Synthesia Free Plan: 2 Videos Made, Neither Downloadable

Synthesia's free plan, Basic, makes real avatar videos but will not let you download them. Our two test clips rendered in 1080p in about seven minutes, both carried a Synthesia logo, and Download opened a "STARTER+" upgrade box instead of a file. To get an MP4, the cheapest plan is Starter: $9 for the first month, then $19 a month.

We used the free plan the way a new user would: sign up, get through onboarding, paste a script, press Generate, and try to take the video away. Every number below comes from those two clips and the Billing page before and after.

Tested on 5 Nov 2026 on a brand-new Synthesia Basic account (no card added, no upgrade), in a Chrome browser on a laptop in Vietnam. Plan details were read from Synthesia's pricing page the same day.

At a glance

Key results

• No download on Basic. Download on both finished videos opened a box headed "STARTER+": "Download your videos in MP4 for maximum flexibility." There was no file to save.
• Watermark on every frame. A "synthesia" logo sits in the bottom-right corner of both clips, and the "Remove watermark" switch in the editor is locked behind an upgrade.
• About seven minutes to render a 22-second clip. English: 21.8 seconds of video, 6 min 50 s from Generate to ready. Vietnamese: 23.3 seconds, 7 min 3 s. Both came out at 1920 x 1080.
• The free minutes are not shown anywhere. Synthesia's pricing page gives Basic "10 minutes of Studio video creation or dubbing" a month. After our two clips, Billing still read "0 / 500 Credits used" and no screen we opened showed minutes used or left.
• Vietnamese works. The editor offered 29 Vietnamese voices, the Voices page listed 39, and a script with full Vietnamese diacritics rendered without errors. We did not judge how natural it sounds.
• You cannot skip the first video. A new account lands on "What do you want to make?" with no skip button; the dashboard stayed locked until we made one video with Synthesia's AI agent, Syren.

Hands-on test

Setup

• Account: new Synthesia workspace on the Basic plan, created for this test. No payment method, no trial of a paid plan.
• Browser: Chrome on a laptop, app.synthesia.io, signed in with email and password.
• Onboarding: one Syren video with a one-line prompt ("One scene, 10 seconds, default avatar, say: Hello, this is a test."), only to reach the dashboard. We did not use it afterwards.
• Videos: two Studio videos from "Start from blank", one scene each, the template's default avatar (Krish). English with the default US voice; Vietnamese with the same avatar and the Vietnamese voice "Default".
• Script: about 60 words in English and the same idea in Vietnamese, saying what the clip is testing.
• Timing: wall clock from the confirm button in the Generate dialog to the moment the video page showed the finished video. Length and resolution were read from the video player on the page.

What two clips cost on Basic

The Vietnamese render sat at "Preparing 18%" for about six of its seven minutes, then finished quickly. Synthesia's own estimate in the Generate dialog was longer than what we got.

Credits and minutes are two separate pools. Every plan, Basic included, gets 10 minutes of video plus 500 credits a month, and Synthesia's help centre says the included minutes "are used first. Credits are only used once those run out." That is why Billing stayed at zero. Since nothing in the app showed the minutes, the only way we could keep track was by adding up clip lengths ourselves: about 45 seconds of the 10 minutes, if the allowance counts video length.

What the free plan includes, and what Starter adds

From Synthesia's pricing page on 5 Nov 2026, monthly billing. Prices in US dollars; the page does not say whether tax is included.

Synthesia's help centre puts video creation at "about 100 credits per minute of finished video", so Starter's 1,750 credits cover about 17 more minutes on top of the 10 free ones. Pro is the old Creator plan, renamed on 1 October 2026. For Syren, the page says "A 1-min video typically uses 1,000- 2000 credits", so the 500 Basic credits would not cover a full minute made that way.

What worked

What worked

• Getting from a blank scene to a finished, shareable avatar video took a few minutes of typing and one click. The editor needed no setup.
• Vietnamese text with diacritics went in and rendered without a single error message, using the same avatar as the English clip.
• The finished videos played in full on Synthesia's own video page, so Basic is enough to check how an avatar and a voice handle your own script before paying.

Where it fell short

What didn't work

• No MP4. For anything outside Synthesia's own player, Basic is a preview, not a production plan.
• The watermark cannot be switched off on Basic.
• The minutes the plan promises are invisible in the app, so there is no warning before you run out.
• Avatar numbers did not match. The pricing page lists 9 AI avatars on Basic; the avatar library in our account showed at least 46 with no lock on any of them. We only rendered the default one, so we cannot say how many Basic will actually let you use.
• Onboarding forces a first video through Syren. Syren's own screen said 3.99 credits were used, while Billing stayed at 0, so the two counters did not agree.

Our verdict

Use Synthesia Basic to test, not to publish. It answers the questions that matter before you pay: does an avatar read your script well, in your language, and is a seven-minute wait for a short clip acceptable. It cannot give you a file you can put on YouTube, in a course or in a slide deck, and every frame is branded. If the test convinces you, Starter is the plan that removes both limits, and the $9 first month is a cheap way to download what you made. If you only need a voice and not a face on screen, a text-to-speech tool is far cheaper; we compared two in ElevenLabs vs Gemini TTS.

Try it with your own script: Synthesia. Partner link: RanThis is an independent affiliate of Synthesia and may earn a commission if you upgrade to a paid plan through it. That did not change what we measured.

FAQ

Is Synthesia free?

Yes, the Basic plan costs $0, and we signed up without adding a card. It includes 500 credits and a free allowance of 10 minutes of Studio video a month, but videos carry a Synthesia watermark and cannot be downloaded.

Can you download videos on the Synthesia free plan?

No. In our test, Download on a finished Basic video opened an upgrade box marked "STARTER+" instead of saving an MP4. The pricing page lists downloads from Starter up.

How long does Synthesia take to make a video?

On Basic, our 21.8-second English clip took 6 min 50 s from Generate to ready, and a 23.3-second Vietnamese clip took 7 min 3 s. Synthesia estimated 10 minutes for the second.

How much does Synthesia Starter cost?

$9 for the first month, then $19 a month billed monthly, or $14 a month billed yearly at $168, according to Synthesia's pricing page on 5 Nov 2026. Starter adds downloads, removes the logo and raises the monthly credits from 500 to 1,750.

Does Synthesia support Vietnamese?

Yes. We counted 29 Vietnamese voices in the editor and 39 on the Voices page, and a Vietnamese script rendered without errors. We did not rate how natural the voices sound.

Can I skip the first video when I sign up?

Not in our test. The new account opened on "What do you want to make?" with no skip button, and the dashboard stayed locked until one video had been made with Syren.