Synthesia is aimed at a narrower job than the general generators: turning a written script into a presenter-led video, usually for training, onboarding or internal comms.
Ten minutes a month is a real evaluation budget
The free plan is denominated in output minutes rather than clips or credits, which makes it unusually easy to reason about. Ten minutes a month is enough to produce a genuine first module and show it to the people who would have to sign it off, which is the actual test for this category.
The Starter plan card also displays a lower figure when the annual toggle is selected. The number on this profile is the one shown for monthly billing.
One boundary is not on the pricing card: the help center states that the Synthesia logo appears on all videos created on the Basic plan, and that the only way to remove it is to upgrade and regenerate. A free-tier result is an evaluation, not a shippable asset.
HeyGen is the closest comparison in AI avatars: it sells the same presenter-led job with a tighter free clip ceiling and a heavier push on translation. The Synthesia versus HeyGen comparison picks apart what each free tier is an evaluation of. The Synthesia review reads the minutes and the credits off the same card, and answers whether ten minutes a month is enough to evaluate on.