Synthesia Review 2026: Pricing, Features and Verdict

What it is

Synthesia is a browser based studio that turns a script or a slide deck into a video with an AI presenter. You choose a stock avatar or build a personal avatar of yourself, paste your script, pick from 140+ languages and render. Most customers use it for training modules, onboarding, product walkthroughs, compliance updates and internal comms, where filming a person every time a policy changes is expensive.

Recent additions include Syren, an AI video agent that drafts videos up to 3 minutes long, interactive videos and branded pages on Pro, and Roleplay training seats where learners practice conversations with an avatar.

Synthesia's closest rival is HeyGen, which leans toward marketing and creators.

Pricing explained

Synthesia moved to a shared credit system in 2026. Credits are "the shared currency across all AI usage based features." Video creation costs 100 credits per minute, and the first 10 minutes each month are included on every plan.

Plan	Monthly	Billed yearly	Credits	Approx video minutes	Stock avatars	Personal avatars
Basic	$0	$0	500	About 10	9	0
Starter	$29	$18 per month ($216)	1,250 a month	About 22	125+	3
Pro	$89	$64 per month ($768)	6,000 a month	About 70	180+	5
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Custom	Unlimited	240+	Unlimited

Basic carries a Synthesia watermark but includes 140+ languages, 1080p, API access and 10 minutes of dubbing.

Starter removes the watermark and logo, enables downloads, adds the AI Video Assistant and gives 1 editor plus 3 guests.

Pro adds branded pages, interactive videos, 360 API minutes a year, priority support and 1 editor plus 5 guests.

Enterprise adds SAML SSO, live collaboration, brand kits, SCORM export, a dedicated customer success manager, implementation services and priority content moderation.

The minute math

At monthly prices, Starter works out to about $29 / 22 = $1.32 per minute and Pro to about $89 / 70 = $1.27 per minute. On yearly billing, Starter drops to about $0.82 per minute ($18 / 22) and Pro to about $0.91 ($64 / 70). Those figures assume you spend all credits on video; dubbing and other AI features draw from the same pool.

Two add ons matter: a Studio Avatar filmed in a professional studio is $1,000 per year (annual plans only), and Roleplay seats are $29 per learner per month ($25 yearly). Synthesia's pricing page does not list a price for extra credits outside a plan upgrade, and user reviews say unused credits do not roll over. See Synthesia pricing for worked examples.

Key features

Stock avatars and languages

Synthesia lists 9 avatars on Basic, 125+ on Starter, 180+ on Pro and 240+ on Enterprise. Scripts render in 140+ languages and accents. That is a smaller avatar library than HeyGen's 1,100+, but it is curated for business settings.

Personal avatars

You record yourself on a webcam or phone in a well lit space, read a short script and submit a consent video. Synthesia says the avatar is ready in minutes after consent is verified, and your voice is cloned and translated into 29 languages. Starter includes 3 personal avatars and Pro includes 5.

Studio avatars

For higher fidelity you can film in a Synthesia partner studio (2 to 7 working days) or submit your own green screen footage (1 to 5 working days). This is the $1,000 per year add on.

Dubbing and translation

Every plan includes dubbing: 10 minutes on Basic, about 16 more on Starter and about 78 more on Pro, drawn from credits. You can translate a finished video into other languages without re-recording.

Syren AI video agent

Syren drafts a video of up to 3 minutes from a prompt or document. Basic and Pro list 2,000 promotional Syren credits.

Interactive video and SCORM

Pro adds interactive videos with clickable elements and branded video pages. Enterprise adds SCORM export, so videos drop into an LMS and report completions, which is the feature most L&D buyers ask about first.

API

API access is on every plan, which is unusual. Pro includes 360 API minutes a year and Enterprise has no API cap.

Commercial rights and licensing

Commercial use is allowed on every plan, but Synthesia's acceptable use policy is stricter than most rivals on how avatars appear.

• Personal avatars of real people require "appropriate consent from the individual," and the consent video is mandatory before activation.
• Stock avatars cannot be used to make viewers think the real actor personally holds or endorses your opinions.
• Stock avatars cannot appear in a TV program, news broadcast, fundraising or political campaign without written consent.
• Stock avatars cannot be used in paid social media advertising without express written permission. If your plan is to run avatar ads on Meta or TikTok, this rule alone sends you to HeyGen.
• Users may not remove watermarks designed to identify AI content, and are responsible for compliance with laws like the EU AI Act.

Synthesia's ethics page says it builds "content moderation into the point of creation, not after distribution," and frames its approach as Review, Report and React. It works on provenance, so content can be traced to an identity and authorization context, and displays the Content Authenticity Initiative logo, though the pages we read did not detail C2PA implementation. We found no lawsuits against Synthesia over training data in the sources we reviewed.

What users say

Site	Rating	Reviews
Trustpilot	3.8	1,829

The praise is consistent: the platform is easy to use, onboarding sessions and help materials are clear, and the avatar and language range covers most training needs.

The complaints cluster in four areas. Moderation is the top one: reviewers call it strict and say manual review delays slow production. Price is second, with some saying Synthesia costs more than rivals and that unused credits disappear. Third, AI voices mispronounce industry terms. Fourth, a few report features that stop working and trial sign ups that ask for payment unexpectedly. Synthesia does not have a consumer app, so there are no App Store ratings.

Privacy and security

Synthesia's custom avatar page says data handling is SOC 2 and GDPR compliant with independent audits, and a dedicated Trust and Safety team combines human and AI moderation. Enterprise adds SAML SSO and priority moderation. The trust center at security.synthesia.io holds the audit reports for customers under NDA.

The pages we read did not state whether customer videos are used to train Synthesia's models. If that matters to you, ask sales for the data processing terms before uploading footage of employees.

Who it is for

• L&D and HR teams producing training, onboarding and compliance modules.
• Enterprises that need SCORM, SSO and an auditable consent process.
• Product and support teams making walkthroughs in many languages.
• Developers who want an avatar video API on a free or cheap plan.

Who should skip it

• Performance marketers running paid social ads with stock avatars. The policy bans it without written permission.
• Anyone who needs 4K. Synthesia stops at 1080p.
• High volume creators. About 70 minutes a month on Pro is tight for a weekly YouTube schedule.
• Teams who dislike pre-render moderation. Reviewers say it can delay delivery.

Alternatives

• HeyGen: cheaper per credit, 4K from $49, 1,100+ avatars and lighter rules for ads.
• Descript: a text based editor with avatars and voice clones built in.
• ElevenLabs: if you only need narration or dubbing over existing footage.
• Veo: for scene based video with native audio instead of presenters.

See all Synthesia alternatives, the HeyGen vs Synthesia comparison and the best AI avatar generators.

Verdict

Synthesia is the avatar platform a compliance team will sign off on. The consent video, point of creation moderation, SOC 2 and SCORM export make it the default for corporate training, and API access on every plan is a bonus for builders. It is not the cheapest per minute, it stops at 1080p, and its stock avatar rules rule out paid social ads. Pick Pro on yearly billing if training video is a steady part of your work; pick HeyGen if you make marketing content.