Synthesia Pricing (2026): Every Plan, the Real Cost Per Video Minute, and the Annual-Billing Trap

Every figure here was read off synthesia.io/pricing on 2026-09-03, in USD. Synthesia prices in video minutes, not credits or seats, which makes the arithmetic unusually easy — so this page does that arithmetic rather than repeating the headline numbers.

One structural note before the table, because it is the thing most comparisons miss: the annual plans do not just cost less, they change the shape of the allowance. Monthly plans grant minutes each month and they do not pool. Annual plans grant the whole year's minutes upfront. For anyone whose output is uneven — and video output is almost always uneven — that difference is worth more than the discount.

The Plans

Cost Per Video Minute

This is the number that decides the plan, and it is not monotonic — the curve is almost flat between the two monthly tiers and only bends on annual billing.

Two conclusions fall straight out of it:

1. Creator monthly is more expensive per minute than Starter monthly. Moving from $29 to $89 buys you 20 extra minutes at $3.00 each — slightly worse than Starter's own blended rate. You are not buying volume at that step. You are buying API access, multiple avatars per scene, interactive videos, branded video pages and 5 personal avatars. If none of those matter, the upgrade is poor value and you should stay on Starter.
2. Starter annual is the cheapest published minute on any self-serve plan, at $1.80 — 38 percent below Starter monthly and 15 percent below Creator annual. If your requirement is simply "more minutes, cheapest", the answer is Starter annual, not Creator.

The general shape: Synthesia's volume discount runs along the billing axis, not the tier axis. Most SaaS pricing works the other way round, which is why people over-buy the tier here.

Basic (Free) — $0, 10 minutes/month

Ten minutes a month, 1,200 credits, one editor, nine avatars, 160+ languages, commenting, and no credit card. Restricted to personal use.

The limit that ends most evaluations is not the ten minutes. The free tier does not download videos. Synthesia lists video download as a Starter feature, alongside watermark removal. So the free plan is a preview environment: you can build and watch, and you cannot ship. Plan the trial accordingly — use it to judge avatar quality and language coverage, not to produce anything.

Starter — $29/month, or $18/month billed annually

The first tier that produces usable output. It adds downloads, removes the Synthesia logo, and includes the AI Video Assistant (which turns decks, PDFs and websites into videos) and AI Dubbing. You get 1 editor plus 3 guests, and 125+ avatars.

On monthly billing this is the tier's weak point: 10 minutes per month, use it or lose it. Ten minutes is roughly four to six typical explainer videos. A single week where you produce nothing is a week's allowance gone. On annual billing the same total becomes 120 minutes for the year, granted upfront — which means a launch month can absorb 40 minutes and a quiet quarter costs you nothing.

Buy monthly only if you are still deciding. Once you have decided, the annual plan is both 38 percent cheaper per minute and structurally better suited to how video work actually arrives.

Creator — $89/month, or $64/month billed annually

Synthesia's "most popular" tier, and the one to think hardest about. 30 minutes/month (360/year annually), 1 editor plus 5 guests, 180+ avatars, 5 personal avatars, and 3,600 credits/month.

The features that justify it are specific: API access, multiple avatars in a single scene, interactive videos, branded video pages and priority support. Each is a real capability the tier below does not have, and any one of them can be the whole reason to buy.

What does not justify it is minutes. As the table above shows, Creator monthly costs $2.97 per minute against Starter's $2.90. Buying Creator to get more video is paying a small premium for the privilege. Buy it for the API or the interactivity, and treat the extra 20 minutes as a rounding error rather than the point.

Enterprise — custom

Unlimited video minutes, 240+ avatars, unlimited personal avatars, custom seat configuration, 1-Click Translation into 80+ languages, SAML/SSO, live team collaboration, Brand Kits, SCORM export, a dedicated CSM and implementation services.

The honest read on this tier: it is usually triggered by a requirement, not by usage. The three that force it are SCORM (the video has to run inside an LMS), SSO (security review will not approve a shared login), and Brand Kits with live collaboration (more than a couple of people touch the same video). If none of those apply, the unlimited minutes are rarely worth an enterprise contract on their own — 360 minutes a year on Creator annual is a lot of finished video for $768.

Worth flagging for anyone comparing: Colossyan puts SCORM export on a $59/month plan and HeyGen puts it on Business at $149/month plus seats. If SCORM is the only reason you are being routed to Synthesia Enterprise, price those two before you take the call.

What Is Not Included In These Numbers

• Credits are a second currency. Every tier lists both minutes and credits (1,200/month on Basic and Starter, 3,600/month on Creator). Synthesia's newer generative features — the AI Playground routing to Veo 3.1, FLUX.2 and Nano Banana Pro — consume credits. Heavy Playground use can exhaust credits well before minutes, and the two allowances do not substitute for each other.
• Guests are not editors. Starter's "1 editor & 3 guests" and Creator's "1 editor & 5 guests" mean exactly one person can build. A second person who needs to edit requires Enterprise, not a $20 seat add-on. This is a sharper constraint than most avatar platforms impose and it is the most common reason a growing team outgrows Creator.
• Personal avatars are tier-gated. Basic and Starter have none. Creator has 5. Enterprise is unlimited. If the plan is "our CEO records once and we reuse her", you start at Creator.

The Decision, Compressed

• Evaluating? Basic. Accept that you cannot export.
• One person, MP4 deliverables, decided? Starter annual at $216/year. Cheapest minute Synthesia sells.
• Need the API, interactive video, or several avatars in one scene? Creator — and buy it for those, not for the minutes.
• Need SCORM or SSO? Get an Enterprise quote, but price Colossyan and HeyGen first, because both sell SCORM well below an enterprise contract.
• Making ads rather than training video? None of these tiers are the right purchase. See the alternatives page for the ad-creative lane.

For how the product actually behaves once you are paying for it — where the minute allowance bites, what the avatars do and do not do well, and who should not buy it — see the Synthesia review.