Synthesia pricing explained: the real 2026 cost

Synthesia costs more than its $18 headline suggests once you match the plan to a real video schedule. A small team pays $29 month to month for 10 generated minutes, or $89 for 30. The bigger catch for advertisers is licensing: stock avatars can appear in ordinary social posts, but Synthesia bars them from paid ads.

Pricing checked August 24, 2026. Synthesia measures use with credits, meaning units that are spent when you generate video, dubbing, or certain visual assets. Here is what each plan buys, where the limits bite, and which businesses can safely ignore the higher tiers.

Synthesia pricing at a glance

Plan	Monthly price	Annual price	Included video use	Workspace access
Basic	$0	Not offered	Up to 10 minutes a month	1 editor
Starter	$29	$264 a year ($22 monthly equivalent)	Up to 10 minutes a month, or 120 minutes a year	1 editor and 3 guests
Creator	$89	$804 a year ($67 monthly equivalent)	Up to 30 minutes a month, or 360 minutes a year	1 editor and 5 guests
Enterprise	Custom	Custom annual contract	Unlimited video minutes	Custom editors and guests

The company currently displays an $18 monthly figure for Starter when paid annually, yet its own pricing FAQ lists the annual bill as $264. That total equals $22 a month. We would budget from the stated annual total until the checkout page resolves that mismatch.

Basic is a testing plan, not an ad budget

Basic gives one editor 1,200 credits each month. Synthesia says that allowance covers up to 10 minutes of generated video or 25 AI-made visual assets. It includes nine stock avatars and three personal avatars, which are digital presenters made from a real person's recorded appearance.

The free plan is useful for answering a narrow question: will this format suit your message? Build one short script, test the voice, and show the result to someone who knows the audience. The answer matters more than the apparent $0 cost. An awkward presenter can make a careful brand look careless.

Basic has another practical limit. Downloads and logo removal sit on Starter, according to Synthesia's current plan comparison. That makes the free tier a workspace for trials rather than a dependable source of finished customer-facing files.

If your actual need is to edit footage of a real employee or founder, an avatar subscription solves the wrong problem. Our AI video tools comparison separates generated presenters from tools that cut existing recordings.

Starter works for occasional explainers

Starter costs $29 for a monthly subscription. Paying $264 for a year cuts the effective cost to $22 a month and supplies 14,500 credits for the annual term. Month-to-month buyers receive 1,200 credits at each renewal.

Those units translate to as much as 10 video minutes per month. Starter also adds downloads, removal of the Synthesia logo, more than 125 stock avatars, an AI video assistant, dubbing, and three guest seats. Dubbing means replacing spoken audio with another language while keeping the video in sync.

Ten minutes can cover five two-minute product explainers, assuming each draft is approved without waste. That assumption is fragile. Generating a video, spotting a script error, and producing it again consumes capacity. A sensible monthly plan leaves room for corrections rather than allocating every second to final output.

Starter fits a business publishing an occasional website explainer, internal update, or unpaid social video. It is harder to justify for a weekly series when every episode needs several versions. Teams creating short promotional clips should also compare the production allowance with HeyGen's credit-based pricing, because the two systems count work differently.

Creator buys capacity and company controls

Creator costs $89 month to month or $804 for a year, equal to $67 a month. The monthly plan includes 3,600 credits. The annual version supplies 44,000 credits, enough for up to 360 minutes of generated video across the term.

The headline gain is three times Starter's monthly video allowance. Creator also increases the stock avatar library to more than 180, includes five personal avatars, and allows five guests. It adds multiple presenters in one scene, interactive video, application programming interface access, and branded video pages. An application programming interface, or API, is a connection that lets another piece of software request videos automatically.

The useful dividing line is process. Creator makes sense when one editor produces videos regularly and several people must review them. Its interactive controls may also suit staff training or customer education where viewers need to answer a question inside the video.

It does not solve every team problem. One editor remains the hard limit. A company with two active video makers should price the full workspace it needs before committing for a year. If narration quality is the main concern, our AI voice generator comparison covers the separate voice decision.

Enterprise is about governance, not cheap minutes

Enterprise has no public price. Synthesia asks companies to arrange a custom annual contract. The plan advertises unlimited video minutes, more than 240 stock avatars, unlimited personal avatars subject to reasonable use, brand kits, live collaboration, and single sign-on. Single sign-on lets staff enter through the company's existing work account and gives administrators tighter access control.

Those controls matter when video production crosses departments or countries. A small owner making six explainers a month will usually gain little from them. A larger organization that needs shared brand assets, central permissions, and many workspaces is buying control as much as output.

There is also a $1,000-a-year Studio Express-1 avatar add-on for annual customers. Synthesia says processing can take up to 10 days. Treat that as a separate production cost, not a small feature hidden inside the plan.

Credits change the real bill

Synthesia's credit guide for self-serve accounts says credits pay for more than generated video. AI dubbing and generated visual assets draw from the same allowance. A team translating an existing video can therefore reduce the capacity left for its next new video.

Unused monthly credits do not accumulate. Annual subscribers get a larger pool for the year, which suits uneven production better, but any balance left at renewal expires. Accounts that run out must wait for renewal or move to a higher plan. There is no ordinary self-serve option to pay for one extra finished video.

The annual commitment deserves a simple check. Produce two representative videos first, including one round of corrections, and record the credits used. That sample reveals more than a feature list because scripts, scenes, translations, and generated assets all affect consumption.

Paid-ad licensing is the deciding restriction

Synthesia's official licensing rules allow stock-avatar videos on websites, YouTube, and ordinary social posts. The same rules prohibit those stock presenters in paid Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, television, and programmatic ads. Programmatic ads are placements bought automatically across websites and apps.

That distinction can overturn the purchase decision. A plan may offer enough minutes while the chosen avatar cannot legally appear in the campaign you intend to fund. Synthesia says the stock-avatar restriction does not apply in the same way to a custom avatar. Instead, use depends on the agreement with the person whose face and voice were recorded.

Consent needs to be explicit. Keep written permission that covers the channels, countries, editing rights, and length of use. Our AI content policy template provides a broader review structure for synthetic media, while the actual likeness agreement should be checked for the business and jurisdiction involved.

Which Synthesia plan fits your workload?

Choose by the work that reaches customers, not by the largest avatar count.

Situation	Plan that fits	Reason
Testing one script and presenter style	Basic	No subscription cost, with enough capacity for a limited trial
A few website explainers or internal updates	Starter monthly	Finished downloads and 10 minutes without a yearly commitment
Seasonal production with quiet months	Starter annual	One yearly credit pool is easier to use unevenly
Regular training or customer education	Creator	30 monthly minutes and stronger review and interactive features
Several departments need controlled access	Enterprise	Central brand, security, workspace, and permission tools
Paid ads using a stock presenter	None	Synthesia's stock-avatar license prohibits paid promotion

For most small businesses, the honest decision sits between Basic and Starter. Creator earns its higher price when production is frequent enough to use the capacity and the added review features. Enterprise belongs in a procurement process, not an impulse software purchase.

The sharpest cost question is simple: how many approved minutes can one editor realistically ship? Once you know that number and confirm the publishing rights, Synthesia's plan table becomes much easier to read.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Synthesia cost per month?+

Synthesia has a free Basic plan. Starter costs $29 monthly, Creator costs $89 monthly, and Enterprise uses custom pricing. Annual payment lowers Starter to $264 a year and Creator to $804 a year.

How many video minutes are included with Synthesia?+

Basic and Starter each cover up to 10 generated video minutes a month. Creator covers up to 30 minutes a month, while Enterprise advertises unlimited video minutes under a custom contract.

Do unused Synthesia credits roll over?+

No. Monthly credits reset at the next billing date. Annual plans provide one yearly pool, but unused credits expire at the end of that annual term.

Can Synthesia videos be used in paid ads?+

Videos using Synthesia stock avatars cannot be used in paid promotion. Synthesia says videos made with a custom avatar follow the agreement with the person whose likeness appears.