HeyGen hit $95M ARR. G2 crowned it their fastest-growing product. Avatar IV — the flagship avatar engine — is putting out avatars that most people can't distinguish from a real person on camera. Multilingual lip-sync across 175+ languages, ahead of Synthesia and D-ID.
The tech is real. The pricing behind it is a different story.
The dual-currency problem
"Unlimited video creation" is on every paid plan. What you find out after subscribing: HeyGen runs two resource systems. Standard Avatar III videos are unlimited. But Avatar IV, lip-synced translation, 4K upscaling — the features worth paying for — burn Premium Credits. Capped monthly. Don't roll over.
Creator plan at $29/month gives you 200 Premium Credits. Avatar IV costs 20 credits per minute. That's roughly 10 minutes of premium video per month. One Trustpilot reviewer reported a 90-second video burning 95 credits — almost half the monthly allocation in one render.
What the review platforms say
100 Trustpilot reviews analyzed: 80% negative. Same five complaints cycling every month — credit confusion, support that never responds, pricing changes mid-subscription, failed renders that still charge credits, content moderation rejections with no explanation.
G2 shows 4.7+ stars. But G2 lets vendors gate and filter reviews. Trustpilot doesn't.
Who should use it (and who shouldn't)
If you're a marketing team producing high-volume short-form avatar content across multiple languages and you have someone who will learn the credit system inside out — HeyGen delivers.
If you need predictable billing, responsive support, or you're a solo creator who'll hit credit caps after two Avatar IV videos — skip it.
Full pricing breakdown, credit math by plan tier, and Avatar IV vs Synthesia vs D-ID comparison:
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