Is Synthesia Free? What the $0 Basic Plan Gives You in 2026

Yes, with real limits. Synthesia has a free plan called Basic: it costs $0, it needs no credit card, and every month it gives you 10 minutes of video or dubbing, 3 survey responses and 500 credits, along with 9 stock avatars ^[1]. The limits decide the verdict. Basic videos carry a Synthesia watermark, they are shared by link or embed, and the free plan has no MP4 download. That makes Basic a good way to judge avatars, voices and the editor before paying, and a poor fit for anything you publish under your own brand. The first plan that removes the watermark and unlocks downloads is Starter, at $19 a month billed monthly or $14 a month billed yearly ($168 a year).

What Basic gives you each month

The free allowance renews every month: 10 minutes of Studio video creation or dubbing, 3 survey responses and 500 credits to spend on anything. Synthesia uses the included minutes and responses first and draws on the credits only after they run out. An avatar video uses about 100 credits per finished minute, charged on the avatar footage generated, so editing three seconds of a scene costs three seconds, and previews cost nothing. Nothing rolls over. The allowance resets each billing period, so a quiet month does not bank time for a busy one.

Several real production tools are open on the free plan. You can start a video from one of the 60+ templates, a blank project, a PowerPoint import or a dub, record your screen with the AI Screen Recorder extension for Chrome and Edge, and add auto-generated closed captions. Voices cover 140+ languages and accents. Avatar Builder, which designs a stylized or realistic avatar from prompts, works on every plan at 14 credits per generated option. Voice cloning is on Basic too, in 32 languages, after you record a short consent by reading a passcode aloud.

Synthesia creates a personal avatar or voice clone only with a live consent recording from that same person, who must be of legal age; it refuses celebrities, public figures, deceased people and anyone who has not consented, and you cannot create a photo avatar of someone else even with their permission. Support on Basic is an AI chat rather than a person. The media library is limited to Pexels and Soundstripe content, while paid plans add Getty Images and Icons8 for stock footage and icons.

The limits that push most teams to pay

The download gate matters most. Synthesia's help center says Basic users cannot download videos ^[2], so a free video is shared by link or embed, with the logo on it. Upgrading and then regenerating the video removes the watermark, which means a free draft is not wasted if you pay later. Assistant, the chat-based creator launched in July 2026, starts on Starter. Starting a Studio video from a prompt, a pasted script or an imported document runs through Assistant and therefore needs a paid plan (Syren, below, is the free prompt-based route), while Basic keeps the template, blank, PowerPoint and dubbing starts.

Moderation is the second gate. Every video passes automated checks and human review, and stock avatars are limited to neutral, factual content, so medical, legal, financial, political or news scripts can be turned down. Basic users cannot appeal a rejection ^[3]. Paid plans get one appeal per decision, reviewed within 48 hours, and the decision is final. On commercial use, Basic videos carry a Synthesia watermark and cannot be downloaded as MP4; the stock-avatar rules on paid advertising apply on every plan.

Free extras outside the Basic allowance

Syren, the AI video agent Synthesia launched in October 2026 and still labels beta, is open on Basic. According to Synthesia's help center, Basic Syren videos are watermarked, run up to 3 minutes, and can be downloaded and shared only during the first 2 weeks ^[4]. Syren builds a whole video from a description and your own material, then takes changes by chat. It is hungry for credits. The pricing page puts a typical 1-minute Syren video at 1,000 to 2,000 credits, so the free monthly credits do not stretch far once the limited-time Syren-only promo credits are spent.

Three more free routes are worth knowing. The free dubbing tool on Synthesia's site dubs the first minute of a video and watermarks the result. Roleplay Sessions, launched in October 2026, let you build spoken practice conversations with an Interactive Avatar; you can create as many roleplays as you like, but plays are capped at 10 a month on Basic (as on Starter and Pro), with no Learner Portal, assignment or analytics. Every plan also gets a one-time 60 minutes of Interactive Avatar at sign-up (help center, October 2026), and Interactive Avatars are still labeled beta.

The MCP connection for ChatGPT and Claude, in public beta since November 2026, can be linked on Basic, but creating a Studio video draft through it needs a paid plan. For a seasonal one-off, the Santa video page asks only for a template, a script and an email address, with no plan or payment step listed. None of these extras changes the core picture. They are samples of individual features, useful for judging fit, not a way to run regular production without paying.

No documented trial of Starter or Pro

The yearly Starter and Pro cards show a Try for FREE button next to Purchase now, but Synthesia's pricing FAQ does not describe a trial of a paid plan; the dependable free option is the Basic plan. When that FAQ explains how to test Synthesia, it points to a free AI video and a sales demo for larger buyers. There are no student, non-profit or educational discounts either. So Basic is the place to test. Use it to check what money cannot change later: voice quality, avatar realism, and whether scripts on your topics pass moderation with a stock avatar.

Rivals handle the free tier differently. Colossyan's free plan is, confusingly, called Starter, the same name as Synthesia's first paid plan, and it includes 20 NEO minutes a month; Colossyan also advertises a 14-day free trial of AI video in its editor with no credit card. HeyGen's free plan gives 3 videos a month, each up to 1 minute, watermarked and limited to personal, non-commercial use, as our HeyGen free-plan guide explains. Neither changes the core question here: whether you need a downloadable, unbranded file.

What upgrading costs, and when yearly billing wins

Starter is $19 a month billed monthly (the card shows a first-month offer of $9), or $14 a month billed yearly ($168 a year). It adds 1,250 credits a month on top of the free allowance, which by our arithmetic means the 10 included minutes plus up to about 12 more minutes of avatar video, along with MP4 downloads, no watermark, Assistant and 3 personal avatars. Pro is $89 a month billed monthly (a first-month offer of $49, then $89), or $59 a month billed yearly ($708 a year). Its 6,000 credits a month add up to about 60 more minutes, plus CTA buttons, branching and bulk personalization.

Yearly billing rewards staying. Starter billed yearly saves $60 a year against paying monthly at list price, and Pro billed yearly saves $360. At list price, yearly wins from 9 months on Starter and 8 on Pro; with the first-month offer a new buyer sees, monthly stays cheaper longer, so yearly wins from 10 months on Starter and 9 on Pro. Even with the first-month offers, a first year on monthly billing comes to $218 on Starter and $1,028 on Pro, or $50 and $320 more than paying yearly. Below those thresholds, monthly billing and a clean cancellation cost less.

Read the billing rules before entering a card. All purchases are non-refundable, even if the plan goes unused, and the Customer Terms ask for 30 days' notice of non-renewal, so cancel well before the renewal date. When paid credits run out, video creation pauses until renewal unless you buy credits or upgrade, and upgrading mid-cycle forfeits unused credits. After you cancel, videos become inaccessible at the end of the billing period. Download them first. Our Synthesia pricing guide covers the higher Pro credit levels and Enterprise.

The bottom line

Synthesia is free in a narrow, honest sense. Basic gives you 10 minutes of video or dubbing, 3 survey responses and 500 credits a month, 9 stock avatars and the real editor with no card required, which is enough to judge voices, avatars and moderation on your own scripts. It does not give you a file you can publish: there is no MP4 download, every video carries a watermark, and a rejected script cannot be appealed. Synthesia's pricing FAQ does not describe a trial of a paid plan, so use Basic as your test run, then pay monthly for Starter unless you expect to stay at least 10 months (9 at list price, without the first-month offer).