[Special] Synthesia's Free Tier Gives You 10 Minutes and 9 Avatars — But Zero Personal Avatars

Synthesia markets itself as the fastest way to turn a script into a talking-head video: type text, pick a face, get a clip. Its free plan (called Basic on the official site now) looks generous on the surface — 10 minutes of video a month, 9 ready-made AI avatars, 500 “credits” (the internal currency Synthesia uses to meter how much of the platform you’ve used), 3 survey responses and 3 AI-generated video assets a month, all through a single editor seat. (The first version of this article said 1,200 credits and 25 assets; that was the old setup and is out of date.) We tested how far that free tier actually goes before you hit a wall, and the wall shows up fast: the moment you want your own face in a video instead of a stock presenter.

That feature is called a Personal Avatar — an AI clone trained on your own likeness, as opposed to one of Synthesia’s 9 ready-made AI avatars. It isn’t part of the free plan at all. Synthesia’s own comparison table doesn’t even bother listing “0” for the free column on that row; it just shows three numbers, one for each paid tier above it, for Starter, Pro (formerly called Creator) and Enterprise.

Free plan check update (2026-10-15)

• On 2026-10-15 we reopened the official pricing page (https://www.synthesia.io/pricing, viewed from Taiwan, both the monthly and yearly tabs). The free plan is now called Basic and costs US$0: 10 minutes of video, 500 credits and 3 survey responses every month, renewing each month with no rollover; 9 AI avatars, 3 AI video assets a month, 1 editor seat. Videos carry a Synthesia watermark, you cannot download them, and there is no Personal Avatar.
• Out of date: the first version of this article (2026-10-10) said the free plan has 1,200 credits and 25 AI video assets. That was the old setup and is no longer current. The old Creator figures (30 minutes, 3,600 credits and 75 assets a month) are old too. Creator has been renamed Pro; Pro now lists 6,000 credits a month on monthly billing or 72,000 credits a year on yearly billing, and Starter lists 1,250 credits a month or 15,000 a year.
• How credits work (official FAQ): every plan includes a base of 10 minutes a month, and the credits on paid plans are added on top. The FAQ says Starter’s 1,250 credits add roughly 12 more minutes of typical video, about 22 minutes a month in total.
• Prices depend on where you connect from: from Taiwan we saw Starter at US$29 monthly or US$18 a month billed yearly, and Pro from US$89 monthly or US$64 a month billed yearly. From the US the same day we saw Starter at US$19 monthly or US$14 a month billed yearly, and Pro at US$59 a month billed yearly. The real checkout page is the final word.

What US$0 actually buys you

The free plan gives you 10 minutes of video per month, a choice of 9 AI avatars, 500 credits and 3 survey responses a month, 3 AI-generated video assets a month, and 1 editor seat to work in. Everything renews monthly with no rollover. Every video carries a Synthesia watermark, and — this is the part that trips people up — you can’t use a Personal Avatar and you can’t download the finished video. For a one-off demo using a stock presenter, that’s workable: you can write a script, pick one of the 9 avatars, and see a finished clip inside your 10-minute monthly allowance. For anything with your own face in it, or anything you need to hand off as a file rather than a link, the free plan is a dead end from minute one.

Figure: synthesia.io official pricing page, captured 2026-10-10 (this is the pre-update screenshot; see the update section above for the current free plan).

Paying US$29 buys features and some extra credits, not a bigger base allowance

Here’s the detail that’s easy to miss on the pricing page: every plan, free or paid, includes the same base of 10 minutes of video a month, and the credits on paid plans are added on top. Starter, the cheapest paid plan at US$29 a month from Taiwan (US$19 from the US), adds 1,250 credits a month — the official FAQ says that is roughly 12 more minutes of typical video, about 22 minutes a month in total. It also removes the watermark, lets you download your video, gives you 3 Personal Avatars and 125+ AI avatars, and comes with 1 editor seat plus 3 guest seats. Paying annually brings Starter down to US$18 a month from Taiwan (US$14 from the US), with 15,000 credits delivered for the whole year at once.

So the jump from free to Starter is mostly about unlocking what the free plan deliberately locks: your own avatar, a downloadable file, and a clean watermark-free export, plus room for guests to collaborate and a modest pile of extra credits on top of the same 10-minute base.

Where the limits move further

To get a much bigger credit pool, you need Pro, the plan formerly called Creator. It starts at US$89 a month on monthly billing and lists 6,000 credits a month (Pro can pick higher credit tiers, and the price rises with them); on yearly billing it is US$64 a month from Taiwan (US$59 from the US) with 72,000 credits a year. Pro also lists 5 Personal Avatars instead of 3, 180+ AI avatars, interactive video and branded video pages, with 1 editor seat and 5 guest seats. (The old Creator numbers — 30 minutes, 3,600 credits and 75 assets a month — are out of date.)

Above that sits Enterprise, which isn’t a listed price at all — Synthesia requires booking a demo to get a custom quote. What’s promised there is unlimited video minutes, unlimited Personal Avatars, and SAML/SSO (a standard for enterprise login and identity management across a company’s other software).

Figure: compiled by AMPM from its verified data (last verified 2026-10-09, before the changes described in the update section above).

🔍 AMPM exclusive check

Many of the numbers in our 2026-10-10 version no longer match the official site. When we reopened the pricing page on 2026-10-15, the free plan had moved to 500 credits plus 3 survey responses and 3 assets a month, the paid plans had moved to a credit-based setup, and Creator was now called Pro. Prices also depend on where you connect from: from Taiwan we saw Starter at US$29 monthly or US$18 yearly and Pro from US$89 monthly or US$64 yearly, while from the US the same day we saw Starter at US$19 monthly or US$14 yearly and Pro at US$59 yearly. The real checkout page is the final word.

One more detail from the earlier check: on 2026-10-09 Synthesia’s comparison table listed the Personal Avatars row as 3 / 5 / unlimited for Starter / Creator (now Pro) / Enterprise, while a separate Starter feature list said 1 Personal Avatar. On 2026-10-15 the pricing page lists 3 personalized avatars for Starter and 5 for Pro, so we now treat 3 as the current Starter number. If a Personal Avatar count is the reason you’re buying Starter, still confirm it on the checkout page before paying.

☀️ AMO, the budget-minded cat

AMO’s question is always the same: is free enough, or is it worth paying? For Synthesia, the answer splits hard depending on one thing — do you need your own face in the video, or will a stock avatar do. If a stock AI avatar is fine, free covers a real use case: 10 minutes of video a month, a pick from 9 avatars, 500 credits and 3 video assets, enough for one short internal clip or a quick test of the tool before committing money. The watermark and the inability to download are annoying but survivable if you’re just previewing what Synthesia can do before a team decision.

The moment a Personal Avatar matters, free stops being an option — zero Personal Avatars is the actual number, not a low one, and no amount of clever use of the free credits changes that. The first paid step, Starter at US$29 a month from Taiwan (US$18 a month billed annually), keeps the same 10-minute base as free and adds 1,250 credits a month, which the official FAQ puts at about 22 minutes in total. What it buys is the watermark removal, downloads, and the avatar unlock itself — 3 Personal Avatars. AMO’s take: paying for Starter is worth it only if the Personal Avatar and the download capability are the actual blocker, not because you think you’re also buying a much bigger video quota — the large jump in credits comes with Pro, from US$89 a month (US$64 a month annually from Taiwan), which also brings 5 Personal Avatars. Prices differ by region, so check the real checkout page.

Verdict: who should use it, who should skip it

Use the free plan if you want to test Synthesia’s stock avatars for a short clip, don’t mind a watermark, and don’t need to download the file — 10 minutes and 9 avatars a month is enough to get a feel for the tool without spending anything. Skip free, and go straight to Starter at US$29 a month from Taiwan (US$19 from the US), if a Personal Avatar or a clean downloadable export is the point of using Synthesia at all; just don’t expect a huge video quota at that tier — the official FAQ puts it at about 22 minutes a month in total. Skip Starter and go to Pro, from US$89 a month, if you need a much bigger credit pool, 5 Personal Avatars, interactive video or branded video pages. Enterprise is a demo-and-quote conversation, not a published price, so it only makes sense once you already know you need unlimited minutes, unlimited avatars, or SSO for a team. Prices depend on where you connect from, so the real checkout page is the final word.

Written: 2026-10-10 Price last verified: 2026-10-15 Tool last health-checked: 2026-10-15

🔗 Related on AMPM

• Synthesia pricing & free tier
• capcut-ai vs synthesia
• heygen vs synthesia

📎 Sources

All prices and quotas in this article come from AMPM’s verified dataset for Synthesia (last verified 2026-10-15); primary sources:

• https://www.synthesia.io/pricing
• https://www.synthesia.io

🐾 Meet the cats: AMO and PIMI

AMPM is an independent AI-tool pricing watchdog tracking official prices worldwide. Our motto: ask before you subscribe. Two cats argue every tool from two sides:

• ☀️ AMO — the budget-minded cat. Always asks: is the free tier enough, and is paying actually worth it?
• 🌙 PIMI — the performance-minded cat. Cares about whether it works well, fast, and gets your job done.

When they are done arguing, you know whether to pay. Every number is checked by us, with the verification date at the end.

🐾 Our sister sites also checked

• Which credit card gives the best rewards on AI subscriptions
• Travel eSIM plans compared