Synthesia is an L&D product first
The avatars get the attention, but what actually distinguishes Synthesia is everything around them: SCORM export so a video drops into an LMS, interactive video, quizzes, branching and decisioning, brand kits, workspaces and role controls.
That is a training product. It happens to use AI avatars as its delivery mechanism.
If you are producing courses, onboarding or compliance material, this is exactly the right shape and the alternatives below mostly are not. If you are producing marketing video, you are paying for a governance layer you will never open.
Count minutes, not credits
The pricing page leads with credits and it is easy to misread. Translate to minutes before comparing anything:
| Plan | Price | Credits | Video minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Free | 1,200 / month | 10 / month |
| Starter | $18/mo billed yearly | 14,500 / year | 120 / year |
| Creator | $64/mo billed yearly | 44,000 / year | 360 / year |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Unlimited |
120 minutes a year is ten minutes a month. 360 is thirty. Those are modest numbers, and a plan that reads as "44,000 credits" feels much larger than "half an hour of video a month" does.
The good news is the shape: allowances are annual on paid plans, so a quiet quarter does not vaporise. That is fairer than the monthly resets most tools in adjacent categories run.
Two limits that catch people out
The free plan cannot download. Basic gives 1,200 credits a month and ten minutes of video, but downloading your videos starts on Starter, and so does removing the Synthesia logo. It is a preview environment, not a free tier, and anyone comparing free plans across vendors should score it that way.
One editor. Starter and Creator each include a single editor seat, with three and five guests respectively. Guests can comment; they cannot edit. A second person who needs to build videos means moving up, and for a team that is often the real cost driver rather than minutes.
Also worth flagging: Studio Avatars — the premium, professionally-filmed avatar option — are a $1,000/year add-on on every tier, Enterprise included. They are never part of a plan.
When the category is wrong
The most useful thing this page can tell some readers is that they are shopping in the wrong aisle.
Synthesia makes a person talking to camera. It does not generate environments, product shots, b-roll or cinematic footage. A training video that is entirely presenter works perfectly. A course that needs to show the product, the factory floor or an animated concept needs something else for those shots.
That "something else" sits alongside Synthesia rather than replacing it. On ZOOOP that means an image and video model catalogue for the footage, lip-sync when a shot needs a talking face, and a collaborative canvas to arrange the sequence — with credits bought in packs that never expire, so occasional b-roll does not require a second annual subscription.
What we do not have, plainly: no SCORM export, no LMS integration, no interactive video, no quizzes, and nothing approaching Synthesia's avatar library. For a formal training rollout, Synthesia is the right tool and we are not competing for that work.