TL;DR / Key Takeaways
- Syren made a 16-second, three-scene promo on a free plan.
- It plans in chat, makes stills, animates them and adds music.
- The latte shot was convincing; the roaster shot was wrong.
- Our video used 717 credits; Starter has 15,000 a year.
- Free videos carry a watermark bottom right.
Verdict: Synthesia is known for avatar training videos, but its new Syren engine handled a cinematic brief better than any of the four tools in our four-tool test. On a free account it made a 16-second promo with three scenes, an end card and original music in about three minutes. Tested October 31, 2026.
How we tested: on October 31, 2026 we gave each tool the same brief on a new free account, in Chrome: "A 15-second promo video for Ember & Oak, a small-batch coffee roaster in Portland, Oregon. Show coffee beans tumbling in a roaster, a barista pouring latte art, and morning light in a cozy cafe. End with the words "Ember & Oak - Roasted slow." Warm, cinematic look." We used each tool's main text-to-video entry point, accepted its suggested defaults, and timed it from submit to a playable video. We did not pay for any plan. Ember & Oak is a made-up business.
Synthesia at a glance
| What we checked | Result |
|---|---|
| Engine | Syren (recommended) or Studio (slower-paced training videos) |
| Time to a playable video | About 3 minutes |
| Length and shape | 16 seconds, 16:9 landscape |
| Scenes | Roaster, latte art pour, empty cafe in morning light, end card |
| Sound | Original music (guitar, piano, cello), no voiceover |
| Credits used | 717 |
| Free-plan limits we saw | Synthesia watermark in the bottom-right corner |
| Cheapest paid plan | Starter $14/month billed yearly ($168), 15,000 credits a year |
How Syren works: it plans first, then builds
After we submitted the brief, Syren replied with a plan: "I'll make the three opening frames and a music bed first, then animate each shot from its frame." The chat then listed each asset as it finished: roaster.png, latte.png and cafe.png, then roaster.mp4 and cafe.mp4. It reported "Built video in 45s" for the final assembly; the whole job took about three minutes.
When it finished, it described the edit shot by shot: beans tumbling over a flame for five seconds, a slow dissolve to the latte pour, a dissolve to an empty Portland cafe with steam rising from a mug, then the title. It also said it placed the title "clear of the free-plan watermark in the bottom-right corner", which is a thoughtful touch.
The result, shot by shot
The latte shot and the cafe are convincing, and the slow zooms keep each still from feeling static. The opening shot is the weak one: instead of a drum roaster, the beans sit in an open iron box over a gas flame. Anyone in coffee would notice. You can ask Syren to change a shot in the chat, which costs more credits.
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Pricing and credits
Billed yearly, Starter is $14 a month ($168 a year, list price $19) for 15,000 credits a year, which Synthesia says is about 24 Syren videos or up to 150 minutes of Studio video. Pro is $59 a month ($708 a year) for 72,000 credits, about 84 Syren videos. Our 16-second video used 717 credits, a bit more than the roughly 625 per video those estimates imply.
Who Synthesia is for
- Good fit: short promos and social clips built from scenes, without filming; and, as before, avatar and training videos.
- Less good: you need many videos a month on a small budget; at about 625 to 717 credits each, Starter covers roughly two a month.
- Compare: VEED is faster for a person talking to camera; Runway gives more manual control but has no free video.
Related reading
- VEED review
- Runway free plan review
- CapCut AI video on a free account
- We gave 4 AI video generators the same brief
Frequently asked questions
Is Synthesia free?
Synthesia has a free Basic plan. In our October 31, 2026 test it produced one 16-second Syren video with a watermark, using 717 credits.
What is Synthesia Syren?
Syren is Synthesia's newer video engine for dynamic, scene-based videos. It plans the shots in a chat, generates stills, animates them and adds music.
How much does Synthesia cost?
Billed yearly, Starter is $14 a month for 15,000 credits a year (about 24 Syren videos) and Pro is $59 a month for 72,000 credits (about 84).