One five-minute avatar training video within US$30 a month
No paid row currently establishes every condition inside the US$30 monthly cap. Synthesia’s current download guide includes Starter for ordinary 1080p MP4, and its self-serve rules list 1,750 monthly Starter credits plus a separate ten monthly video/dubbing minutes. This replaces the old 1,200-credit, two-credits-per-second arithmetic; credit-funded video is now described as approximately 100 credits per finished minute, depending on avatar footage. The public page now displays Starter$29 billed monthly, but a currency/market-qualified account price is not established. HeyGen Creator’s documented price and single-video cap do not state how many minutes its 600 credits buy, while AI Studios Personal’s monthly/yearly readings remain unresolved in the materials reviewed. The free routes still fail delivery: Synthesia Basic cannot download, and HeyGen Free’s one-minute limit and non-commercial rights do not meet this brief. No real five-minute render or lip-sync quality test was performed here.
Latest source row read 2026-10-15
The task
Spend no more than US$30 in one month without annual prepayment to produce a single five-minute scripted presenter video for internal training or a product explainer, download the finished file as a 1080p MP4, and use an avatar the plan provides. Paid advertising, a custom avatar of a real person, translating an existing video and rendering through the API are out of scope.
The most recently read source row was read on 2026-10-15; each source row on a guide page carries its own read date. Budgets assume a US personal account, USD before tax and monthly billing without annual prepayment. Region, eligibility and checkout prices can differ, and nothing here is a generation, quality or workload test.
Candidates
Meets the documented conditions is not the same as a completed task: it means the conditions listed in the official pages are satisfied, and the limits below still apply.
Synthesia Starter
Unconfirmed; not recommended yetThis month: The current public page displays Starter at $29 billed monthly, while the help centre directs users to regional account Billing for actual prices. ISO billing currency, selected market and this account’s final amount remain unconfirmed, so the US$30 cap is not established; old Creator prices and annual equivalents are not substituted.
Synthesia - pricingSynthesia - credits on self-serve plans
Starter, Pro and Enterprise can download ordinary Full HD1080p MP4. Starter’s 1,750 monthly credits comprise500 base plus1,250 extra, separately from ten monthly minutes for video creation or dubbing; credit-funded video uses about100credits per finished minute depending on avatar footage. The stock/synthetic-avatar licence allows training, website and product videos but excludes paid promotion. This task still lacks a currency/market-qualified monthly bill, a confirmed single-video cap and a five-minute rendered quality check.
Synthesia - downloading videosSynthesia - credits on self-serve plansSynthesia - video licensing (23 July 2026)Synthesia - pricing
- The separate ten-minute monthly video/dubbing allowance is not a credit conversion and does not by itself state a per-video length cap. No completed five-minute file was generated here.
- Monthly credits are issued monthly; annual Starter receives 21,000 at the start or renewal of its annual period. Unused credits do not roll over. The ten monthly video/dubbing minutes are a separate allowance in addition to credits, not extra credits or a guaranteed fixed conversion; credit-funded video duration varies with avatar footage.
- Paid advertising is outside this licence: a stock avatar in paid ads needs Synthesia written agreement, and custom avatars follow a separate agreement with the person shown.
Synthesia - video licensing (23 July 2026)Synthesia - acceptable use policy
- A video containing interactive elements such as buttons or branching cannot be delivered as MP4 on any plan, so the deliverable format has to be an ordinary video.
HeyGen Creator
Unconfirmed; not recommended yetThis month: US$29 a month fits the US$30 cap; the US$24/month figure is the annual equivalent and is not used here, and Pro and Business annual totals were not verified.
Fits the price and the plan boundary that matters: the current terms let Creator, Pro and Business users use their inputs and outputs commercially, and Creator’s own cap is 30 minutes per video. What no page read here states is how many minutes 600 monthly credits buy, so a five-minute render is plausible but not established. The free-plan resolution figure is also unsettled, since the FAQ lists 1080p for Free where the main pricing table we parsed leaves that column empty.
HeyGen - pricingHeyGen - FAQHeyGen - terms
- Credits are consumed by model, length and feature, and the 30-minute figure caps a single video rather than the minutes you can render in a month.
- Free output is personal, non-commercial and internal-evaluation use only, so the free plan cannot stand in for a paid test of this deliverable.
- Anyone whose likeness is cloned records the consent script the product supplies, and that person has to record it - consent has to match the material.
AI Studios Personal
Unconfirmed; not recommended yetThis month: The monthly price is not established: the rendered table and the same page's JSON-LD show US$24 on a plan its own script calls yearly, while the script names US$29 as monthly. No monthly figure is published here, so this row cannot be called inside the US$30 cap.
The deliverable side is documented: Personal is an unlimited-video plan whose single-video cap is 30 minutes - enough for the five-minute brief - with 1080p export, three custom avatars, AI dubbing with lip-sync and 60 generative credits a month, and paid subscribers hold full ownership of their outputs. What keeps the row open is the price: the same page carries two readings of the Personal monthly figure, so whether Personal is inside US$30 cannot be established from it, and no annual figure is used here.
AI Studios - pricingAI Studios - terms of use and generative-features annex
- The US$24 figure appears here only as what the annual-billed table renders; it is not published as a monthly price, and the page's own script labels the same figure yearly.
- The terms previously recorded in this guide say generative credits renew each billing cycle and do not carry over. Today’s pricing lists 60 credits per month and 720 per year, but those totals do not establish that the full annual allowance is issued upfront; that timing was not verified in the current read.
HeyGen - pricingAI Studios - terms of use and generative-features annex
- Whether paid output carries a watermark is not stated on any page read here.
AI Studios - pricingAI Studios - terms of use and generative-features annexAI Studios - privacy policy
- Whether the API is included in a subscription is not established, and the terms prohibit the user from using outputs to train or replicate AI models.
HeyGen Free
Does not meet this taskThis month: US$0 fits the price cap; the price is not the blocker.
Fails the brief on length and rights: three videos a month of up to one minute each cannot carry a single five-minute video, and the terms limit free output to personal, non-commercial and internal-evaluation use with no advertising, client work or monetisation. The resolution is also not established for this tier, since 1080p appears in the FAQ but not in the main pricing table we parsed.
HeyGen - pricingHeyGen - termsHeyGen - FAQ
- Three short videos are not one five-minute deliverable, and evaluation use is not the same as publishing a training module.
Synthesia Basic
Does not meet this taskThis month: The Basic free route has 500 monthly credits, plus the separate ten monthly video/dubbing minutes described for self-serve plans. Download remains the blocker; generating an allowance is not delivering the required file.
Synthesia - credits on self-serve plansSynthesia - downloading videos
Fails the required file delivery: the current download guide explicitly excludes Basic and trial users, even though self-serve rules provide generation allowances. Those rules now list Basic with 500 monthly credits and separately ten monthly video/dubbing minutes in addition to credits; unused credits do not roll over. Neither generation nor an allowance bypasses the download restriction.
Synthesia - credits on self-serve plansSynthesia - downloading videos
- A video you cannot download is not a deliverable, and the ordinary licence conditions apply on top of that.
Synthesia - downloading videosSynthesia - video licensing (23 July 2026)
What the credits actually buy
Synthesia’s current self-serve rules list Basic 500, Starter 1,750 and Pro 6,500 monthly credits. Each plan separately includes ten monthly minutes for video creation or dubbing in addition to credits. Credit-funded video uses approximately 100 credits per finished minute depending on avatar footage, so neither those ten minutes nor the old fixed two-credits-per-second rate should be treated as a current credit conversion. Unused credits do not roll over; monthly plans receive credits monthly, while annual Starter and Pro receive 21,000 and 78,000 at the annual start or renewal. HeyGen Creator’s recorded 600 credits and 30-minute single-video cap still do not establish a credits-to-minutes conversion. Capacity is not a substitute for download eligibility, a current monthly purchase price or a quality test.
The free tiers do not deliver
Both free options are useful for seeing the interface and neither closes this brief. Synthesia Basic generates but cannot download, so there is no file to hand over. HeyGen Free allows three videos of up to one minute and limits output to personal, non-commercial and internal-evaluation use, which is shorter than the deliverable and narrower than a published training module. Cloning a real person is a separate step on both platforms: the person records a consent video, and a Synthesia avatar model cannot be downloaded or taken elsewhere - only videos that include it can be exported.
Check the licence before you buy
A subscription does not by itself make every use allowed. Synthesia’s ordinary licence for stock and synthetic avatars covers training, website and product videos and organic social distribution, but excludes paid promotion on TV and the major social and programmatic channels, and using a stock avatar in paid advertising additionally needs Synthesia’s written agreement; custom avatars follow an agreement with the person shown. HeyGen gives Creator, Pro and Business users the relevant rights in their inputs and outputs with commercial use allowed, while free output stays non-commercial. In both cases the permission is neither exclusive ownership nor a warranty that the material infringes nothing, and consent for a cloned likeness or voice stays the creator’s responsibility. What you see on screen also needs your own review: no page read here, and no test by us, establishes how a five-minute Chinese script will be pronounced.
Where every claim comes from
Each link was opened and read on the date shown. The note describes what that page actually supports.
- HeyGen - pricing ↗
Creator lists $29/month, 600 credits, up to 30 minutes per video. ItsFAQ states$24/month only when billed annually, credits vary with model, duration and complexity, and annual fees are charged yearly. Actual5minute consumption remains unverified.
Read 2026-10-15
- HeyGen - FAQ ↗
Lists 1080p for Free where the main pricing table we parsed leaves that column empty, and states that monthly credits roll over one billing cycle while annual credits accumulate to renewal.
Read 2026-09-23
- HeyGen - terms ↗
The July23, 2026 terms’Free licence is personal, non-commercial/internal-evaluation only and forbids advertising, client work and monetization. Creator/Pro/Business content has a separate rights section; user permissions and third-party rights still apply.
Read 2026-10-15
- HeyGen - consent video requirements ↗
The person being cloned records the consent script the product supplies, and the consent has to match the material.
Read 2026-09-23
- HeyGen - API pricing explained ↗
The API is a separate pay-as-you-go product that does not require a web subscription, with no free API credits since February 2026 and API dollars that do not convert into web credits.
Read 2026-09-23
- Synthesia - pricing ↗
The current page displays Starter$29 billed monthly,500base plus1,250extra credits; currency/market-qualified account price remains unestablished. Historical registered scope read on 2026-10-15, not rechecked in full on 2026-10-15: Synthesia’s pricing page says API usage draws from the same credit balance as the subscription. This is a shared-balance statement, not a guarantee that every API feature is accessible on every plan. The current rendered Synthesia page lists Basic with 500 monthly credits and includes an API rate card, but the exposed text does not establish an ISO billing currency, selected purchase market or final checkout. Older 1,200-credit and Creator-price statements must not be presented as today’s verified quote.
Read 2026-10-15
- Synthesia - credits on self-serve plans ↗
Starter receives1,750monthly credits,500base+1,250extra, separately from10monthly video/dubbing minutes; completed video uses about100credits/min depending on avatar footage. Regional accountBilling governs actual prices. Historical registered scope read on 2026-10-15, not rechecked in full on 2026-10-15: The current self-serve guide lists monthly credit balances of Basic 500, Starter 1,750 and Pro 6,500. Each self-serve plan separately includes ten minutes of video creation or dubbing every month, in addition to its credits; this is not a conversion of 500 credits into ten minutes. Credit-funded video creation uses approximately 100 credits per finished minute, depending on avatar footage. Monthly plans receive credits monthly; annual Starter and Pro receive 21,000 and 78,000 credits at the start or renewal of the annual period. Unused credits do not roll over.
Read 2026-10-15
- Synthesia - downloading videos ↗
The current download guide names Starter, Pro and Enterprise as eligible for downloading ordinary video; Basic and trial users cannot download. It lists Full HD 1080p MP4 (1920x1080), WAV audio, XLIFF translation files and SRT/VTT captions. Videos with interactive elements cannot be downloaded as MP4; the documented alternatives are embedding, a share link or SCORM on an eligible route.
Read 2026-10-15
- Synthesia - video licensing (23 July 2026) ↗
The ordinary licence for stock and synthetic avatars and voices allows training, website and product videos and organic social distribution, but not paid promotion on TV, the main social platforms or programmatic channels.
Read 2026-09-23
- Synthesia - acceptable use policy ↗
Paid advertising with a stock avatar additionally requires Synthesia written agreement, and custom avatars require appropriate person authorisation.
Read 2026-09-23
- Synthesia - personal avatar from a photo ↗
Three personal avatars on Starter and five on Creator, built from a photo of the person, with a live consent video from the same person.
Read 2026-09-23
- Synthesia - custom avatars ↗
An avatar model cannot be downloaded and taken elsewhere; only videos that include it can be exported.
Read 2026-09-23
- AI Studios - pricing ↗
Personal lists unlimitedAI videos, 30minute cap, 3custom avatars, 1080p, lip-sync dubbing and 60generative credits/month or 720/year. The$24annual-render vs$29 monthly-script discrepancy remains a recorded unresolved price issue; today’s visible table does not prove checkout.
Read 2026-10-15
- AI Studios - terms of use and generative-features annex ↗
Version 4.0.0, last updated 16 April 2026, annex effective 23 April 2026. Licence: use "solely for your own personal or business use"; "Paid subscribers hold full ownership, including intellectual property rights, to their generated Outputs." while free output is "personal and non-commercial". The annex prohibits using outputs "to train or replicate AI models" and says APIs "may be provided by the Company" without stating that a subscription includes them. Credits "renew on each billing cycle and do not carry over."
Read 2026-10-12
- AI Studios - privacy policy ↗
Section 14: third-party AI providers "may process user data such as text, images, audio, and video for the purpose of generating and delivering outputs". The page contains no clause about training the vendor's own models.
Read 2026-10-12