HeyGen
Turns a written script into a presenter-style video using an AI avatar, including a version trained to look and sound like you.
What you'd use it for
A presenter-style video read from a script, without filming yourself or hiring anyone to be on camera.
- Generate a talking avatar video from a typed script, choosing a stock avatar or a custom one built from your own photo or footage
- Clone your own voice and face from a short recording so future scripts get read back in your likeness
- Dub an existing video into another language with the speaker's lip movements resynced to match, not just a voiceover dropped on top
- Translate a script into another language and hand-edit the translation before generating the final cut
- Export training or onboarding video packaged for an LMS via SCORM
The verdict
HeyGen is genuinely good at turning a script into a passable presenter video in minutes, and the avatar trained on your own likeness is the real reason to pay for it rather than film yourself on repeat. The free plan is honest enough to judge output quality before committing, but the credit-metered pricing means the headline monthly price undersells what a longer or higher-resolution habit actually costs. It suits someone who needs to appear on camera regularly - weekly updates, training content, video in languages they don't speak - more than someone with a single evergreen video to make.
What it costs
| Tier | Price | For | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/month | Trying the avatar and voice generation before paying for anything. | 3 videos a month, up to 1 minute each, 1 custom avatar, access to 500+ stock avatars, 30+ languages. |
| Creator | $29/month | A solo creator or marketer making regular short-form video. | 600 credits a month, videos up to 30 minutes, 1080p export, unlimited photo avatars, voice cloning, 175+ languages. |
| Pro | $49/month | Someone producing higher-resolution video with more advanced AI models. | 1,000 credits a month, 4K export, translation editing, customisable usage limits. |
| Business | $149/month, plus $20/seat for additional team members | A team producing training or marketing video collaboratively. | 1,500 credits a month, videos up to 60 minutes, 5 custom avatars, workspace collaboration, SCORM export for LMS platforms. |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | Organisations needing no duration limits and dedicated account management. | Flexible generation limits, multi-workspace control, enterprise security features. |
Read from HeyGen's own pricing page on 25 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.
What you need to start
- A HeyGen account, email signup only - no credit card needed for the free plan
- A written script for the avatar to read
- 2 to 5 minutes of your own video footage, only if training a custom avatar of yourself rather than using a stock one
A few minutes to a working free account and a first stock-avatar video; closer to half an hour if you record and process a custom avatar of yourself first.
Your first run Skip building a custom avatar at first and use Quick Avatar Video instead - pick a stock avatar, paste a script, choose a voice, and most videos render in under a minute. Training an avatar of yourself instead means recording 2 to 5 minutes of footage first, then waiting 10 to 20 minutes for it to process.
Where it breaks
Pricing is credit-metered rather than a flat per-video cost, and credit consumption scales with video length and resolution, so the headline monthly price does not translate cleanly into 'how many videos can I make' without checking the credit cost of your specific output settings.
Entirely browser-based. Annual billing offers a lower effective monthly rate and better credit rollover than the monthly prices listed above.
First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.
When not to use it
Not for making video of someone else's likeness - a colleague, a client, a public figure - without their documented consent: HeyGen requires it in its own terms, and a growing number of jurisdictions require it by law regardless of what the terms say. Skip it too for a single one-off video, where hiring an editor once is often cheaper than a recurring subscription.
HeyGen exists because filming a talking-head video — lighting, a script you can actually deliver without stumbling, a retake when you mispronounce something — is a bigger obstacle to regular video content than most small businesses admit. Type a script instead, pick an avatar, and the video comes back finished.
The avatar trained on you is the more interesting product than the stock ones. Record a short reference clip once, and every future video uses your likeness reading a script you never had to perform on camera. That is a genuinely different workflow from filming yourself repeatedly, and it’s the feature most worth the subscription for a founder who wants to appear in content regularly without booking studio time each week.
What the tiers are actually buying
Free is a real trial, not a bait-and-switch — three complete short videos is enough to judge output quality. Creator and Pro scale credits and resolution; Business is where collaboration and longer-form video (training content, onboarding) becomes the point rather than short marketing clips.
A caution worth stating plainly
Using someone else’s likeness — a colleague’s, a client’s, a public figure’s — to generate video without their explicit, informed consent is both an ethical problem and, in a growing number of jurisdictions, a legal one. HeyGen’s own terms require consent for any avatar based on a real person. Treat that as a hard line, not a suggestion.
Against a stock alternative
For a single evergreen explainer video, hiring an actual video editor once may cost less over a year than a recurring HeyGen subscription. The subscription earns its keep when the need is recurring — weekly updates, ongoing training content, video localised into languages you don’t speak yourself.
Alternatives
Marketing & socialAppsSynthesia
Turns a written script into a finished video with a talking AI presenter in 140+ languages, used for training videos, product explainers and sales outreach.
Marketing & socialAppsCreatify
Turns a product page URL into a UGC-style video ad with an AI presenter, built for performance marketers testing paid social creative.
Marketing & socialAppsCaptions
Records, captions and edits talking-head video on your phone, including correcting your eye line so it looks like you're making eye contact with the camera.
Get HeyGen
Buying the tool is not the hard part.
The ebook is about what to hand over, in what order, and how you find out when it goes wrong. One payment, no subscription.