Hedra vs HeyGen
A spec-by-spec comparison of Hedra and HeyGen: pricing, free tier, clip length, resolution, watermark, commercial use and API access.
Key differences
- Hedra is cheaper to start: $20/month vs $29/month for HeyGen.
- HeyGen has a free option; Hedra requires a paid plan.
| Hedra | HeyGen | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | from $20/mo | Free plan · from $29/mo |
| Free tier | 3 watermarked videos/month, up to 1 min each | |
| Max clip length | 30 min (Creator/Pro), 60 min (Business), no limit on Enterprise | |
| Max resolution | 4K (Pro and above) | |
| Watermark on free plan | Yes | |
| Commercial use | Paid plans | Paid plans |
| Developer API | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | No | No |
Hedra started as a tool for expressive talking-head and character videos driven by audio (its Character models) and now also runs a multimodal inference platform. Hedra Studio offers credit-based monthly plans for video, image and audio generation. The usage-based API covers video generation, avatars and lip-sync, upscaling, speech and LLMs. It suits creators making dialogue-driven character clips and developers who need avatar or lip-sync generation through an API.
- Every Studio plan from Basic ($20/mo, 2,000 credits) includes commercial use
- Video credits are charged by the actual generated length (e.g. 10 seconds, not a full minute)
- Prepaid API from about 2.5 cents per second for avatar/lip-sync, with no subscription or minimum
- No free Studio plan is listed; after cancelling, only limited watermarked generations remain
- Basic plan has slower generation speeds
- Monthly subscription credits do not roll over (credit-pack credits do)
HeyGen turns a typed script into a presenter-led video using stock or custom AI avatars, and can translate and lip-sync existing footage into 175+ languages and dialects. It runs on a shared credit system across its avatar engines (Avatar III/IV/V), its Video Agent, and bundled third-party generators. It suits marketers, creators and L&D teams who want spokesperson videos without filming.
- Free plan includes Avatar IV access and one custom video avatar
- 4K export and 30-minute videos from the $49 Pro plan
- Translation covers 175+ languages and dialects on paid plans
- Free videos capped at 1 minute and watermarked
- Creator plan exports top out at 1080p
- API usage is billed separately from plan credits
Specs last verified 2026-10-23 (Hedra) and 2026-10-23 (HeyGen). See each tool page for sources.