Synthesia for ads

What Synthesia makes for ads

Synthesia turns a script into a video read by an AI presenter, and dubs finished videos into other languages. Every plan lists “160+ languages & voices” for presenters, while dubbing lists “70+ languages” below Enterprise and 140+ on it (pricing page, checked 24 September 2026).

A video’s size menu switches it to 9:16 portrait or 4:5. The help centre (23 July 2026) lists 9:16 as best for “IG reels, TikTok, Stories”.

Stock avatars, Synthesia’s presenter library, number 9 on the free Basic plan, 125+ on Starter, 180+ on Creator and 240+ on Enterprise. For personal avatars, built from a real person, the plan table lists 3 on Starter, 5 on Creator and unlimited on Enterprise. The FAQ says “One custom personal avatar is included with the annual Starter and Creator plans”.

What a Synthesia ad costs

A 30-second Synthesia ad costs $0.90 on yearly Starter if every minute is used: twelve months at $18 a month billed yearly, divided by 7,200 seconds a year, times 30. Monthly Starter makes it $1.45, at prices from 24 September 2026 (pricing page).

The FAQ quotes $264 a year for the same plan, which would make it $1.10; the pricing page does not say which figure checkout charges.

Synthesia counts video by the second: on Starter, a 59-second video leaves “9:01 minutes left” of the month’s 10 (pricing page). So a 5-second hook uses 5 seconds. Creatify, by contrast, bills avatar video in 15-second blocks, rounded up (Creatify help centre).

Dubbing a finished ad into another language costs about a fifth of making it. Yearly Starter’s credits make 120 minutes of video or 580 of dubbing a year. So a 30-second dub comes to $0.19 if every credit goes on dubbing (pricing page). Lip sync “Uses 2× credits when enabled”, which takes the dub to about two-fifths.

Edits bill only what changes: “We only count new video seconds” (FAQ). On our reading, a new opening line on an existing ad bills only its own seconds. The FAQ does not say whether a duplicated video counts as new, so keeping both versions may bill the full length.

The free Basic plan gives 10 minutes a month, but “Download your videos” starts on Starter, so on our reading Basic cannot deliver an ad file.

Every plan and length: Synthesia pricing. Against other tools: the price tracker.

Can you use Synthesia avatars in paid ads under its terms?

Synthesia allows only personal avatars in paid social, with the person’s consent, unless it consents in writing to stock ones.

Synthesia’s Acceptable Use Policy, under “Campaigns, Communications & Abuse of the Public Interest”, prohibits this:

Incorporating a Stock Avatar in content for “promoted”, “boosted”, or “paid” advertising on any social media platform or similar media, absent written express consent from Synthesia - in the case of a Custom Avatar, you may do so only with appropriate consent from the individual.

On our reading, “boosted” catches an unpaid post you later promote. The policy names no process for asking for that consent.

The Customer Terms require the person behind a personal avatar to be “over the applicable statutory legal age” and to have “provided free and informed consent” (Responsibilities To, and For, Authorized Users).

The help centre (22 July 2026) sets the steps: “The person represented by the avatar must record their own consent video”, which “must be recorded live and must include the on-screen passcode”. Uploaded footage must be “A single, continuous take” lasting “Between 1 and 5 minutes”, and processing “usually takes around 1 business day”.

Sending a creator a link to record from is “only available on Enterprise plans” (personal avatar requests, 24 July 2026). On our reading, below Enterprise the creator records inside your own account.

For testimonial-style scripts, the policy also bars “Using a Stock Avatar in a manner that is meant to, or is reasonably likely to, make viewers think the real-life actor personally holds, endorses, or actually has your stated opinions, characteristics or conditions”.

Stock avatars may do so “only on enterprise Service plans”, custom ones “only with appropriate consent from the individual” (Acceptable Use Policy, Synthesia Content & Abuse of Third Party Rights). Boosting such a post still needs Synthesia’s written consent.

Synthesia’s help centre (22 July 2026) names no Enterprise exception: stock avatars “Cannot Be Used to Represent Specific Individuals or Brands”. Its FAQ says personal avatars “can mention brands”. On our reading, a stock-avatar script that names your brand may be refused even for an unpaid post.

Some verticals are out whatever the avatar. The policy bars using Synthesia “to promote or advertise age restricted goods, services or venues, including alcohol, tobacco, vaping products, psychoactive substances, firearms, gambling, sex toys, escort services and dating services” (Adult Content & Abuse of Minors).

How Meta labels AI ads: Meta’s AI disclosure rules. Wider rules for avatar ads: AI UGC legal guide.

In the AI commercial use matrix, paid ads read allowed with conditions on every paid plan and barred on Basic, whose plan lists no downloads. Client work reads allowed with conditions, and resale unclear.

A personal avatar also stays with Synthesia. The Customer Terms say “Avatars cannot be exported” (Data Portability and Deletion). Stock content already in your videos stays licensed after the term, subject to “continued compliance” (And What’s Ours is Ours). On our reading, live ads can outlast your plan, but the avatar cannot move to another tool.

Is Synthesia legit and safe?

Synthesia Limited is an established company on documents: founded in 2017, it announced a GV-led Series E in January 2026. Synthesia put that round at $200,000,000 and its valuation at $4,000,000,000 (Synthesia’s announcement).

The pricing page says “SOC 2 & GDPR compliant”, a vendor claim we did not check.

Trustpilot displayed 1,823 reviews and a TrustScore of 3.9 on 24 September 2026, on a claimed profile. We read the 20 most recent, posted 6 May to 14 September 2026, counting each once by its main point (what a research edition covers).

Of the 20, 3 praise the video tool itself and 5 praise a Synthesia webinar or training session; moderation rejections lead the complaints.

One moderation report says NHS England videos, “clinically approved by NHS experts”, were rejected as inaccurate. It does not say which avatar was used; the help centre lists medical information among topics stock avatars may not cover.

Another, from 29 July, objects to Synthesia refusing “a video with my own image”, a webinar intro made with the reviewer’s custom avatar. So there, a personal avatar did not skip moderation.

One of the two output complaints, from 16 July, calls it “not professional video maker for social media ads”. Reddit threads were not read for this edition.

Pros and cons on paper

HeyGen and Creatify for the same ads

HeyGen’s Creator, Pro and Business plans carry no stock-avatar ad clause like Synthesia’s in the documents we read.

Section 3 of HeyGen’s terms, last updated 23 July 2026, leaves paid-plan output free for “commercial purposes”; section 4 bars free-plan output from “advertising”. Its moderation policy (3.1, effective 25 July 2024) also bars promoting “Weapons/ ammunition, alcohol, online gambling”, so HeyGen does not reopen those ads. More in HeyGen for ads.

HeyGen vs Synthesia for ads sets the two side by side on stock avatars in paid social and cost per 30-second ad.

Creatify’s terms (23 September 2024) grant “Community Assets” for “personal or commercial use” (s.6.3). They never say whether its AI actors count, so their use in ads is unclear on our reading.

Under s.6.1, “any failure to comply with the Moderation Policy will be deemed a breach of the licenses granted under these Terms” (terms). More in Creatify for UGC ads.

• AI UGC and avatars

  HeyGen

  Talking-avatar videos from text, photos or your own digital twin, with translation into 175+ languages.

  From $29 a month · checked 24 Sep 2026

  Best for Localising one ad script into many languages, cheap avatar minutes for talking-head ads, and founder or spokesperson clones on a paid plan.

• AI UGC and avatars

  Creatify

  Avatar and product video ads from a URL or script, with batch variants, an ad launcher and a competitor ad tracker.

  From $39 a month · checked 24 Sep 2026

  Best for E-commerce teams making URL-to-video ads in volume who want an ad launcher for Meta, TikTok and AppLovin in the same tool.

Talking-actor tools by job: Arcads alternatives. Every avatar tool in the database: AI UGC and avatar tools.