and Max to $101, while its Starter card notes no difference compared to monthly.

Rollover, top-ups and the quiet month

Ad testing is lumpy. A launch month burns through creative, the month after runs on the winners. How each vendor treats unused credits decides what a quiet month costs you.

HeyGen: one extra cycle, then gone

HeyGen's pricing FAQ says monthly subscribers' unused credits roll over for one more month, and its help centre puts it in days: in practice, credits have up to 60 days before they expire. Annual subscribers' credits accumulate until their annual renewal date.

Two limits come with it:

• Cancellation ends the balance. HeyGen says credits do not carry over after cancellation.
• Creator cannot top up. Creator does not support one-time credit purchases, so running dry mid-campaign means upgrading to Pro. Business users can buy extra credits at $0.05 each.

InVideo: spend it this cycle, or keep Extra Credits behind it

InVideo's pricing FAQ is blunt: unused credits don't roll over to the next month.

Its help centre describes a buffer for the other direction. Extra Credits is an opt-in, pre-paid balance you can use to keep working when your plan's monthly credits run out, bought in a custom amount with a minimum of $5. Purchased credits last 12 months from the purchase date, and if you cancel your subscription, the Extra Credits balance expires with it. One caution: some of InVideo's billing help pages still show an older plan table, with names like Basic, Pro and Ultra, so confirm the Extra Credits screen inside your own account before you count on it.

What that means for a testing calendar

• Launch-then-rest months suit HeyGen. A heavy month that leaves credits unspent carries them into the quiet month instead of losing them.
• A steady weekly cadence loses little on InVideo. A team that spends its allowance every cycle has nothing left to reset.
• Annual billing changes both pictures. HeyGen's annual subscribers accumulate credits until renewal, and InVideo's annual billing lowers the seat price on Plus and Max.

How much creative a month really needs is its own question, answered in how many ad creatives you need. The rollover rule only decides what happens to the credits you do not use.

A worked example: one coffee brand, two different months

Back to the cold-brew brand. Its two briefs lean on opposite halves of an ad, so each is priced on its own. Every rate below is from each vendor's own pages as of September 17, 2026, and every plan price is monthly billing.

Month one, the presenter month: ten talking-head hooks of 20 seconds each, 200 seconds of presenter video in total.

1. HeyGen. At Avatar IV's 16 credits a minute with a Photo Look or 31 with a Video Look, 200 seconds uses about 53 to 103 credits. That fits Creator's 600 credits at $29, and the 497 to 547 credits left over roll into the next month.
2. InVideo. At the HeyGen Photo Avatar row's 2.40 credits a second, 200 seconds is 480 credits. At the Kling Avatar row's 2.20 to 4.50, it is 440 to 900. Either row lands above Starter's 400 credits, and Starter lists access to selected models where Plus lists all of them, so the month runs on Plus at $60 a seat unless the overage is covered with Extra Credits.

Month two, the footage month: ten 15-second product cutdowns edited from footage the brand already owns, each opening on one generated 5-second pour shot.

3. InVideo. Ten Seedance 2.0 Fast shots at 720p, at about 30 credits per 5 seconds, come to about 300 credits, and the cutting uses none. That fits Starter's 400 credits at $20. Upgrading the pour shots to Seedance 2.5 at 1080p, about 50 credits per 5 seconds, comes to about 500 credits and a move to Plus, where Seedance 2.5 starts.
4. HeyGen. Ten Seedance 2.0 clips at 720p cost 60 credits each regardless of length, 600 credits in total. HeyGen's help centre lists the Seedance 2.0 engine among what Pro adds over Creator, so the month runs on Pro at $49, with 400 credits left to roll over. At 1080p the same ten clips cost 1,500 credits, above Pro's entry tier of 1,000.
5. Side by side. The presenter month costs $29 on HeyGen against $60 on InVideo. The footage month costs $20 on InVideo against $49 on HeyGen.

Reading the result honestly. The HeyGen Photo Avatar row on InVideo's rate card names no HeyGen engine or look, so treat it as its own product rather than HeyGen's Avatar IV at a markup. InVideo's UGC agent route, the one that casts a creator and asks you to approve stills, routes each shot to whichever model fits it, so its real cost is the sum of those generations, shown in the app before you confirm each one. Neither month prices voiceover or captions, which can add credits on either tool. And both meters move over time; HeyGen's own help centre says Creator now includes 3x the monthly credits it did before. Rerun this arithmetic with your own brief the week you buy.

Which one fits your ad program

This is a fit decision, not a quality ranking. Each tool is strong at its own core job, and they have picked different jobs.

Choose HeyGen when:

• The presenter is the ad: talking-head hooks, testimonials, founder messages and explainers where a person carries the message.
• You want a large pool of ready faces, 700+ stock avatars on paid plans and 1,100+ UGC presenters, or your own digital twin from a 15-second video.
• A winning ad has to run in other markets, and lip-synced translation at 6 credits a minute into up to 10 languages at once beats rebuilding it.
• You test in bursts, a launch month followed by a quiet one.

Choose InVideo when:

• The edit is the ad: product footage, stock and generated b-roll cut into many versions for many placements.
• You want to describe edits in plain words and still take over the timeline at any frame.
• You want a creator designed from a description rather than picked from a library, with every shot approved as a still before it moves.
• Several people build ads together, since multiplayer editing and per-seat plans are part of every tier.

Weighing a different pairing? Our HeyGen vs Synthesia comparison prices two avatar platforms against each other. Wider shortlists live in the HeyGen alternatives and InVideo alternatives roundups, which rank each field by the kind of ad a tool makes.

Where Novoads sits beside them

A disclosure before the close: this post is published by Novoads, an AI UGC video-ad generator that competes with both, which is why it appears in neither the table nor the worked example.

Novoads covers a narrower job than either tool: ads, and nothing else. You upload a product image or write a script, pick an AI actor, and export HD video in 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9. To put the product in someone's hands, you either upload a photo of a person holding it to create a custom actor, since a stock talking actor's hands are empty, or start from a Discover product template, which places your uploaded product in the template creator's hand and renders a 15-second Seedance 2.0 clip. Seedance 2.0, Seedance 2.0 Mini, Seedance 2.5, Kling v3 Pro and Google Veo 3.1 are already in Novoads, from about a dollar for a five-second Seedance 2.0 Mini clip to about $8 for an eight-second Seedance 2.5 clip, and about $26 for a full 30-second Seedance 2.5 take.

Novoads starts at $49/month (Starter, 50 credits per month). All plans are published on /pricing. The plan shares a name with InVideo's entry plan and nothing else. Novoads' monthly credits refresh on the billing date and don't roll over, a point where HeyGen is the more generous of the three.

The concessions are real. Novoads markets 100+ AI actors, far fewer than HeyGen's pools, and its model roster is a short list next to InVideo's 200+. When the job is translating a presenter library or editing hours of owned footage, HeyGen or InVideo is the better-shaped tool. The head-to-head case against the avatar side is in Novoads vs HeyGen.

The expensive half of the ad picks the tool

Every video ad has two halves: the person who says the line, and the pictures cut around them. HeyGen prices the first half by the minute and keeps unused credits for one more cycle. InVideo prices the second half by the second, charges nothing for the cut itself, and resets what you leave unspent. So before comparing plan cards, look at next month's brief and ask which half will eat the budget. If it is the presenter, start on HeyGen. If it is the edit, start on InVideo. And if both halves matter every month, price that exact brief on both pages, because the tool that is cheap for one half can cost twice as much for the other.