Synthesia

Quick Verdict

Synthesia is a strong choice for ecommerce companies that need polished product explainers, customer education, internal training, sales presentations, and localized video content at scale. It is especially useful when consistency, brand control, collaboration, and multilingual distribution matter more than cinematic production.

However, ecommerce advertisers must understand its licensing rules. Videos using Synthesia Stock or Synthetic avatars and voices can be used for product videos on a website, organic social posts, training, and other non-paid distribution, but they cannot be used in paid social, paid YouTube, television, or programmatic advertising. Brands planning paid campaigns should review the current licensing terms and consider a properly authorized Custom avatar.

Key Features

• AI avatars: Choose from a large library of ready-made presenters or create Personal and Custom avatars. Higher plans provide access to more stock avatars, multiple avatars per scene, and stronger team controls.
• Text, document, and URL to video: Start with a prompt, script, PDF, PowerPoint presentation, webpage, or other source material. The AI Video Assistant creates a multi-scene draft that can be refined in the editor.
• Slide-based video editor: Edit scenes using an interface similar to a presentation builder. Teams can change avatars, scripts, layouts, backgrounds, colors, media, music, transitions, and timing without specialist editing skills.
• AI-generated visuals and B-roll: Generate supporting clips, images, and motion graphics from prompts and combine them with presenter-led scenes. Available models and credit consumption may vary.
• Translation and AI dubbing: Create voiceovers and localized video versions across a broad language library. Depending on the workflow, Synthesia supports more than 160 languages for video creation and more than 140 languages for AI dubbing.
• Brand Kit and templates: Apply approved logos, colors, fonts, layouts, and preferred avatars to keep product education and marketing content visually consistent.
• Interactive video: Creator and Enterprise features can add calls to action, quizzes, branching paths, and other interactive elements for training and customer education.
• Collaboration and publishing: Invite guests to review content, collect comments, share videos through links, embed videos on websites, export MP4 files, and update shared videos without replacing every embed.
• Enterprise controls: Enterprise options include SAML/SSO, permissions, live collaboration, SCORM export, onboarding support, and additional governance and security capabilities.

Ecommerce Use Cases

• Product explainers: Create presenter-led videos that introduce a product, demonstrate its main benefits, and answer common pre-purchase questions.
• Customer onboarding: Turn setup instructions, user guides, and post-purchase education into videos that can be updated whenever the product changes.
• Help center and FAQ content: Convert support documentation into short videos for product pages, knowledge bases, and customer portals.
• Sales enablement: Produce product walkthroughs, feature comparisons, partner training, and sales presentations for internal teams and distributors.
• International localization: Adapt product education, onboarding, and marketing content for different countries without recording every version from scratch.
• Internal ecommerce training: Build repeatable training for customer service, fulfillment, merchandising, compliance, and retail operations.
• Organic social content: Repurpose product information into non-paid educational videos and organic social posts, subject to Synthesia’s avatar and voice licensing rules.

Best For

Advantages and Limitations

Synthesia Pricing

Synthesia offers a free Basic plan, two self-service paid plans, and a custom Enterprise plan. The annual prices below are paid upfront and work out to a lower monthly equivalent.

Starter adds video downloads, AI Video Assistant, AI Dubbing, watermark removal, one editor, three guests, and access to more than 125 avatars. Creator adds more usage, one editor, five guests, more than 180 avatars, multiple avatars per scene, interactive video, API access, and branded video pages. Enterprise can add the full avatar library, Brand Kits, SAML/SSO, live collaboration, SCORM export, implementation support, and dedicated account services.

Credits are shared across supported AI features. On self-service plans, one second of generated video generally uses two credits, and regenerating an edited video consumes credits again based on the updated duration. Confirm current prices, credits, and plan limits on the official Synthesia pricing page before purchasing.

Our Take

Synthesia is most valuable when an ecommerce company treats video as an operational content format rather than a single advertising project. It can help teams maintain libraries of product explainers, onboarding videos, support content, sales materials, and localized training without repeatedly booking presenters and production crews.

Its strongest ecommerce workflow is to begin with verified product information, create a structured presenter-led draft, apply the company’s Brand Kit, review every product claim and translation, and then publish the approved video on product pages, help centers, partner portals, or internal learning systems.

For paid performance advertising, Synthesia requires more caution than tools designed specifically for UGC ads. Stock and Synthetic avatar licensing does not permit paid promotion, so brands must review the official licensing policy and use an appropriately authorized Custom avatar when the intended campaign requires it.

Synthesia Alternatives

• HeyGen — Consider it for flexible presenter videos, ecommerce product workflows, localization, and a broader mix of marketing-oriented video creation.
• Creatify — Consider it when turning product-page URLs into short advertising concepts is the primary requirement.
• Arcads — Consider it for AI actors and UGC-style creative focused more directly on performance advertising.
• Topview — Consider it for ecommerce product videos and short-form social creative workflows.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does Synthesia cost?

Synthesia has a free Basic plan. Starter costs $29 per month or $264 per year, Creator costs $89 per month or $804 per year, and Enterprise uses custom pricing. Annual plans are paid upfront, and prices, credits, and limits may change.

Is Synthesia free?

Yes. Synthesia offers a Basic plan with 1,200 credits per month and up to 10 minutes of generated video. The free plan is suitable for testing the platform, although downloads, watermark removal, avatar access, collaboration, and other capabilities depend on the selected plan.

Can Synthesia create product videos?

Yes. Ecommerce teams can create product explainers, walkthroughs, onboarding videos, FAQ content, customer education, and organic marketing videos using scripts, product information, avatars, branded scenes, and supporting media.

Can Synthesia videos be used in paid ads?

Videos using Stock or Synthetic avatars and voices cannot be used in paid social media advertising, paid YouTube campaigns, television advertising, programmatic advertising, or other paid promotion. Custom avatar videos follow the agreement made with the person whose likeness is used, but they remain subject to consent, content moderation, intellectual-property, and other applicable rules.

How many languages does Synthesia support?

Synthesia supports more than 160 languages for AI video and voiceover workflows. AI dubbing currently supports more than 140 languages and regional variants. Exact availability depends on the selected voice, avatar, translation workflow, and plan.

Can Synthesia translate an existing product video?

Yes. Its AI Dubbing workflow can translate uploaded videos, preserve or replace speaker voices, generate subtitles, and apply lip-sync. Teams should review translations, brand names, product terminology, measurements, and claims before publishing.

Does Synthesia replace professional video production?

It can replace parts of repetitive production for presenter videos, training, product education, localization, and routine content updates. It is less suitable when a campaign requires original acting, physical product demonstrations, complex camera work, or highly distinctive cinematic direction.