What is Synthesia?
Synthesia turns a script into a video of a realistic human presenter reading it, in 140+ languages, which is why it dominates corporate training, onboarding and how-to content. No camera, no studio, no re-shoots: edit the script and regenerate the video. The free plan includes 10 watermarked minutes a month; Starter is $18/month billed annually ($29 month-to-month) for 10 minutes a month, and Creator raises that to 30. Those quotas are the real constraint: minutes are consumed every time you generate, so drafts and re-renders eat the allowance faster than you expect, and a personal avatar of yourself is reserved for annual plans. Avatars are convincing for talking-head delivery but still read slightly stiff — right for training modules, wrong for content that needs charisma.
Best for: Training, onboarding and explainer videos without filming anyone.
Synthesia pricing
| Plan | Price | What you actually get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1,200 credits a month, usable for up to 10 minutes of video and 25 AI-generated assets. No card required. Note the unit: this is the only plan metered monthly, and unused minutes do not carry over. |
| Starter | $264/yr ($22/mo), or $29/mo monthly | 14,500 credits per YEAR — up to 120 minutes of video or AI dubbing annually, and 300 assets. That is the same annual video volume as the free plan; what you are buying is the assets, the features and the ability to spend the whole allowance in one month rather than ten minutes at a time. |
| Creator | $804/yr ($67/mo), or $89/mo monthly | 44,000 credits per year — up to 360 minutes of video annually and 900 assets. The first plan where the minutes are meaningfully more than the free tier. |
| Enterprise | custom | Unlimited video minutes and 1-click translation into 80+ languages. The only plan without an annual minute ceiling. |
| Studio Avatars | $1,000/yr add-on | Priced separately on every tier. Budget for it if a custom studio-quality avatar is the reason you are buying. |
Prices checked 2 August 2026. Vendors change limits often — treat the caps as indicative and confirm on the pricing page before you buy.
What Synthesia is good at
- Internal training and onboarding video at scale
- Translating one video into many languages without reshooting
- Product explainers where a presenter adds credibility
- Updating a script without booking a studio again
Turn a training document into a multi-language course
- Cut the document into scenes of a few sentences each. Long paragraphs produce unwatchable video.
- Pick one avatar and keep it consistent across the course — switching is jarring.
- Generate in your primary language and check the pacing before translating anything.
- Then generate the other languages. Reviewing one bad script in nine languages is the expensive mistake.
Who should skip Synthesia
- Anything needing genuine emotional performance — avatars still read as avatars.
- Marketing where authenticity is the point. Audiences notice.
- Small budgets. It is priced for companies, not creators.
What's good
- Update videos by editing the script — no re-shoots
- Speaks 140+ languages from one script
- Free plan includes 10 minutes a month
- The established choice for corporate training at scale
Watch-outs
- Paid minutes are metered per year, not per month — Starter's 120 minutes/year is the same annual volume as the free plan
- Minute quotas are small, and re-renders consume them
- Personal avatars require an annual plan
- Delivery is too stiff for charisma-driven content
Synthesia FAQ
- Is Synthesia free?
- Only a short trial allowance. Real use starts around $29/mo, and most plans are billed annually.
- Can I make an avatar of myself?
- Yes, on the higher tiers. It requires a consent recording, which is a deliberate safeguard rather than an obstacle.
- Do the avatars look real?
- Close, but most viewers can tell. That is fine for training and documentation, and a problem for emotional storytelling.
The verdict
Synthesia earns a 4/5 from us. There’s a free way in, so it’s low-risk to try. Create talking-avatar videos from plain text.