D-ID vs HeyGen Pricing and Cost Per Minute for Video Ads

D-ID looks cheaper than HeyGen and usually costs more. D-ID's first commercial plan is $29 a month, or $16 billed annually, against $29 or $24 for HeyGen Creator. But D-ID Pro stamps an AI watermark on every video, and the first D-ID plan that lets you remove it is Advanced at $196 a month. HeyGen lists watermark removal on its $29 Creator plan. Measured per clean, commercially usable minute of talking avatar video, HeyGen Creator runs about $0.77 to $1.50 and D-ID about $1.96, or $1.08 on an annual contract you pay upfront. Both prices below were read from each vendor's own pricing page and help center, not from a review roundup. If what you need is a finished UGC-style product ad rather than a raw avatar clip, UGCGen builds one from a product URL.

D-ID vs HeyGen pricing at a glance

Both tools sell a monthly allowance. D-ID sells minutes, in three sizes per plan. HeyGen sells credits, and the number of minutes a credit buys depends on which avatar you render. That difference is why sticker prices mislead in both directions.

D-ID figures come from d-id.com/pricing/studio, read on 1 October 2026 with both billing toggles and all three credit options on every card. HeyGen figures come from heygen.com/pricing on the same day, and its avatar credit rates from the HeyGen help center. The annual discount on D-ID is 20 percent for Lite and 45 percent for Pro and Advanced; HeyGen's is about 17 percent.

Which is cheaper per minute, D-ID or HeyGen?

HeyGen is cheaper per commercial minute on monthly billing. HeyGen's help center prices Avatar IV at 16 credits a minute for a Photo Look and 31 for a Video Look, so Creator's 600 credits buy about 37 minutes of a photo avatar or 19 minutes of a video avatar. D-ID Pro and Advanced cost about $1.96 a minute on monthly billing at every size.

Two things stand out. D-ID gives no volume discount at all between Pro 15 minutes and Advanced 175 minutes; a bigger tier buys more minutes at the same rate. And D-ID's annual price is genuinely low per minute, but only if you commit $1,293 upfront for Advanced to get clean output, against $288 a year for HeyGen Creator. The full tier list, both toggles, is on our D-ID pricing breakdown, and HeyGen's credit math for every plan is on the HeyGen pricing page.

What one 30 second video ad costs on each

A paid social ad is usually 15 to 30 seconds, so cost per minute is only half the story. D-ID rounds every video up to the next 15 seconds, which means a 20 second ad is billed as 30 and a 31 second ad as 45. HeyGen meters credits per minute of output, and its pricing FAQ adds that the credits a video uses can vary with the model, duration and complexity.

These are per render, not per ad you actually run. Every take you reject spends the same minutes, and neither tool turns the clip into a finished ad by itself: the hook, the product shots and the captions still have to come from somewhere. That is the gap a dedicated HeyGen UGC workflow or an ad-first tool fills.

Is D-ID cheaper than HeyGen?

Only on paper. D-ID's entry commercial plan is $16 a month on annual billing against $24 for HeyGen Creator, so a buyer comparing plan cards picks D-ID. Once you need watermark-free output for a paid ad, D-ID's floor rises to $196 a month or $1,293 a year, while HeyGen stays at $29 or $288 a year. For most ad buyers HeyGen is the cheaper tool.

There is one case where D-ID wins on price: high-volume, watermark-tolerant work on an annual plan. Internal training clips, onboarding explainers and sales follow-up videos rarely need a clean frame, and at about $1.08 a minute D-ID Pro annual is cheaper than HeyGen's Video Look on either cycle. D-ID also pitches avatar video for sales outreach, though if your outbound team lives on the phone rather than in the inbox, AI cold calling is the more direct tool for that job.

Rollover, refunds and the API

The terms move the real price as much as the plan card does, and here the two tools differ sharply.

• Rollover. D-ID minutes do not accumulate: they renew each month and unused minutes become void. HeyGen's pricing FAQ says monthly subscribers' unused credits roll over for one more month, and annual subscribers' credits accumulate until renewal.
• Refunds. D-ID's Studio End User License Agreement calls subscription payments irrevocable and nonrefundable except as it explicitly provides, and renews them automatically. Read HeyGen's current terms before an annual purchase too; neither vendor advertises a money-back window on its pricing page.
• Commercial license. D-ID's agreement limits Lite and the trial to non-commercial use. HeyGen's paid plans are sold to marketers and include watermark removal from Creator up.
• API. D-ID's Studio minutes used through the API come out of the same balance, and separate API plans start at $14.40 a month on annual billing. HeyGen bills its API separately from the web plans, with a $5 pay-as-you-go minimum.

D-ID vs HeyGen for UGC video ads

For a US ecommerce or DTC brand buying ads, the honest ranking is HeyGen first, D-ID second, and the choice between them is about the watermark more than the price. HeyGen's Video Look avatars are built from recorded video rather than a single still, and the clean export starts on the cheapest paid plan. D-ID's strength is animating a still photo quickly and its avatar agents, which matter more for websites and training than for paid social.

Both tools stop at the talking head. A UGC ad that converts also needs a scroll-stopping first line, the product in frame, burned-in captions for muted feeds and several hook variants to test. If you would rather buy that finished ad than assemble it, UGCGen makes one from a product URL: pick an AI creator, and you get a captioned 9:16 ad with five hook variations. Starter is $49 a month, or $24 yearly, for about 20 short ads, with a 14 day money-back guarantee on the first purchase. On raw minutes both D-ID and HeyGen are cheaper than we are; the difference is that our output is the ad itself. See the plans on our pricing page, or compare other avatar tools on the Jogg AI pricing breakdown, which has the lowest avatar minute we have measured.

Which should you buy?

Buy HeyGen if you need clean, commercial avatar video at a low monthly price, you want credits that roll over, and the videos will run as paid ads. Creator at $29 covers about 19 minutes of a realistic Video Look avatar a month.

Buy D-ID if you produce many minutes of training, onboarding or sales video where an AI stamp is acceptable, you can commit to a year, or you are building an avatar agent or API integration. Pro annual at $16 a month is the cheapest commercial minute in this comparison.

Buy UGCGen if the goal is a UGC-style product ad you can launch today, with hooks and captions already done, and you want two weeks to decide. Our talking avatar video page shows how those ads are built.

D-ID vs HeyGen pricing questions

Is D-ID or HeyGen better for ads?

HeyGen is better for most paid ads, because its paid plans remove the watermark from $29 a month and its Video Look avatars are built from recorded video rather than a still photo. D-ID only removes the watermark on Advanced at $196 a month. D-ID is the better pick for embedded avatar agents and high-volume internal video on an annual plan.

How much does D-ID cost compared to HeyGen?

D-ID costs $5.90 to $343 a month across Lite, Pro and Advanced, or $4.70 to $189 on annual billing. HeyGen costs $29 for Creator, $49 for Pro and $149 plus $20 a seat for Business, or $24 and $41 a month on annual billing for Creator and Pro. Both have custom enterprise pricing.

Does D-ID have a watermark on paid plans?

Yes, on Lite and Pro. Lite videos carry a D-ID watermark and Pro videos an AI watermark. Advanced is the first plan where you can replace it with your own logo or leave the frame clean. HeyGen lists watermark removal from its Creator plan.

Do D-ID minutes and HeyGen credits roll over?

D-ID minutes do not roll over; unused minutes expire every month. HeyGen's monthly credits roll over for one extra month, and annual subscribers' credits accumulate until their renewal date, which makes HeyGen more forgiving for brands that produce in bursts.