HeyGen vs Synthesia for Video Ads: Avatars, Languages and What $29 a Month Buys

Same price on the plan card, a different month inside

A growth marketer at a skincare brand is planning a launch in three markets at once: the US, Mexico and Brazil. She needs twelve 30-second vertical ads with a presenter on screen, then the same twelve in Spanish and Portuguese. Her shortlist has two names on it, HeyGen and Synthesia, and the first thing she notices is that their entry plans cost the same.

Both list $29 a month.

The resemblance ends at the price. HeyGen's Creator plan buys 600 credits a month, spent across every feature at rates that depend on which avatar model you pick. Synthesia's Starter plan buys 1,200 credits a month, and Synthesia charges 2 credits for every second of video, so the allowance comes to 10 minutes. One meter moves with your model choice. The other moves with the clock. And unused HeyGen credits get one more month, while unused Synthesia credits reset.

This post compares the two for the specific job of making video ads: which avatars can stand in your ad, how each platform handles a second and third language, and which plan limits you will hit halfway through a campaign. The figures come from HeyGen's and Synthesia's own pricing pages and help centres, read on September 17, 2026. Plans in this category get repackaged every few months, so treat each number as dated and confirm it before it lands in a budget.

The short verdict for ad makers

Three lines for the reader in a hurry.

• Pick HeyGen if you test many short variations, want presenters styled like everyday creators, or plan to translate a winning ad into other markets. Its UGC video generator lists 1,100+ creator-style presenters, and its lip-synced translation costs a handful of credits per minute.
• Pick Synthesia if your ads sit inside a wider business video program, such as product explainers, onboarding and sales videos, and you want one workspace and a budget that reads in minutes. Its meter is easy to plan around: 2 credits for every second of video, whichever avatar is on screen.
• Treat realism as a tie you test yourself. HeyGen's homepage calls its avatars the most lifelike in AI video, and Synthesia's avatars page calls it the world's most realistic AI avatar generator. When both vendors claim the top spot, the claim tells you nothing, so run one identical script through each and compare the takes side by side.

Whether presenter-led creative belongs in your account at all is a separate question, covered in why UGC-style ads work on paid social. Here the format is decided and the platform is not.

Two platforms built for different buyers

Both products put an AI presenter on screen, speaking your script, in a file you can upload to an ad account. What differs is the buyer each one was designed to serve, and that shows up in how the plans are packaged.

HeyGen: an avatar studio with a named ad workflow

HeyGen courts performance marketers by name. Its UGC video generator is pitched as an app for ads at scale, and the flow is short: write your script, pick a creator-style presenter, and generate. HeyGen says those 1,100+ presenters are designed to look like everyday creators, not corporate spokespeople. From one script you can swap presenters, backgrounds, hooks and calls to action to build variations for A/B tests, and its UGC ads page says finished ads export in vertical 9:16 for TikTok and Instagram and square 1:1 for feed placements.

An ad buyer at HeyGen is not working inside a training tool that happens to export MP4s. The ad workflow has its own landing page, its own presenter pool and its own export presets, even though the account also reaches translation and interactive training video.

Synthesia: a business video platform that lists ads as a use case

Synthesia describes itself as the #1 AI video platform for business, and its pricing page says it is trusted by over 90% of Fortune 100 companies. Its centre of gravity is training, internal communications and product explainers, which is why its plan comparison covers features like SCORM export, interactive quizzes and guest seats.

Ads are on its list, though. Its avatars page names video ads as a use case: generate and test multiple ad variations with AI avatar characters, without reshooting every time something changes. Its marketing page makes the adjacent pitch for launch and product videos that you update by editing the script and republishing instead of starting production again.

What both already do for an ad

Before the differences, the common ground, because it is wider than the positioning suggests.

• Both export vertical video. HeyGen's Quick Avatar Video lets you choose Portrait (9:16) or Landscape (16:9). Synthesia's help centre lists a Portrait 9:16 size at 1080 by 1920 pixels for IG Reels, TikTok and Stories. For the rest of each placement's requirements, see our video ad specs by platform.
• Both turn a typed script into a presenter video, and both let you clone your own voice.
• Both let you put a real person's face on the presenter. HeyGen calls it a digital twin; Synthesia calls it a personal avatar.
• Both translate a finished video with lip sync, on very different meters.

Avatars: who can stand in your ad

In a presenter-led ad, the presenter is the creative. The face has to match the buyer, the delivery has to feel native to the feed, and for most products the item itself has to be visible early.

Stock presenters on each plan

The two libraries are counted per plan, so compare them at the plan you would actually buy.

• HeyGen lists 500+ stock video avatars on Free and 700+ on its paid plans. Separately, its UGC video generator lists 1,100+ creator-style presenters, and HeyGen says paid plans unlock additional ones.
• Synthesia lists 9 AI avatars on Basic, 125+ on Starter, 180+ on Creator and 240+ on Enterprise, and says only Enterprise includes its full selection.

At the $29 tier, HeyGen's pool is the deeper one on these published counts. Headcount is a weak proxy, though: a launch batch might use four or five faces in total. The useful question is whether your plan includes faces that look like the people who buy from you. For a brand selling to several age groups and regions at once, Synthesia's 125+ on Starter is a real constraint, and its fuller library sits two tiers up. If the face you need is a designed character rather than a stock presenter, our Hedra vs HeyGen comparison covers that route.

Your own face, or a spokesperson's

Brands with a founder or a contracted spokesperson often want that person in every variation.

HeyGen's Creator plan includes 1 custom digital twin. Its newest avatar model, Avatar V, builds a twin from a 15-second video, and HeyGen's own advice is to be extremely expressive during that recording, because the energy you put in is the energy you get out.

Synthesia's avatars page says you can turn yourself into an AI avatar from a single photo, and its custom avatar page says a personal avatar can also be recorded on a laptop or smartphone, with a processing time of 1 business day. Setup includes recording a live consent statement. The plan counts need a check before you buy: the Creator card lists 5 personal avatars, while the FAQ on the same pricing page says one custom personal avatar is included with the annual Starter and Creator plans. Above both, a Studio Express-1 avatar is a paid add-on at $1,000 a year for annual plan users only, and Synthesia says it can take up to 10 days to process.

Getting the product into the frame

Each platform gives you a route to the product. The routes are built differently.

HeyGen publishes a dedicated product placement tool. You upload a product photo and a face photo, HeyGen combines them into a presenter video, and you review the composite before the full render. Rejecting a mismatched pairing at that preview costs far less than discovering it in a finished render.

Synthesia's route runs through the scene around the presenter. Its plans let you upload your own images, videos and infographics, and its customizable avatars can be prompted to talk in any environment and outfit and then to act, with each b-roll asset with action costing 96 credits.

Whichever route you take, spend a few credits on your real packaging before you plan a launch around it. Small print, glossy labels and transparent bottles are the details to inspect at phone size, because a presenter who holds up a blurred brand name is not a test worth paying media behind.

Languages: render it again, or translate the winner

Both platforms advertise language counts well past what a launch plan needs. For an ad program the count matters less than the route: do you render a new video in each language, or translate the ad that already won?

What each plan lists

HeyGen lists 30+ languages on Free and 175+ languages and dialects on Creator and above. Synthesia lists 160+ languages and voices on every plan, Basic included, with various narration styles and local accents.

The more useful check is dialect, because an ad for Mexico should not sound like it was voiced for Madrid. HeyGen's translation language list breaks Spanish into regional variants such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, and Portuguese into Brazil and Portugal. Synthesia's pricing page describes its dubbing output languages as including regional variants like Spanish (Mexico) and Portuguese (Brazil).

Translating a finished ad

Translation is where the two meters diverge most.

• HeyGen charges 6 credits per minute for lip-synced translation in speed mode, 10 in precision mode and 4 without lip sync. Its translator page says you can choose up to 10 languages to translate simultaneously.
• Synthesia charges 50 credits per minute of AI dubbing with lip sync and 25 without on its paid plans, with higher rates on Basic. Its pricing page lists 70+ dubbing output languages on Basic, Starter and Creator and 140+ on Enterprise, and it lists 1-Click Translations into 80+ languages among what Enterprise adds on top of Creator.

Against each entry plan, a minute of lip-synced translation is 1% of HeyGen Creator's 600 monthly credits and about 4% of Synthesia Starter's 1,200. Neither figure is alarming on its own. The catch on Synthesia is that dubbing draws from the same 1,200 credits that pay for new video, so translation and fresh creative compete for one small pool, which the worked example below makes concrete.

Hear it before you ship it

A language count is a vendor's statement about coverage, not about quality in your market. Before you commit a launch to either platform, render one 15-second test in each target language and have a native speaker check three things: how your brand name is pronounced, whether the hook keeps its rhythm, and whether the lip sync holds on fast lines.

Both platforms give you a lever for the first problem. HeyGen's translator says its brand glossary supports forced translations, protected terms and correct pronunciation. Synthesia lists a custom glossary to define brand terms, product names and jargon so messaging stays consistent and pronunciations correct.

What $29 a month buys on each

Neither vendor hides its self-serve ladder behind a sales call. Below is the entry-plan snapshot as of September 17, 2026, followed by what actually drains each allowance. If credit systems in general are new to you, our explainer on how AI video credits work covers the basics.

Factor	HeyGen Creator	Synthesia Starter
Price, billed monthly	$29/mo	$29/mo
Price, billed yearly	$24/mo	$18/mo
Monthly allowance	600 credits	1,200 credits
Presenter video meter	16 to 48 credits/min (Avatar IV and V)	120 credits/min
Lip-synced translation	6 credits/min	50 credits/min
Unused credits	Roll over one cycle	Reset each period
Stock avatars	700+	125+
Languages listed	175+ and dialects	160+
Vertical 9:16	Yes	Yes
Next plan up	Pro, $49/mo	Creator, $89/mo

One meter per model, one per second

HeyGen meters by model. Credits are one balance across features, and each feature draws at its own rate. For presenter video, Avatar IV costs 16 credits per minute with a Photo Look and 31 with a Video Look, Avatar V costs 48 for either look, and the older Avatar III costs 4 to 7. At those rates, Creator's 600 credits cover about 19 minutes of Avatar IV with a Video Look, or 12.5 minutes of Avatar V. HeyGen's Avatar IV guide adds that it charges only the actual seconds of avatar generation, and gives the example that a 30-second video might use 20 or 25 seconds of credits depending on pauses.

Synthesia meters by the second. Each second of video uses 2 credits, so a one-minute video uses 120 and Starter's 1,200 credits come to 10 minutes, whichever avatar is on screen. Other features draw from the same pool at their own rates, such as 75 credits per minute of API usage and 14 credits for each avatar made with its avatar builder.

The practical difference for ad testing: on HeyGen, choosing a lighter avatar model buys more minutes. On Synthesia, length is the only lever, which suits short ads well, since a 15-second hook costs 30 credits whatever else you change.

Edits, rollover and running out

• Edits. Synthesia counts only new video seconds when you edit and regenerate: change 3 seconds of a one-minute video and you are charged for 3 seconds. That rule is friendly to hook testing, where the opening changes and the body stays.
• HeyGen rollover. Unused monthly plan credits roll over for one additional billing cycle, and annual subscribers receive monthly allocations that accumulate until renewal.
• HeyGen top-ups. Creator does not support one-time credit purchases, so running out mid-campaign means upgrading to Pro. Business users can buy extra credits at $0.05 each.
• Synthesia rollover. Credits reset at the start of each billing period with no accumulation, and unused credits from your old plan do not carry over when you upgrade.
• Synthesia top-ups. Its help centre says that when you use all your credits you can top up or upgrade, while the FAQ on its pricing page says usage is capped until renewal and points you to an upgrade. Confirm which applies to your account before a launch week.

Below and above the $29 plans

Before paying. HeyGen's Free plan lists 3 videos per month of up to 1 minute, and its help centre says the allowance is 1 to 3 videos depending on region; watermark removal starts on Creator. Synthesia's Basic plan is $0 with 1,200 credits a month and 9 AI avatars, and its Starter card lists downloading your videos and removing the Synthesia logo among what Starter adds on top of Basic. For a file you can upload to an ad account, budget from Starter.

One step up.

• HeyGen Pro is $49 a month for 1,000 credits and 4K export, with tiers up to 100,000 credits a month at $4,300. Business is $149 a month plus $20 per extra seat, with 1,500 credits and videos up to 60 minutes.
• Synthesia Creator is $89 a month billed monthly or $64 a month billed yearly, with 3,600 credits (30 minutes of video), 180+ avatars, API access and 1 editor with 5 guests. Enterprise is custom pricing with unlimited video minutes.

One inconsistency is worth a line: Synthesia's plan cards show Starter at $18 a month billed yearly, but the FAQ on the same page still quotes $264 for an annual Starter plan. Check the annual total at checkout.

A worked example: 12 ads in three languages

Back to the skincare launch. The brief is twelve 30-second vertical ads in English with the presenter on screen throughout, then the same twelve in Mexican Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. Every rate below is from each vendor's pages as of September 17, 2026.

1. Total footage. Twelve ads at 30 seconds each is 6 minutes in English. Two translated sets add 12 minutes, for 18 minutes and 36 finished files.
2. HeyGen, translating the English winners. 6 minutes of Avatar IV with a Video Look at 31 credits per minute is 186 credits, or 288 at Avatar V's 48. Lip-synced translation of 12 minutes in speed mode at 6 credits per minute is 72. The total is 258 to 360 credits, inside Creator's 600 at $29 a month, with 240 to 342 credits left to roll into next month.
3. Synthesia, translating the English winners. 6 minutes at 120 credits per minute is 720 credits. Dubbing 12 minutes with lip sync at 50 credits per minute is 600. The total is 1,320 credits, 120 more than Starter's 1,200. Without lip sync, dubbing is 300 credits and the total of 1,020 fits Starter. With lip sync, the batch needs Creator's 3,600 credits at $89 a month.
4. Rendering every language natively instead. 18 minutes at 31 credits per minute is 558 HeyGen credits, just inside Creator, while Avatar V's 864 would need Pro's 1,000 at $49. On Synthesia, 18 minutes is 2,160 credits, which needs Creator.
5. Plan cost per finished file. Spread over 36 files, HeyGen Creator works out to about $0.81 a file. Synthesia works out to about $0.81 on Starter if you dub without lip sync, and about $2.47 on Creator if you keep it.

Reading the result honestly. On these published meters, HeyGen's entry plan absorbs a multilingual batch that pushes Synthesia's entry plan past its limit, mostly because lip-synced dubbing costs 50 Synthesia credits a minute against HeyGen's 6. But the HeyGen figure moves with the avatar model and look you choose, while the Synthesia figure moves only with length and the lip-sync toggle. Neither number covers the work around the presenter, since b-roll, product shots and generated images draw extra credits on both platforms. And rendering natively is not only a cost choice: a separate take per market lets you rewrite the hook for that audience, which a translation of the English ad cannot do. How many variations a launch like this really needs is its own question, and the arithmetic above only prices the batch you decide on.

Which one fits your ad program

This is a fit decision, not a quality ranking. It turns on two questions: what else the account has to do besides ads, and what a normal month of testing looks like for your team.

Choose HeyGen when:

• Your ads are short, numerous and UGC-styled, and you want presenters designed to look like everyday creators.
• A winning ad needs to run in other markets, and lip-synced translation at a few credits per minute beats rendering it again.
• You want your product composited with a presenter from a product photo, with a review step before the render.
• Your volume swings month to month, and credits that survive one extra billing cycle protect a quiet month.
• A developer will generate video through code without committing to a plan, since HeyGen says API credits can be bought without a Creator, Pro or Business plan.

Choose Synthesia when:

• Ads are one output of a wider business video program, such as product explainers, onboarding or sales enablement, run by one team in one workspace.
• You want a budget that reads in minutes: 2 credits a second, whichever avatar is on screen.
• Reviewers need to comment on drafts without their own editor seats; Starter includes 1 editor and 3 guests.
• Your team revises often and wants to pay only for the seconds that change.
• Your organization buys against enterprise requirements, and Synthesia's top tier lists SAML/SSO, SCORM export and a dedicated customer success manager.

Still weighing a link-first ad generator as well? Our HeyGen versus Creatify breakdown prices that pairing, and our HeyGen vs Higgsfield comparison does the same for a multi-model studio. Wider shortlists are covered by the HeyGen alternatives and Synthesia 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 platforms, which is why it appears in neither the table nor the verdict.

It solves a narrower problem than either. Novoads is built only for ads: you upload a product image or write a script, choose an AI actor or upload a photo of someone holding your product to make a custom one (a stock talking actor's hands are empty), and get an HD video in 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9. The trade-offs are real. It markets 100+ AI actors, fewer than either library above, and it is not built for training or internal video. Novoads starts at $49/month (Starter, 50 credits per month). All plans are published on /pricing.

When the product has to be in the presenter's hands, it is worth a test beside these two, with a custom actor made from that photo. When the job is localizing a video library or running a training program, HeyGen or Synthesia is the better-shaped tool. The full cases are in Novoads vs HeyGen and Novoads vs Synthesia.

Price the month you will actually run

On the plan cards these two look interchangeable: the same $29, an AI presenter on screen, vertical export and language lists in the hundreds. What separates them is the unit each one sells. HeyGen sells a balance of credits whose buying power depends on the avatar model you choose, and which survives one extra month. Synthesia sells seconds at one flat rate for every avatar, and they expire when the billing period does. A team shipping many short variations and translating its winners will get more from HeyGen's balance. A team running ads as one steady part of a business video calendar will find Synthesia's minutes easier to plan. So write down next month's real brief, count its seconds and its languages, and price that month on both pages. The cheaper plan is the one whose meter matches the way you test.