Synthesia is live · free plan, paid from $14/mo billed annually · last verified 13 Nov 2026 · viability healthy
Synthesia
AI video platform for business: avatars, 140+ language dubbing, SCORM delivery to your LMS.
Buy Synthesia when the video has to land in an LMS, get signed off by legal, and ship in a dozen languages — that combination is what the tool is built around, and the shared credit pool makes project cost easy to estimate up front. Starter at $19/mo month-to-month ($9 first month) gets you watermark-free downloads, but SCORM export, SAML/SSO and brand kits only arrive on Pro at $89/mo month-to-month ($49 first month), and translations are Enterprise-tiered. If face realism is your whole reason for switching, look at HeyGen first.
Verdict generatedVerified 17h ago · liveness 93/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/synthesia
- Enterprise L&D teams maintaining large multilingual training libraries
- Compliance and technical training producers who need SSO, approval workflows, and SCORM export
- Sales enablement teams shipping product videos that go stale every quarter
- Internal comms groups delivering one announcement in a dozen languages at once
- Casual creators wanting unlimited free output — Basic caps you at 500 credits, 10 minutes, and a watermark
- Brands chasing cinematic, emotionally driven film with real actors on camera
- Teams that need live streaming, live events, or real-time broadcast production
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Skip Synthesia if you need live streaming or broadcast production, want multi-track audio editing, or need a cinematic shoot with real actors — this is a script-to-video, translate, publish-to-LMS workflow, not a production studio or a live broadcast tool.
Every b-roll asset with an action burns 230 credits, so motion-heavy scenes drain a monthly allowance far faster than the per-minute estimate suggests.
Synthesia's ladder suits mid-size L&D and enablement teams: Starter at $19/mo month-to-month is cheap for a single producer, Pro at $89/mo month-to-month makes sense once you need SSO, SCORM, brand kits and 3-5 personal avatars, and Pro packs up to $676/mo month-to-month cover heavy dubbing. Enterprise (custom) is where unlimited avatars and avatar sharing live. Smaller teams comparing on price alone will find HeyGen and similar avatar tools competitive on entry tiers; teams that need LMS
In short
Synthesia — AI video platform for business: avatars, 140+ language dubbing, SCORM delivery to your LMS. Best for Enterprise L&D teams maintaining large multilingual training libraries, Compliance and technical training producers who need SSO, approval workflows, and SCORM export, Sales enablement teams shipping product videos that go stale every quarter. Free to start; paid plans from $14/mo billed annually.
What is Synthesia?
Synthesia — AI video platform for business: avatars, 140+ language dubbing, SCORM delivery to your LMS. Best for Enterprise L&D teams maintaining large multilingual training libraries, Compliance and technical training producers who need SSO, approval workflows, and SCORM export, Sales enablement teams shipping product videos that go stale every quarter. Free to start; paid plans from $14/mo billed annually.
Synthesia is an AI video platform for organizations that publish presenter-led video on a schedule instead of booking a shoot. Drop in a file, paste a URL, or write a prompt and the AI Video Assistant returns a first cut with an avatar, voiceover, and on-brand scenes; from there you edit, translate, and publish it to a learning system or intranet. The audience is L&D, compliance, HR, sales enablement, and internal comms teams inside large companies — the groups shipping training continuously and needing it to clear legal review. Production goes well beyond avatar rendering. AI b-roll generates at selectable 720p, 1080p, or 4K, PowerPoint decks become editable narrated videos, and an AI Screen Recorder captures narrations of your own screen. The editor now accepts WebP uploads, including animated ones with transparency. Interactive videos support branching, calls to action, and quizzes, while Roleplay Sessions and Survey Sessions run avatar conversations for sales practice and research. A Synthesia MCP server lets you describe a video inside ChatGPT or Claude and generate it there. Localization carries a lot of the value. AI Dubbing and AI Video Translation cover 140+ languages with voice cloning, lip-sync, and glossary controls that keep names and terms consistent; one-click burned-in captions keep dubbed video legible with sound off, and a multilingual player holds every translated version behind a single link. Publishing is link, embed, or SCORM, and edits propagate automatically to the LMS and embeds already live. Governance is what survives procurement: SOC 2, GDPR, ISO 42001, SAML/SSO on Pro, brand kits, roles and permissions, and approval-before-publish. If raw avatar realism is the deciding factor, compare HeyGen; pick Synthesia when admin controls, translation workflow, and LMS delivery weigh more than face fidelity.
Key features
- Generate avatar videos from a script, prompt, document, link, or PowerPoint
- AI Video Assistant turns a prompt, link, or file into a first-cut video
- AI Dubbing and AI Video Translation into 140+ languages with voice cloning and lip-sync
- Glossary controls keep names, terms, and pronunciation consistent across languages
- One-click burned-in captions for dubbed videos
- Selectable 720p, 1080p, or 4K resolution for AI-generated b-roll
- WebP image upload in the editor, including animated WebP with transparency
- Multilingual player holds every translated language behind one link
- Interactive videos with branching, calls to action, and quizzes
- AI Screen Recorder captures narrated screen walkthroughs
- AI Motion Graphics for on-brand visuals
- Roleplay Sessions for AI sales and manager practice with coaching
- Survey Sessions run conversational interviews with auto-summarized themes
- Real-time conversational avatars via the Interactive Avatars API (LiveKit plugin example)
- Synthesia MCP server generates on-brand videos from inside ChatGPT or Claude
Behind the verdict
Synthesia's center of gravity is the workflow after the script: generate, translate, get approval, publish to the LMS, and let edits propagate to every live share. The credit system is the spine of the pricing. Basic gives 500 credits/month and a watermark; Starter gives 1,250 credits/month for roughly 12 minutes of video or 16 minutes of dubbing at $19/mo month-to-month; Pro gives 6,000 credits/month at $89/mo month-to-month and ladder up to 48,000 credits/month at $676/mo month-to-month. The pricing page estimates roughly 100 credits per video minute, 76 per dubbing minute, and 350 per survey response beyond the first three, and warns that actual burn depends on what is in your video — each b-roll asset with an action costs 230 credits. That warning matters: motion-heavy scenes eat a Pro allowance faster than a talking head does. Feature gating is where the buying decision actually lives. Personal avatars are capped at 3 on Starter and 5 on Pro; unlimited personal avatars, avatar sharing across teammates and workspaces (shipped late September), SAML/SSO, brand kits and SCORM export sit on Pro or Enterprise depending on the line, so read the compare table rather than the marketing page. Roleplay learner seats are an extra $87/mo on any plan. Studio Express-1 custom avatars are a $1,000/year add-on for annual-plan users only and can take up to 10 days to process. Recent releases fill real gaps rather than changing the pitch: selectable 720p/1080p/4K for generated b-roll, WebP uploads including animated WebP with transparency, one-click burned-in captions for dubbed videos, the Synthesia MCP for ChatGPT and Claude, and avatar sharing for Enterprise workspaces. The API line is separate and priced separately — DEV/API Starter is $14/mo billed yearly ($168/year) for 15,000 credits/year — and the Interactive Avatars API supports real-time conversational avatars, with a LiveKit plugin shown in the docs. Where it does not fit: you want a cinematic film with real actors; you need live streaming or broadcast production; you want a multi-track audio mixing suite; or you have a large review panel, since Starter is 1 editor + 3 guests and Pro is 1 editor + 5. Casual creators also hit the 500-credit, 10-minute, watermarked Basic ceiling fast.
Models under the hood
as of 2026-11-13
Limitations
- Credits are one shared pool across every AI feature.
- Basic gives 500 credits/month (10 minutes of video creation or dubbing, 3 survey responses) with a watermark.
- The pricing page estimates roughly 100 credits per video minute, 76 per dubbing minute, and 350 per survey response beyond the first 3, and states actual burn depends on what is in your video because avatars, b-roll, motion graphics, and dubbing each count differently; each b-roll asset with an action costs 230 credits.
- Feature availability is heavily tiered: personal avatars are capped at 3 on Starter and 5 on Pro, while 1-click translations, unlimited personal avatars, SAML/SSO, brand kits, SCORM export, and avatar sharing are Enterprise.
- Roleplay learner seats are an extra $87/mo on any plan.
- Studio Express-1 avatars are a $1,000/year add-on for annual-plan users only and can take up to 10 days to process.
- Pro credit packs scale from 6,000 to 48,000 credits/month, so heavy dubbing pushes you up the volume ladder rather than onto a cheaper per-unit rate.
as of 2026-11-08
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Is Synthesia still active?
Synthesia is live · free plan, paid from $14/mo billed annually · last verified 13 Nov 2026 · viability healthy.
Viability score
How well maintained and how widely used is Synthesia? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: November 2026
How we score →What's new in Synthesia
Checked 8 days agoAcross the latest 5 updates: 3 feature updates, 1 launch and 1 changelog entry.
Burned-in captions for dubbed videos
Add burned-in captions to dubbed videos in one click, keeping localized content readable with sound off.
WebP image upload in the editor
WebP files can now be uploaded directly to the editor, including animated WebP with transparency preserved.
Selectable resolution for generated B-roll
B-roll generation now offers 720p, 1080p, or 4K output, giving control over quality and credit use.
Synthesia MCP for ChatGPT and Claude
Synthesia MCP lets users generate on-brand videos from within ChatGPT or Claude by describing the video and picking a style.
Avatar sharing for teams and workspaces
Enterprise users can share an avatar's base person with teammates or a workspace so others can create outfits and generate media.
What do users say about Synthesia?
What people actually say about Synthesia — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
ResearchedDiscussed by users across 4 sources (Hacker News, YouTube, Bluesky, Lemmy) · researched Nov 7, 2026.
Weighted by the 72 posts each of 4 sources contributed.
- +Built-in SOC 2, GDPR, SSO and approval-before-publish controls clear enterprise procurement faster than most rivals.
- +One-click dubbing and 140+ language translation with glossary controls keep compliance content consistent.
- +SCORM export and live-update pushes mean LMS courses don't need re-uploading after edits.
- +Prompt, file or URL to a first-cut video makes onboarding new L&D staff genuinely fast.
- +Interactive video branching and quizzes are used for micro-CPD and onboarding check-ins.
- −Avatars can look twitchy and uncanny — the Ryanair update video drew sharp criticism.
- −Entry plan is 10 minutes a month for $29, which reviewers call poor value.
- −Free tier requires a login, so buyers can't honestly trial the product.
- −Lip-sync on translated content is flagged as inconsistent by reviewers.
- −Lower name-market visibility than HeyGen for raw avatar realism comparisons.
- • Minute overages billed after the plan quota — real training content blows through the monthly caps fast
- • Higher tiers required to unlock SSO, approval workflows and brand kits
- • Custom avatar creation and Enterprise onboarding are sold separately through sales
How we verified this
Every listed fact about Synthesia — pricing, features, links, status — is re-read from the vendor's own pages by our verification pipeline and each change is logged with a date; the last pass ran on 13 Nov 2026. Analysis is drafted with AI models and checked against our editorial standards before publishing; see how we verify.
Verification history
We have re-verified Synthesia 126 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — changed pricing tiers, who should skip it, setup time, our verdict, features, switching out, description, summary, pricing fit, switching in, hidden costs
- — changed pricing page
- — changed features, description, who should skip it, summary, our verdict, pricing tiers
- — changed features, integrations, limitations, pricing fit, pricing tiers, description, hidden costs, switching in, setup time, our verdict, who should skip it, summary, switching out, use cases, pricing page
- — changed our verdict, features, summary, description, pricing tiers, who should skip it
- — changed pricing page, summary, pricing tiers, features, our verdict, description
Showing the 6 most recent of 126 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
How much does Synthesia cost in 2026?
Synthesia: Free to start; paid plans from $14/mo billed annually. Pricing last verified 13 Nov 2026.
Plans compared
Every published Synthesia tier, its price as the vendor publishes it, who it fits, and what it adds over the tier below. The 12-month cost projection follows.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Free | — | Someone evaluating Synthesia before spending anything — one editor testing a single short video or a survey.Adds: Free entry point: 500 credits/month, 10 minutes of video or dubbing, 3 survey responses, share links, watermarked output, 1 editor seat. |
| Starter | $19/moVendor: “$19/mo month-to-month ($9 first month)” | monthly | A solo L&D or enablement producer shipping a handful of short videos a month without needing SSO or LMS export.Adds: Adds watermark removal and downloads, the AI Video Assistant, 125+ Synthesia AI avatars, Survey Analytics, and 1,250 credits/month at $19/mo month-to-month ($9 first month). |
| Pro | $89/moVendor: “$89/mo month-to-month ($49 first month)” | monthly | A team that needs brand control, LMS delivery and single sign-on — the realistic floor for enterprise training work.Adds: Jumps to 6,000 credits/month at $89/mo month-to-month ($49 first month) and adds 3-5 personal avatars, SAML/SSO, live collaboration, Brand Kits, SCORM export, tailored onboarding and a dedicated CSM. |
| DEV/API Basic | Free | — | A developer testing API calls or the MCP integration before committing to an annual API plan.Adds: Free API entry point with the same 500 credits/month, 10 minutes of Studio video or dubbing, and watermarked output. |
| DEV/API Starter | $14/mo billed annuallyVendor: “$14/mo billed yearly ($168/year)” | monthly, billed annually | Engineering teams generating video or dubbing programmatically, or embedding real-time avatars in a product.Adds: $14/mo billed yearly ($168/year) for 15,000 credits/year plus API access to Dubbing and Video Creation endpoints, the Interactive Avatars API, and the ChatGPT/Claude MCP. |
| Enterprise | Custom | quote | Large organizations with many producers, a shared avatar library, and procurement requirements beyond Pro.Adds: Custom pricing adds unlimited personal avatars, avatar sharing across teammates and workspaces, custom editor and guest counts, live events and the Enterprise community. |
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Synthesia's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Synthesia's ladder suits mid-size L&D and enablement teams: Starter at $19/mo month-to-month is cheap for a single producer, Pro at $89/mo month-to-month makes sense once you need SSO, SCORM, brand kits and 3-5 personal avatars, and Pro packs up to $676/mo month-to-month cover heavy dubbing. Enterprise (custom) is where unlimited avatars and avatar sharing live. Smaller teams comparing on price alone will find HeyGen and similar avatar tools competitive on entry tiers; teams that need LMS
Has Synthesia's pricing changed?
No plan price for Synthesia has moved since we began logging in Aug 2026; the pricing page is re-read on every verification pass.
Who should pick Synthesia?
Pick Synthesia if you are Enterprise L&D teams maintaining large multilingual training libraries, Compliance and technical training producers who need SSO, approval workflows, and SCORM export, Sales enablement teams shipping product videos that go stale every quarter, Internal comms groups delivering one announcement in a dozen languages at once.
Look elsewhere if you are Casual creators wanting unlimited free output — Basic caps you at 500 credits, 10 minutes, and a watermark, Brands chasing cinematic, emotionally driven film with real actors on camera, Teams that need live streaming, live events, or real-time broadcast production, Large review teams — Starter is 1 editor + 3 guests and Pro 1 editor + 5.
Skip it if Skip Synthesia if you need live streaming or broadcast production, want multi-track audio editing, or need a cinematic shoot with real actors — this is a script-to-video, translate, publish-to-LMS workflow, not a production studio or a live broadcast tool.
GeneratedReal-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Synthesia actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You have an existing safety training deck in PowerPoint and need it in English, German and Spanish before the next compliance cycle.
Outcome: Upload the deck, let the AI Video Assistant produce the first cut with an avatar and voiceover, then dub it with glossary controls so plant names stay consistent. Publish as SCORM and later script edits update the LMS version automatically.
Your product UI changes every quarter and your demo videos go stale, plus new reps need call practice before they touch a prospect.
Outcome: Use the AI Screen Recorder to capture narrated walkthroughs without filming anyone, then run Roleplay Sessions for discovery and cold-call practice with coaching. Budget for the $87/mo per learner roleplay seats if the whole team joins.
You want a real-time avatar inside your own app rather than a rendered MP4.
Outcome: Start on DEV/API Starter at $14/mo billed yearly ($168/year) for 15,000 credits/year, call the Dubbing and Video Creation endpoints, and wire the Interactive Avatars API into a LiveKit room using the documented Python plugin.
Use cases
- Create multilingual training videos for global teams with translation into 140+ languages and glossary controls
- Produce compliance training videos whose scripts get updated without rebuilding the video
- Turn SOPs, manuals, and technical documentation into presenter-led video
- Build product demos and tutorials without filming anyone, using the AI Screen Recorder
- Localize existing footage with AI dubbing, voice cloning, and lip-sync
- Build interactive videos with branching, quizzes, and multiple avatars per scene
- Publish training as SCORM packages that refresh in the LMS when you edit the source
- Run roleplay practice and conversational surveys with scored learner feedback
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Synthesia — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
A single producer on Starter can get a first watermarked-free video out in an afternoon — the AI Video Assistant takes a prompt or file straight to a cut. Teams moving to Pro should budget a few days for brand kits, SSO setup and approval workflows. Enterprise Studio Express-1 avatars are the long pole: up to 10 days processing after the $1,000/year add-on is purchased.
Switching to or from Synthesia
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From a traditional video agency: replace shoot-and-edit cycles with script-to-avatar drafts, then spend the saved budget on translation.
- →From HeyGen: recreate personal avatars on Pro (3-5 slots), rebuild brand kits, and re-export existing library items as SCORM.
- →From a separate dubbing vendor: move the library into AI Dubbing with glossary controls and keep every language behind one multilingual player link.
- →From manual LMS uploads: publish as SCORM so script edits propagate to the course already live instead of re-uploading.
- ↗To HeyGen: export finished MP4s, then rebuild avatars and brand kits there if face realism is the deciding factor.
- ↗To a traditional production house: download watermark-free masters from Starter or above and hand over the scripts as the shooting brief.
- ↗To an in-house editing suite: export video and audio separately if you need multi-track mixing, which Synthesia does not provide.
Integrations
Resources & guides
- Resourcesynthesia.io
Synthesia Academy
Synthesia Academy online learning classes
- Resourcesynthesia.io
Synthesia Blog | How-to guides, Case Studies, and more
Helpful link from synthesia.io
- Resourcedocs.synthesia.io
Synthesia
Helpful link from docs.synthesia.io
- Resourcesynthesia.io
Discover Synthesia's 15+ Unique Features
Helpful link from synthesia.io
- Resourcesynthesia.io
Synthesia Pricing - Compare Free and Paid Plans
Helpful link from synthesia.io
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Synthesia”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Synthesia” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Synthesia.
Official links
What are the best Synthesia alternatives?
The closest alternatives to Synthesia we list are HeyGen, Akool and Vidnoz. Ranked by direct product-type match, not category overlap.
| Alternative | Pricing | Starts at | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| HeyGen | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Akool | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Vidnoz | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
Alternatives to Synthesia
View all
Tools that pair well with Synthesia
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Synthesia, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
HeyGen
HeyGen's AI avatar video generator turns a script, deck, or audio file into a finished presenter video in 175+ languages
Akool
Akool packs AI face swap, avatar video, and 155+ language lip-sync translation into one credit plan.
Vidnoz
Vidnoz is a free AI video generator that turns scripts into avatar-led videos with 1,900+ avatars and 2,000+ voices.
Synthesia vs its closest rival
Synthesia's closest head-to-head is with Tavus — If you need real-time, interactive video agents that see and respond in a conversation, Tavus is the clear choice—its PALs go beyond scripted avatars with emotional intelligence. For polished, scalable corporate video production and localization, Synthesia dominates with its massive avatar library and translation pipeline. Choose Tavus for conversational AI experiences; choose Synthesia for high-volume content creation. Verdict generated
Head-to-head comparisons
Synthesia vs Tavus
If you need real-time, interactive video agents that see and respond in a conversation, Tavus is the clear choice—its PALs go beyond scripted avatars with emotional intelligence. For polished, scalable corporate video production and localization, Synthesia dominates with its massive avatar library and translation pipeline. Choose Tavus for conversational AI experiences; choose Synthesia for high-volume content creation.
GeneratedHeygen vs Synthesia
If you're a marketer, salesperson, or content creator who needs flashy, lifestyle-oriented videos with ultra-realistic custom avatars and deep video-gen model integrations, pick HeyGen. If you're in enterprise L&D or need to produce on-brand training and internal comms at scale with interactive roleplay and secure workflows, Synthesia is the safer bet.
GeneratedPictory vs Synthesia
If you're a marketer or educator repurposing existing content—blogs, PDFs, PPTs—into quick videos, Pictory is the faster, more budget-friendly pick. But if you need professional, multilingual avatar videos at enterprise scale with training roleplays and compliance tools, Synthesia is worth the higher price. Choose based on your core need: repurposing vs. avatar-driven production.
GeneratedRunway vs Synthesia
If you're a filmmaker or creative wanting high-fidelity AI video generation and editing, Runway is your pick—its Gen-4.5, Aleph 2.0, and Agent Skills give you granular control for cinematic output. For corporate teams needing to produce training or marketing videos at scale with avatars and multilingual support, Synthesia is the clear winner—its 160+ languages, Roleplay Sessions, and enterprise integrations are unmatched. Choose based on whether your priority is creative control or business efficiency.
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Best-of guides
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