Video comparison
Heygen vs Runway
AI avatars, video localization, and presenter-style business videos · AI video generation and creative production experiments
| Decision point | HeyGen | Runway |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | AI avatars, video localization, and presenter-style business videos | AI video generation and creative production experiments |
| Category | Video | Video |
| Price | Free + paid plans | Free + paid plans |
| AIToolsEssentials score | 4.2/5 | 4.2/5 |
Evidence status
Free $0 with up to 3 videos/month. Creator is $29/month or $24/month billed annually with 600 credits/month. Pro starts at $49/month with 1,000 credits/month; official pricing says Pro tiers scale to 100,000 credits/month at $4,300/month. Business is $149/month plus $20 per additional seat/month with 1,500 credits/month. Enterprise pricing and limits are custom.
Official sources checked 2026-08-25Open verification questions
- HeyGen's FAQ and some product marketing say user data is not used for model training, but the current self-serve privacy policy and terms expressly permit training and provide an opt-out. These official statements are inconsistent.
- The public pricing page exposes many Pro credit tiers but does not provide a compact complete tier table in the retrieved text; only the verified range from 1,000 credits/$49 to 100,000 credits/$4,300 is reported.
- Commercial-use language in the self-serve terms expressly names Creator, Pro, and Business; Enterprise rights are governed separately by the MSA and Order Form.
Terms last updated July 23, 2026 distinguish plan rights: Creator, Pro, and Business users own their User Input and User Output as between the parties, and HeyGen does not restrict commercial use of User Output; Free-plan Output receives only a revocable license for personal, non-commercial, internal evaluation and may not be sold, monetized, used for advertising, client work, or other commercial services. Terms require AI-origin disclosure where applicable and prohibit unauthorized impersonation or uploading an individual's image without consent. For self-serve paid users, the terms grant HeyGen a royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, worldwide, irrevocable license to use content to operate and improve services, including training AI/ML models. The privacy policy likewise says inputs may be used for model training and that users may request an opt-out. By contrast, the Enterprise MSA expressly says Customer Data is not used to train AI/ML models and assigns Output ownership to the customer. Official avatar documentation requires proof of consent for a real-person digital twin; webcam consent is generally available, uploaded consent video is Enterprise-only, and skipping the consent flow is limited to Enterprise accounts with an indemnity agreement. Enterprise source: https://www.heygen.com/master-saas-agreement
Creative plans: Free $0 with 125 one-time credits and 5 GB storage; Standard $15 monthly or $12/month billed annually with 625 credits/month; Pro $35 monthly or $28/month billed annually with 2,250 credits/month and 500 GB storage; Max $95 monthly or $76/month billed annually with 9,500 credits/month and up to one month of credit rollover; Enterprise has custom pricing and credits. Standard and Pro subscription credits do not roll over; purchased credits do not expire. The pricing page states Gen-4.5 costs 12 credits per generated second.
Official sources checked 2026-08-25Open verification questions
- The self-serve terms authorize training on Inputs and Outputs, while Runway separately advertises no training on Enterprise customer data. The precise Enterprise exceptions depend on the separate Enterprise agreement and cannot be generalized to self-serve plans.
- The pricing page does not provide a fixed Enterprise price or credit allocation.
Official pricing and Help Center pages agree on the 625/2,250/9,500 monthly credit allocations. Terms last updated May 11, 2026 state that Runway does not claim ownership of Inputs or Outputs and does not restrict commercial use of Outputs, subject to compliance with the agreement. The same terms grant Runway a perpetual license to use Inputs and Outputs for model training, labeling, classification, moderation, and related improvement. The privacy policy says submitted voice and face characteristics may be biometric data and are used only to provide the requested biometric-enabled feature. Runway's official voice-verification documentation requires explicit, in-app consent from the same speaker before custom-voice training and prohibits non-consensual replicas. Terms also prohibit impersonation and submitting another person's photograph without permission. Official voice-consent source: https://help.runwayml.com/hc/en-us/articles/29828787723411-Voice-verification
How to decide
Match each platform to your actual workflow constraints. Run one real workflow in each finalist before paying.
Quick recommendation
Use the trial checklist on each review page and the free scorecard to record time-to-result, corrections needed, and monthly cost at your expected volume before committing to a plan.