HeyGen creates professional videos with realistic AI avatars from a typed script — and translates any existing video into 175+ languages with accurate lip-sync. No camera, no recording, no editing. Used by 500,000+ teams for marketing, training and global content. Creator: $29/month.
HeyGen is an AI video platform that lets you create professional videos featuring a digital avatar — a realistic AI-generated person who reads your script aloud, with accurate lip-sync, natural gestures and convincing facial expressions. You type the text, choose an avatar (or use your own custom one), and HeyGen renders a polished video. No camera, no recording, no editing required.
HeyGen's standout capability is video translation: take any existing video of a person speaking, and HeyGen will dub it into another language while keeping the speaker's face, voice and lip movements in sync. This turns a single English video into content for 175+ languages without re-recording anything. For companies producing training, marketing or customer communications at global scale, this is the most compelling use case.
Over 500,000 users use HeyGen across marketing, e-learning, corporate communications and social media. Its Avatar IV technology, released in 2025 and refined through 2026, is considered the most photorealistic AI avatar system commercially available, with full-body motion capture, natural micro-expressions and timing-aware gestures.
AI avatar video creation — Choose from 700+ stock avatars or create a Digital Twin from a 15-second webcam recording of yourself. Type a script. HeyGen renders the avatar delivering it with natural intonation and body language. Ideal for explainer videos, product demos, training content and social media.
Video translation and dubbing — Upload any video. HeyGen transcribes the speech, translates it to your target language, synthesises a voice that sounds like the original speaker, and adjusts lip movements to match. Output is a dubbed video in the new language. Available across 175+ languages on paid plans.
Video Agent — An AI that takes a single text prompt and builds the entire script-to-video pipeline automatically: writes the script, selects an avatar, adds background and music, and renders the complete video.
Voice cloning — Record 3–5 minutes of your voice. HeyGen creates a voice model that sounds like you in any language, usable in all videos you produce.
LiveAvatar — Real-time interactive avatar for live streams, meetings or customer support, with responses driven by your script or by AI.
HeyGen is best for teams that need professional video content at volume without the cost and logistics of traditional video production. Marketing teams creating product explainers, L&D teams producing training content in multiple languages, companies wanting personalised video outreach at scale, and social media managers who want a consistent on-screen presence without filming.
The translation feature makes it particularly valuable for any organisation with international reach — translating one video into 10 languages costs a fraction of re-recording 10 times.
Traditional video production requires a camera, microphone, good lighting, a presentable location, and time in front of the camera. A single 3-minute corporate video can cost $2,000+ professionally produced, or several hours of your time if you do it yourself. HeyGen produces the same output from a typed script in minutes. For teams producing dozens of videos per month across multiple languages, the cost and time savings compound significantly.
Yes. The Free plan includes 3 watermarked videos per month with up to 3 minutes each. This is enough to evaluate quality before committing. Creator is $29 per month for unlimited videos at 1080p, 700+ avatars, voice cloning, video translation across 175+ languages, and 200 premium credits per month for Avatar IV and other advanced features. Pro is $99 per month with more credits and 4K export. Business is $149 per month for teams, adding collaboration and SSO.
Important: The credit system means "unlimited videos" on Creator does not mean unlimited access to every feature. Avatar IV generation costs 20 premium credits per minute — 200 monthly credits covers about 10 minutes of Avatar IV content. Standard avatar video (without Avatar IV) has no credit cost on paid plans.
Create a free account. The free plan lets you make 3 videos per month — use all three to test the quality with your actual use case before deciding on a plan.
Browse the 500+ stock avatars. Filter by gender, age, skin tone, style and setting. For your first video, pick a stock avatar that matches your brand aesthetic. On Creator and above, you can create a Digital Twin: record a 15-second video of yourself, and HeyGen generates a custom avatar that looks and sounds like you.
Type your script directly, or use the AI script writer. Keep sentences natural and conversational — avatars render more convincingly with natural speech patterns than formal, technical writing. Add pauses with [pause] markers where you want the avatar to pause for emphasis.
Preview the video before final render. Check pronunciation of proper nouns — if the avatar mispronounces something, click on the word and use the phonetic editor to correct it. Adjust speaking pace in the voice settings. Change the background if needed.
Click Generate. Rendering takes 1–5 minutes depending on video length. Download the MP4, share directly to social platforms, or embed via the HeyGen share link.
Write for speech, not for documents. Text that looks good on a page often sounds unnatural when spoken. Use contractions, shorter sentences and conversational transitions. Read your script aloud before submitting it. If you stumble on a sentence while reading, rewrite it.
Use a background that matches the context. HeyGen has hundreds of background options. A product explainer looks better with a clean office background than a neutral grey. A customer-facing video looks better with your brand's colour palette in the background. Match the visual context to the content.
Keep Avatar IV for your most important videos. Avatar IV credits are limited on lower tiers. Standard avatar quality is excellent for internal training and routine communications. Reserve Avatar IV for customer-facing, high-stakes content where the extra realism matters — product launches, executive messages, sales outreach.
Test translation quality with a bilingual reviewer. HeyGen's translation is accurate but not perfect for every language or professional context. Before using translated videos externally, have a native speaker review the first version. Flag any awkward phrasing and use HeyGen's script editing to correct it.
HeyGen is a US-based AI video company. Avatar IV, HeyGen's most advanced avatar model, uses full-body motion capture data and neural rendering to produce photorealistic avatar videos. According to independent benchmarks, Avatar IV produces the most realistic AI avatar video commercially available as of April 2026, with timing-aware gestures, micro-expressions and industry-leading cross-language lip-sync accuracy.
Per HeyGen's official help documentation, premium credits are required for advanced AI features beyond standard avatar video: Avatar IV generation (20 credits per minute), video translation (credits based on video length), and certain AI Studio features. Standard avatar video generation on paid plans is unlimited and does not consume credits. Credits reset monthly and do not roll over.
HeyGen offers a separate API with pay-as-you-go pricing starting from $5, documented at heygen.com/api-pricing. The API supports avatar video generation, text-to-speech, and video translation. API usage is billed from a separate wallet independent of the web plan subscription. Three integration paths are available: MCP for AI agent integration, Skills for coding tools like Claude Code and Cursor, and Direct API for programmatic control.