Is HeyGen Free? What the Free Plan Includes, and Avatar IV Talking Photos Without a Subscription (November 2026)
Live figures last changed · 4 min read · The GenMagic team
HeyGen has a free plan, but it is small: 3 videos a month, each up to a minute, with a watermark, and HeyGen's terms limit Free-plan output to personal, non-commercial use. Paid plans start at $29 a month (Creator). Without any plan, HeyGen's Avatar IV, the model that turns one photo into a talking video, runs per second of speech: on HeyGen's own API wallet, or on GenMagic with a studio and twelve named voices.
This guide covers what HeyGen's free plan includes, what the paid plans add, Avatar IV without a plan, making a talking photo on GenMagic, and questions.
A note on who wrote this: GenMagic runs HeyGen's Avatar IV and HeyGen Video beside every other model, so it is one of the options here. HeyGen's plans were read on HeyGen's pricing page on November 10, 2026; GenMagic's prices come from its live catalog. Developers: the HeyGen API guide.
Table of contents
- What HeyGen's free plan includes
- What the paid plans add
- Avatar IV without a plan
- Making a talking photo on GenMagic
- Questions
What HeyGen's free plan includes
On HeyGen's pricing page on November 10, 2026, the Free plan costs $0, needs no credit card and includes:
- 3 videos a month, each up to 1 minute, with a watermark
- Access to Avatar IV and Video Agent, described in HeyGen's FAQ as "limited trial access to premium features like Avatar IV"
- Up to 3 photo avatars, one custom video avatar, 500+ stock presenters and 30+ languages
- Motion and gesture control 3 times a month
HeyGen's terms limit Free-plan output to "personal, non-commercial, and internal evaluation purposes", so an ad, a client video or a product video needs a paid plan or another route.
What the paid plans add
| Plan | Price | Credits a month | Avatar IV video length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Not stated | Up to 1 minute |
| Creator | $29 a month, $24 billed annually | 600 | Up to 30 minutes |
| Pro | $49 a month | 1,000 | Up to 30 minutes |
| Business | $149 a month plus $20 a seat | 1,500 | Up to 30 minutes |
| Enterprise | By contract | Set to your usage | Up to 30 minutes |
Source: HeyGen pricing, November 10, 2026. HeyGen says credit use "can vary based on which AI model is used, video duration, and the complexity of the generation", and its pricing page does not state how many credits a minute of Avatar IV takes.
Avatar IV without a plan
Avatar IV animates one photo of a face into a lip-synced talking video of a script. Two ways run it with no monthly plan:
| Route | Price | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| HeyGen's API | $2.31 a minute for a photo avatar | A HeyGen API wallet in dollars and code; no free API credit since February 2026 ( HeyGen help) |
| GenMagic | $0.075 a second of speech, $4.50 a minute | A balance topped up from $5; a studio or an API |
HeyGen's own API is the lowest price per minute. GenMagic costs more per second and needs no code: you upload the photo, write the script, pick a voice and see the script's price before you generate, from the same balance as Veo, Kling, Wan and every other model. Every HeyGen route, with its price: the HeyGen API guide.
Making a talking photo on GenMagic
- Open the studio on Avatar IV ( make a photo talk) and attach a sharp, front-facing portrait.
- Write only the words to be said. The prompt is the script, spoken word for word; the clip lasts as long as it takes to say, so there is no length to set.
- Pick a voice: Kore and Orus speak any language; Cassidy and Andrew English, Leonie and Otto German, Amelia and Antonio Spanish, Chloe and Thomas French, Kyoko and Satoshi Japanese. The same voice name gives the same voice in every clip.
- Generate. The price for your script shows first, and a failed clip is never charged.
In our first two clips on November 10, 2026, 16 English words made a 4.6-second clip and 30 German words an 11.3-second one, ready in 59 and 90 seconds. Use photos of yourself or of people who agreed to it, and keep an AI presenter a presenter: never script one as a customer who used the product.
For a short line inside a scene, with the room's sound, Veo 3.1 Lite and Wan 3.0 animate a photo from a prompt instead; both are on the talking-photo page. HeyGen's other model, HeyGen Video, makes short scenes from a prompt: HeyGen pay as you go.
Questions
Is HeyGen free? HeyGen has a free plan with 3 watermarked videos a month of up to a minute each, for personal, non-commercial use. Paid plans start at $29 a month.
Can I use HeyGen's free videos commercially? No. HeyGen's terms limit Free-plan output to personal, non-commercial and internal evaluation use; commercial use starts on the paid plans.
Is the HeyGen API free? No. HeyGen says it "does not offer free API credits starting Feb 2026"; Avatar IV from a photo costs $2.31 a minute on its API.
How do I use HeyGen Avatar IV without a subscription? Through HeyGen's pay-as-you-go API, or on GenMagic, where Avatar IV is billed per second of speech from a balance topped up from $5, with a studio and twelve named voices.
Is there a free way to try Avatar IV? HeyGen's free plan includes limited Avatar IV use. On GenMagic, a new account gets $0.50 of credit once its email is verified, about 6 seconds of Avatar IV speech.
Does Avatar IV speak German? Yes. On GenMagic it has two German voices, Leonie and Otto, and two multilingual voices, Kore and Orus.