Synthesia creates professional AI avatar videos from a script — used by over 60% of Fortune 100 companies for training, communications and marketing. 230+ avatars, 140+ languages, SCORM export for LMS. Starter: $29/month.
Synthesia is an AI video platform used primarily by enterprise companies for training, onboarding, communications and marketing. You type a script, choose an AI avatar presenter from a library of 230+ options, and Synthesia generates a professional talking-head video — no camera, no recording, no studio required. The video can be translated into 140+ languages with one click, and updated by editing the text rather than re-recording.
Synthesia is the most established AI avatar video platform in the enterprise market. According to independent industry analysis, more than 60% of Fortune 100 companies use Synthesia for their video content. Its focus is on predictable quality, compliance controls, content moderation and the kind of governance features that large organisations need when deploying AI video at scale.
Where HeyGen focuses on creator-friendly features and competitive pricing, Synthesia's positioning is enterprise-grade reliability and governance. Its per-minute pricing model is more predictable than HeyGen's credit system, which some enterprise buyers prefer for budget planning.
Minutes-based pricing — Synthesia charges based on video minutes generated rather than credits for specific features. This is more predictable for budget planning and avoids the credit-confusion that some HeyGen users report.
Enterprise governance — Content moderation tools, brand controls, team permissions and workflow approvals. For regulated industries or large teams where consistency and compliance matter, Synthesia's governance layer is more mature than HeyGen's.
SCORM export — Synthesia videos can be exported as SCORM packages for direct upload to Learning Management Systems. This is essential for e-learning teams deploying training at scale.
Avatar realism — Synthesia's avatars are professional and convincing but generally rated a step below HeyGen's Avatar IV in photorealism by independent 2026 benchmarks. Synthesia's strength is consistency and reliability at volume, not cutting-edge visual quality.
Synthesia is best suited for large enterprise teams — L&D departments, internal communications teams and marketing organisations — where volume, consistency, multi-language support and workflow controls matter more than having the absolute latest avatar technology. Companies that already have an LMS and want to produce training videos at scale without a production team are Synthesia's core use case.
There is a free plan with 36 minutes of video per year (effectively about 3 minutes per month), limited to 9 avatars — useful for evaluating the platform but not for production use. The Starter plan is $29 per month for 120 minutes of video per year (10 minutes per month), 125+ avatars and basic features. Creator is $89 per month for 360 minutes per year (30 minutes per month) with more avatars and advanced features. Enterprise pricing is custom.
Create an account at synthesia.io. The free plan gives you access to evaluate the platform with 9 avatars and 36 annual video minutes. Use the free minutes to test your specific use case — training content, marketing explainers, customer communications — before upgrading.
Synthesia has a large template library organised by use case: onboarding, compliance, product demo, how-to, announcement. Templates include pre-built scenes and layouts. For a first video, start with a template that matches your use case — it is faster to modify an existing layout than to build from scratch.
Choose from 230+ stock avatars. Synthesia has diverse representation across age, ethnicity, style and setting. On higher tiers you can create a Personal Avatar — a custom avatar that looks like you or a team member. Write your script in the text panel. Synthesia supports 140+ languages for both avatar speech and screen text.
Synthesia is a full slide-based editor — each scene is like a slide. Add text overlays, images, screen recordings, branded elements and background music alongside your avatar. This is what separates Synthesia from basic avatar generators: you build a complete presentation-style video with multiple scenes, not just a talking head.
To translate: select the video, click Translate, choose target languages, and Synthesia generates translated versions automatically. Export as MP4 for standard use, or as a SCORM package for LMS upload on Creator and above.
Use templates for consistency. Synthesia's template library ensures your videos have consistent layouts, fonts and branding. Set up a brand kit (logo, colours, fonts) and apply it to all templates before creating content. This way every video the team produces looks on-brand without manual design work.
Keep scenes short. Each Synthesia scene should contain one idea. When you have a new point to make, add a new scene. This makes editing easier — to update a specific point, you only re-record one scene rather than re-recording the entire video. It also keeps the viewer's attention with visual variety.
Update videos by editing text. When a policy changes or a product feature is updated, open the original Synthesia project, edit the script in the relevant scenes, and regenerate. This takes minutes rather than the hours a re-shoot would require. Store all video projects in Synthesia — do not rely on exported MP4s as the primary version.
Synthesia was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in London. According to independent industry analysis, over 60% of Fortune 100 companies use Synthesia, and it raised at a $2.1 billion valuation in 2024. The platform is SOC 2 Type II certified and GDPR compliant. SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 export is available on Creator and above, per Synthesia's official pricing documentation.
Unlike HeyGen's credit system, Synthesia charges per video minute generated. Per Synthesia's official pricing page, the Starter plan includes 120 minutes per year (billed annually). Minutes allocated cover all video generation including translations — translating a 5-minute video into 3 languages consumes 15 minutes from your allocation. This predictability is Synthesia's pricing advantage for enterprise budget planning.
Creating a Personal Avatar requires filming a consent video and a performance video — typically 30 minutes of scripted footage — per Synthesia's official avatar creation documentation. The consent process is required by Synthesia's responsible AI policy: the person whose likeness is used must explicitly consent. Custom avatars are available on Creator and above.