Captions vs HeyGen
Buy HeyGen if the avatar is the deliverable — a presenter reading a script, in many languages, possibly in your cloned voice. Buy Captions if an AI actor is one effect inside a short-form editing app you drive from a phone. Before you buy Captions, read the line on its own pricing page saying the prices and features shown reflect iOS plans only.
Disclosure: this page is published by Kineo, which is not one of the two tools compared here and does not compete with either on the job they do. There is a short, clearly labelled note about Kineo at the bottom. Everything above it is written as if we had nothing at stake, because on this comparison we do not.
The verdict
The free tiers separate them faster than any feature list
Captions Free lists basic editing — trimming, transitions, media assets — and one caption template, with no AI credits and no generative AI features at all. HeyGen Free gives 3 videos a month up to a minute each, 1 custom digital twin, 30+ languages and 500+ stock avatars. One free plan lets you evaluate the AI you are considering paying for; the other explicitly does not contain any of it.
The entry prices are five dollars apart and buy different things
Captions Max is $24.99/month for 500 credits. HeyGen Creator is $29/month, or $24/month billed annually, for 600 credits, videos up to 30 minutes, voice cloning and 175+ languages. Under $5 separates them at the till. What sits on either side of that $5 is a mobile editor with generative extras versus an avatar rendering platform, and no amount of price comparison collapses that.
Only one of them tells you what a minute costs
HeyGen publishes its burn rate: Avatar IV/V at 20 credits per minute, Avatar III at 3. You can work out what a 60-second video costs before you subscribe. Captions publishes credit bundles — 500 on Max, then 1,400, 2,800 and 5,600 on the Scale tiers — without an equivalent per-minute figure we could read. If you need to budget rather than experiment, that asymmetry outweighs most feature lines.
Two disclaimers, both taken from the vendors’ own pages
The Captions pricing page states "All prices displayed in USD. Features and prices reflect iOS plans only", and it does not state a watermark policy in what we could read. HeyGen lists watermark removal from the Creator tier up. Neither point is a criticism of the product; both are reasons to confirm your own price and your own export before committing a year.
Side by side
Every figure below was read off each vendor’s own pricing page on July 26, 2026. Where a tier table did not resolve to readable prices, the cell says so rather than guessing — a wrong competitor price is worse than no price at all.
| Captions | HeyGen | |
|---|---|---|
| What it actually is | A mobile-first short-form editor built around captions, AI edit styles, AI actors and generative b-roll. | Puts a synthetic presenter on screen reading your script, with heavy investment in avatars, voice cloning and languages. |
| Needs an existing video? | Mostly. You record or upload, then edit — though the generative features on paid tiers can produce footage, voiceover and images. | No. You write a script, pick an avatar and it renders a talking-head clip. |
| Free tier | Free plan: basic editing (trimming, transitions, media assets) and 1 caption template, with no AI credits and no generative AI features at all. | Free plan: $0, 3 videos per month up to 1 minute each, 1 custom digital twin, 30+ languages and 500+ stock avatars. |
| Cheapest paid plan | Max $24.99/month | Creator $29/month, or $24/month billed annually |
| Full pricing | Free $0 (no AI credits) · Max $24.99/mo (500 credits/mo, curated AI Edit styles, AI actors and digital twins, chat-based editor, 100+ caption templates, generative music, voiceover, images, video and b-roll) · Scale 1x $69.99/mo (1,400 credits) · Scale 2x $139.99/mo (2,800 credits) · Scale 4x $279.99/mo (5,600 credits) · Enterprise custom. The pricing page states that "Features and prices reflect iOS plans only". | Free $0 (3 videos/mo, 1 min each) · Creator $29/mo, or $24/mo billed annually (600 credits/mo, videos up to 30 min, 1080p export, voice cloning, 175+ languages) · Pro $49/mo (1,000 credits/mo, 4K export) · Business $149/mo plus $20/seat/mo (1,500 credits/mo, videos up to 60 min, 4K, 5 custom digital twins) · Enterprise custom (no video duration maximum, 10+ custom digital twins). |
| Watermark | Not stated on the pricing page — worth confirming before you commit. | Watermark removal is included from the Creator tier up. |
| Aspect ratio | Short-form vertical. | Multiple, including 9:16 vertical. |
| Voice / narration | Generative voiceover is available on paid tiers; the free plan has no generative AI. | A large built-in voice library plus voice cloning on paid plans; 175+ languages from Creator up. |
| Where the visuals come from | Media assets on free; generative b-roll and images from Max up. | Not the point of the product — the avatar is the shot. |
| Export & usage limits | Credit-metered per month, from 500 credits on Max to 5,600 on Scale 4x. | Credit-metered. The pricing page lists Avatar IV/V at 20 credits per minute and Avatar III at 3 credits per minute. Unused credits roll over for paid subscribers. |
| Verified | Verified July 26, 2026 — read from https://www.captions.ai/pricing | Verified July 26, 2026 — read from https://www.heygen.com/pricing |
Sources: Captions pricing · HeyGen pricing — both checked on July 26, 2026. Vendors change tiers without notice, so confirm on their site before you pay. If you find something here that is out of date, we would rather fix it than keep the click.
Captions: The pricing page carries the line "All prices displayed in USD. Features and prices reflect iOS plans only," so plans reached from a desktop browser may differ.
Which one you should pick
Pick Captions if…
- You shoot and finish on a phone, and moving files to a desktop is the step you are trying to delete.
- You want generative b-roll, images and voiceover in the same app as the AI actor — all listed from Max at $24.99/month.
- Caption styling matters as much as the presenter: 100+ caption templates and curated AI Edit styles.
- A chat-based editor fits how you work better than a script box and a render queue.
- Your volume is high enough that bulk credits win — Scale runs 1,400, 2,800 and 5,600 credits at $69.99, $139.99 and $279.99.
Pick HeyGen if…
- The avatar is the video, not an effect inside one.
- You want voice cloning at $29/month rather than as an enterprise line item.
- You are localising: 175+ languages from Creator up, 30+ even on the free plan.
- Videos run long — up to 30 minutes on Creator, 60 on Business at $149/month plus $20/seat.
- Your output is lumpy and rollover matters: HeyGen states unused credits roll over for paid subscribers.
The differences that actually matter
One is metered against rendering, the other against an app
HeyGen credits map onto minutes of avatar rendering at a published rate, so the avatar generation you pick — III at 3 credits a minute, IV/V at 20 — is a pricing decision as much as an aesthetic one. Captions credits are spent across a mixed bag of generative features inside an editor: music, voiceover, images, video, b-roll, AI actors. The first is predictable; the second is flexible. Neither is better in the abstract, and which one suits you is a question about how you work rather than about the products.
The 4K question has one answer and one blank
HeyGen lists 4K export from Pro at $49/month. The Captions pricing page did not state export resolutions in what we could read. If 4K is a hard requirement, that is one confirmed yes and one unknown, and an unknown should be resolved with the vendor rather than with a comparison page.
Custom likeness is priced very differently
HeyGen includes 1 custom digital twin on its free plan and 5 on Business at $149/month. Captions lists AI actors and digital twins from Max at $24.99/month without publishing a count we could read. If a specific recurring face is the plan, HeyGen has published the ladder and Captions has not.
Neither builds a faceless Short
Worth saying plainly because it is why a share of readers land here. Both are built around a person being on screen — a recorded one in Captions’ case, a synthetic one in either. A faceless Short is narration over cut footage with nobody in frame. You can export 9:16 from both and still have the wrong format.
Frequently asked questions
Is Captions or HeyGen cheaper?
Captions Max at $24.99/month is marginally cheaper than HeyGen Creator at $29/month — but HeyGen falls to $24/month billed annually, which reverses it, and the Captions pricing page did not list annual billing in what we read. Both figures were read from the vendors’ own pricing pages on July 26, 2026.
Does the Captions free plan include AI actors?
No. Its free tier lists basic editing and one caption template with no AI credits and no generative AI features at all. AI actors and digital twins are listed from the Max tier at $24.99/month. If you wanted to test the AI before paying, the free plan will not let you.
How many videos does HeyGen’s free plan give me?
3 videos per month, up to 1 minute each, with 1 custom digital twin, 30+ languages and 500+ stock avatars, as listed on heygen.com/pricing on July 26, 2026.
Which one is better for making YouTube Shorts?
For a Short with a presenter in it, HeyGen renders the presenter better and Captions finishes the clip better — many people would use both. For a faceless Short with no person on screen, neither is the right category, and paying for an avatar engine you then switch off is an expensive way to discover that.
Do either of them watermark the output?
HeyGen lists watermark removal from the Creator tier up, which implies free output carries one. The Captions pricing page does not state a watermark policy either way in what we could read, so confirm it with them before relying on the free plan for anything public.
Why does the Captions pricing page mention iOS?
It carries the line "All prices displayed in USD. Features and prices reflect iOS plans only." That means the tiers we verified may not be what you are offered from a desktop browser or on Android. We did not publish a non-iOS price because we could not verify one.
One disclosed third option
Disclosure: this page is published by Kineo, which is neither of the two tools above. Kineo makes faceless 9:16 Shorts from a typed topic — no presenter, no upload, no phone required. It is mentioned only because "I want Shorts and I do not want to be on camera" is a common reason to end up comparing an avatar platform with an editing app. If you want a face on screen, HeyGen does that far better than we do.
Make one free →Up to 3 watermarked Fast videos / 24h · No card · Starter $4.90 first month
Other comparisons
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Prices, free-tier terms and limits on this page were verified on July 26, 2026 by reading each vendor’s own published pricing page, linked above. They change. Nothing here is an endorsement by, or affiliation with, Captions or HeyGen, and no comparison on this site is paid for or sponsored. Kineo is a product of the same company that publishes this page, which is stated on every comparison whether or not Kineo is one of the tools being judged.