Launched 2020 · Verified Oct 15, 2026

HeyGen

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AI Avatars & Talking Heads4Write a reviewUnited StatesEffect71/ 100

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Avatar videos and translation with lip-sync

avatar videovideo translation lip sync voice cloningFreemium · from $24/mo

Listed on EffectHub · Aug 16, 2026

InputsOutputsWeb · API

Screenshot of the HeyGen website — heygen.com as we captured it — our own screenshot, not the vendor’s press image.

Pricing

Pricing model: Freemium
Paid options from: $24/mo
Billing: Monthly

Creator is $29 month-to-month or $24/mo billed annually for 600 credits; Pro starts at $49/mo for 1,000 credits and scales in tiers up to 100,000 credits at $4,300/mo; Business is $149/mo for 1,500 credits plus $20 per added seat; Enterprise is quote-only. The free plan allows 3 videos a month of up to one minute with one custom video avatar and a limited trial of Avatar IV, Video Agent and lip-sync translation. The pricing page no longer publishes per-feature credit rates, only that usage varies by model, duration and complexity. Monthly plans roll unused credits over one more month; annual plans accumulate them until renewal; nothing survives cancellation.

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Overview

About HeyGen

HeyGen turns a script into a video presented by a stock or custom avatar, and can clone a user's own voice and appearance. It also dubs existing footage into other languages while matching lip movement.

Platforms: Web · API
API: Yes
Last verified: Oct 15, 2026

Verified sources

Creator $29/mo with 600 credits ($24/mo paid annually per the FAQ), Pro from $49/mo for 1,000 credits up to $4,300/mo for 100,000, Business $149/mo for 1,500 credits plus $20/seat/mo, Enterprise via sales; Free plan 3 videos a month of up to 1 minute with 1 custom video avatar; monthly credits roll over one month, annual credits accumulate until renewal (15 October 2026)heygen.com ↗
Founder Joshua Xu, formerly a Snap engineer; offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palo Alto and Toronto; backed by Benchmark, Conviction, Thrive Capital and Bond (15 October 2026)heygen.com ↗
HeyGen was founded in 2020 by Joshua Xu and Wayne Liang, originally named Surreal then Movio, and is headquartered in Los Angelesen.wikipedia.org ↗

Fact check

Is HeyGen legit?

We don’t label tools safe or unsafe. Below are the records we checked ourselves, each with the date we read it.

Domain registered: Oct 19, 2015 (11 years ago)Registry record (RDAP), registrar Cloudflare, Inc., looked up Sep 6, 2026
TLS certificate: Issued by Google Trust Services, valid until Jan 9, 2027Seen in our own connection to the site on Oct 15, 2026
Last checked: Oct 15, 2026The site answered
On the market since: 2020The vendor's own material, read by us
Operated by: HeyGen, United StatesOur research, card verified Oct 15, 2026

How we collect these records

Editorial verdict

Pros & cons of HeyGen

high confidence

The strongest avatar fidelity on the market right now, but the credit arithmetic decides whether it is affordable, not the sticker price.

Pros

Avatar and lip-sync quality is ahead of most competitors at the price
Free plan lets you judge output quality before paying anything
Video translation covers a wide language list with synchronised lips
Credits roll over for a month rather than expiring at the billing date

Cons

Newer avatar models cost roughly seven times the credits of the older ones
Free tier is watermarked and capped at three one-minute videos
Business tier stacks a $20 per-seat charge on top of a $149 base
Custom avatars and the better models are gated behind higher tiers

Best for

Marketing and product teams shipping talking-head video without a studio
Localising existing footage into other languages with matched lip movement
Creators who want a cloned avatar for repeatable short-form output

Not for

Narrative or documentary work where a real presenter is expected
High-volume output on a fixed budget, given how fast credits burn

Watch out: Avatar IV and Video Agent consume around 20 credits a minute against 3 for Avatar III — a plan that looks generous empties after a few minutes of the good stuff.

#9inAI Avatars & Talking Heads· of 29 tools, ranked by rating and popularity

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